Nick Hutchinson reviews Peter Jawitz's Flip-Flops and Microwaved Fish, a guide to U.S. workplace culture covering handshakes, small talk, and difficult coworkers. Two standouts: an active listening section on eliminating distractions and paraphrasing, and a four-question email cheat sheet for clarity. Hutchinson recommends it for new graduates, stressed employees, and non-U.S. workers.
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Hello, Book Thinkers family! Today's book tip is going to come from Flip-Flops and Microwaved Fish by Peter Jawitz. The subtitle and the topic for today's discussion is navigating the dos and don'ts of workplace culture. Wow, do I wish I had access to this book just a few years ago when I was graduating college and entering the workforce, because I spent a lot of time stressing over things that Peter covers in this book. I didn't realize that when I joined a company and when I started showing up to the office every day, there were going to be so many things I didn't understand how to navigate the right way. Peter covers topics like what to wear to work, how to properly shake somebody's hand, how to navigate small talk at the water cooler, but he also deals with more complex things like how to navigate coworkers who maybe are direct or passive or passive-aggressive. There are different strategies to deal with all different types of people, how to formulate an email, how to run a good meeting. So as I was going through this book, I still learned a lot, even though I've been in the workforce for about 5 years now. And I think to myself, geez, as Book Thinkers continues to grow, and as I grow my team, people might come from other countries and not understand the American workforce or how we navigate culture, especially me. So I'm gonna buy tons of copies of this book and distribute them to future employees. I think it's a smart move. And as I was continuing to read this book, I still learned a lot like I had mentioned. And the 2 things that I want to talk about today— well, we'll go into number one first. The first is actively listening. Now, I'm a salesperson and I've read dozens of sales books, books on communication, books on how to navigate conversation, but I still have room for improvement as far as listening goes. Peter dedicates a subchapter, a subchapter in the book, on active listening. And I didn't realize that there were ways to eliminate distractions while listening, ways to take notes while listening, paraphrasing techniques to show the other person that you're not just listening to them in order to speak over them and share your ideas next. So I took a lot of really good notes on that section. And then the other thing that I actually wanted to cover today was how to properly structure an email. A lot of what I do each and every day involves emailing people. But I've gotten away from standardized email techniques, and my emails are pretty bad nowadays. But so Peter— and this is an example of how he structures his recommendations to people— he has a planning cheat sheet where he says the 4 questions below can be considered a cheat sheet for how to plan quickly and write easily. I'll go into detail below. Number 1, who's the audience? Number 2, why am I writing? Number three, what do I want? And number four, what more do I need? And then he'll expand on each one of those sections. So I've taken a lot of notes now on how to properly form an email, and this is something that you would think I would be fantastic at having sent twenty or thirty emails a day for the last five years, but I still have tons of room to improve. So if you're somebody that's maybe in high school or maybe that's in college and you're getting ready to enter the workforce soon. This book is perfect for you. If you're somebody who has been in the workforce for a long time but you still can't navigate without feeling stressed out in a lot of different situations, this book is perfect for you. And then the other thing is that if you work outside of the United States but you work for a company in the United States, maybe as a remote employee, or you're planning on coming to the US soon, this is the perfect book for you as well. It deals with proper grammar, it deals with different phrases and different slang words that might be used in an office space in the US. And it also deals with how to deal with U.S. people and some basic American customs. So I really enjoyed reading this book. I'm definitely going to use it for my future employees. I would highly recommend giving it a shot. Peter is a fantastic author, and he's also pretty funny. I had myself laughing at a lot of the different scenarios and situations that Peter talked about because I've gone through them, and they've caused me unnecessary stress. I really wish I had read this back in the day. So go out there, read something. I'll conclude my video here. I hope everybody has a fantastic day. Adiós!
