What is *Out of Office* by Charlie Warzel about?

*Out of Office* examines how remote work exposes flaws in traditional work culture, advocating for redefining productivity, flexibility, and community. The book critiques overwork and explores structural solutions across four pillars: workplace flexibility, organizational culture, technology’s role in burnout, and rebuilding communal ties beyond the office. It blends cultural analysis with actionable strategies to prioritize life beyond career-centric identities.

Who should read *Out of Office*?

Knowledge workers, remote employees, managers, and HR professionals will find value in its insights. It’s also relevant for anyone questioning work-life balance in the digital age. The book addresses those seeking to dismantle toxic productivity norms or redesign workplaces for sustainability.

Is *Out of Office* worth reading?

Yes—it’s praised for blending rigorous research with relatable narratives. Reviewers highlight its nuanced take on remote work’s potential to foster equity and creativity, calling it “a manifesto for humane work culture.” Critics note its white-collar focus but acknowledge its broader societal implications.

What are the four key themes in *Out of Office*?

1. **Flexibility**: Rethinking rigid schedules to empower employees. 2. **Culture**: Building trust-based environments over surveillance. 3. **Technology**: Mitigating tools that enable constant work access. 4. **Community**: Strengthening local ties eroded by office-centric lifestyles.

How does *Out of Office* critique modern work habits?

The book argues that overwork stems from systemic issues, not individual failings. It condemns “hustle culture” and technologies that blur work-life boundaries, advocating for guardrails like enforced time-off policies rather than reliance on personal discipline.

What solutions does *Out of Office* propose for remote work challenges?

- Replace self-managed boundaries with **structural guardrails** (e.g., company-wide “no email” hours). - Design remote policies that prevent proximity bias. - Invest in community infrastructure to combat isolation.

How does *Out of Office* address technology’s role in burnout?

Warzel and Petersen criticize apps like Slack for enabling 24/7 availability, urging companies to audit tools that prioritize urgency over well-being. They suggest “tech detoxes” and tools that segment work/personal time.

What is the “Zoom town” concept in *Out of Office*?

The term describes cities attracting remote workers with incentives (e.g., Tulsa Remote’s $10k grants). The book explores how these initiatives could revitalize communities but warns against displacing locals or replicating urban inequities.

Out of Office

The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working from Home

Charlie Warzel and Anne Helen Peterson

3.72(2716 Reviews)

Overview of Out of Office

In "Out of Office," Warzel and Petersen reimagine remote work beyond mere location freedom. As companies like Perpetual Guardian discovered, four-day workweeks increase productivity. This timely guide teaches boundary-setting in a world where work increasingly consumes our entire lives.

Choose how it's told

One book. Many ways to hear it.

Same ideas from Out of Office. Pick the voice, depth, and pace that fits you. Switch anytime.

Chapter 1

The Future is Flexible: How Remote Work Can Transform Our Lives

The pandemic didn't just disrupt our workplaces-it revealed fundamental flaws in how we've structured our entire relationship with work. While millions struggled with "laboring in confinement and under duress," a powerful realization emerged: what we experienced wasn't true remote work but rather a desperate adaptation to crisis. Out of Office, the groundbreaking book by journalists Charlie Warzel and Anne Helen Petersen, arrived at a critical moment when companies and workers alike were questioning whether we should ever return to "normal." The book quickly became required reading for forward-thinking executives, with tech leaders like Twitter's Jack Dorsey and Shopify's Tobi Lutke publicly endorsing its vision. Its cultural impact extended beyond business circles, sparking conversations about work-life boundaries across major media outlets and inspiring a wave of workplace policy reforms. At its core, the book argues that genuine remote work can liberate us from "the wheel of constant productivity," making both individuals and communities healthier-but only if we fundamentally reimagine our relationship with work rather than simply moving our dysfunctional office cultures into our homes.

Chapter 2

The Dark Side of "Flexibility"

For decades, corporate "flexibility" has been celebrated in business literature, but this concept has primarily benefited companies rather than workers. The term became code for rapid hiring and firing, justifying the freelance economy while promising freedom from 9-to-5 constraints. In reality, contingent workers face constant instability while searching for the security of full-time employment. Arise "Service Partners" exemplify this exploitative version of flexibility. These remote call center workers serve major companies like Airbnb, Amazon, and Apple, but must purchase their own equipment, pay for training, compete for shifts, and receive no benefits while being classified as "independent contractors" rather than employees. This arrangement gives workers the "freedom" to work on their own schedule, but for far less compensation and without labor protections. The workplace has "fissured" as companies outsourced labor to freelancers, contractors, and other businesses-reducing costs by avoiding benefits, pensions, and healthcare. This created corporate stability at the expense of worker security. For remaining employees, anxiety led to "productivity culture"-the performance of constant work through visible tasks, early mornings, late nights, and weekend emails to prove one's value and avoid the next round of cuts. Productivity culture promised workers could optimize themselves to handle the workload of multiple eliminated positions, but required ignoring demands from family and community. The flexible company expected workers to adapt to instability rather than providing stability itself. Productivity guides like "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" trained workers to perform "ever more daring acts of solitude and ruthlessness" while maintaining an appearance of satisfaction despite unstable work conditions. Genuine flexibility would make the work itself malleable, not the workers. This means reconsidering which tasks need synchronous collaboration, how many days people should be in an office, broadening job descriptions to accommodate caregivers and disabled workers, and implementing actual boundaries to prevent "flexible work" from consuming all hours.

See every word as you hear it

Read along effortlessly as each word of Out of Office lights up in real time.

Chapter 3

Auditing Your Real Workload

Before creating genuinely flexible work cultures, we must first understand how much work we're actually doing. Many workers complete their "real work" outside normal hours-like the author's friend who reserved 9-11pm after her children's bedtime for focused tasks she couldn't complete during meeting-filled workdays. For salaried employees, working extra hours once demonstrated dedication, but technology has normalized this extension of work into personal time. Instead of making us more efficient, digital tools have simply made us work more, with those extra hours becoming expected rather than exceptional. Many managers don't know (or don't want to know) how much time tasks actually take, especially less quantifiable work like email management, organization, and preparation. This "function creep" means workers absorb responsibilities that could constitute entire additional positions. The shift to remote work offers a unique opportunity to audit your actual workload. How many hours do you spend on Slack presence, email organization, and meetings versus your "core" work? Many survey respondents discovered they could complete their essential work in 30-35 hours or less per week. After determining your actual workload, the next step is identifying which work truly needs to be rigid (synchronous, with others, at specific times) versus which can be flexible. This requires honesty about which aspects of work are inflexible merely out of habit or ceremony. Meetings provide a perfect example. What people miss about office "drive-by" interactions isn't the meetings themselves but the space for authentic collaboration and human connection. When these casual interactions move online, they often become formal 30-minute calendar appointments that waste time with pleasantries and awkward transitions. The problem isn't that conversations shouldn't happen, but that they don't need to occur as rigidly scheduled meetings consuming blocks of time. Companies like MeetingScience reveal that most workers have no idea how much time they spend in meetings-often 75% of their workday-with only about 20% of meetings being truly important. During the pandemic, meeting frequency increased from 12 to 16.5 per week, as people sought control through more meetings, which paradoxically increased stress rather than reducing it.

Chapter 4

Guardrails, Not Boundaries

When work-from-home became widespread, many discovered it wasn't the silver bullet they'd imagined. Without structure, boundaries dissolved as people worked at all hours out of anxiety, boredom, or fear of appearing unproductive. The problem is that boundaries-personal demarcations of work/life separation-are easily trampled by the pressure to be constantly available. Instead, we need guardrails: structural protections built into workplace culture. Technology can help implement these guardrails, as demonstrated by Front's email management system that prevents assignments near the end of workdays. Front transforms email from a personal burden into a collaborative task by allowing users to integrate workflows and delegate responsibility. It creates a "force field" that bounces others' lack of respect for boundaries before they reach you. This approach challenges the self-fulfilling narrative that "if I don't do something, it won't get done"-a mindset that's often a coping mechanism for workplace precarity. When an entire company adopts this approach, a culture develops around time off, with greater understanding of how work impacts others and more coordination in handling responsibilities. Establishing guardrails requires difficult conversations with teams to build structures that will actually protect them. Different teams might need different guardrails-some might block late-day meetings, others might require scheduled emails during work hours. Whatever the policies, they must be collaborative decisions, not mere suggestions, and breaking them cannot be seen as a path to distinction. While boundaries are cheap and flimsy, effective guardrails demand proper funding and resources. Companies can fund proper time off in two ways: either temporarily lower productivity expectations when someone is absent, or maintain slightly more staff than strictly necessary, building in capacity for absences. Unfortunately, many companies, especially those that have undergone "re-orgs" (cost-cutting measures), operate with employees at 100-200% capacity. This creates a system where employees technically have permission to take time off but understand they'll shoulder the burden somehow-either by working during leave, burdening colleagues, or letting essential work go undone.

Get more out of Out of Office

Get daily insights from 100K+ lessons
Words light up in sync with the audio
Your library saved on every device

Chapter 5

Designing Work for Everyone

Young professionals starting careers during the pandemic faced unique challenges in remote work environments. Without the informal learning opportunities of physical offices, many felt adrift, invisible, and unsure how to perform their jobs. They missed developing crucial soft skills and struggled to build relationships with colleagues and managers. Recent graduate Kiersten described her remote onboarding as lacking social connection, leaving her feeling like "a stranger in her own company." Without casual interactions to learn workplace norms, she resorted to stalking company reviews just to understand the culture. Similarly, Haziq in Ireland found it impossible to casually ask questions of managers, severely limiting his on-the-job learning. Early career workers need structured mentorship programs that pair them with both peers and senior employees who aren't their direct supervisors. They want scheduled bonding sessions, opportunities to observe senior team meetings, email templates, and clear expectations about work norms. While such guidance might seem stifling, it's vastly preferable to navigating professional environments without direction. David Perry, a senior academic adviser whose son has Down syndrome, has experienced firsthand how inequitable most leave policies are. Even in supportive environments, flexibility is typically "accommodation based"-available only for needs deemed "virtuous and valid" by employers. Perry advocates for "universal design for work-life balance"-creating policies that allow set time for leave without questions, whether for childcare, medical emergencies, or simply personal needs. This approach recognizes that employees have different requirements throughout their careers and prevents resentment between those with "acceptable" needs and those without. Universal design requires trust, something most companies struggle to cultivate. Too often, HR systems are engineered to prevent abuse by a small minority rather than to help the maximum number of people. As Perry notes, "We are constantly trying to build systems that resist abuse, rather than help max out the amount of people they help."

Chapter 6

The Myth of Company Culture

S.C. Allyn, chairman of National Cash Register, often told a story about finding his German factory obliterated after WWII, with employees sifting through rubble but immediately getting to work rebuilding when they saw him. This anecdote opens the influential 1982 book "Corporate Cultures" by Deal and Kennedy, intended to showcase the resilience of company culture. But the story raises questions: Is it admirable that employees prioritized rebuilding a factory amid unspeakable destruction rather than tending to their families? While companies like P&G, Netflix, and Deloitte have aspirational culture statements, most organizations show a disconnect between stated values and employees' everyday experiences. True corporate culture manifests in unwritten rules and expectations, passed down through office chats or after-work drinks. The tension between meaningful work and imposed schedules has existed for centuries. Early factory owners complained that workers resisted regular hours, preferring the autonomy of pre-industrial labor. When forced into formalized work arrangements, laborers viewed even six-hour days as onerous. Management emerged to solve this problem, first through intimidation and punishment modeled after prisons. Frederick Winslow Taylor revolutionized this approach around 1900, developing "scientific management" by obsessively timing workers' movements to eliminate "waste motion." Taylor manipulated workers to prove they could produce more, believing perfect productivity was always possible through optimization. One machinist protested: "We haven't come into existence for the purpose of seeing how great a task we can perform through a lifetime. We are trying to regulate our work so as to make it auxiliary to our lives." As office work expanded in the mid-20th century, corporations offered not just financial security but a sense of belonging and meaning. This culture extended deeply into home life, with suburbs built specifically for organization men and their families. Wives became corporate assets valued for hosting abilities, and social status came through company perks like country club memberships.

See every word as you hear it

Read along effortlessly as each word of Out of Office lights up in real time.

Chapter 7

From Corporate Man to Start-up Hustle

Between WWII and the early 1970s, America enjoyed unprecedented economic growth that made organization man culture possible. When recession hit in the 1970s, companies that had grown fat and happy became bloated and flat-footed in global competition. Their solution: cuts. Fortune 500 companies eliminated over 300 million jobs in the early 1980s, many being the stable middle-management positions that had expanded the middle class. Amanda Bennett chronicled this betrayal in "The Death of the Organization Man," showing how workers who'd built their identities around company loyalty were sacrificed when times got tough. At Ford, white-gloved waiters had served silver-platter lunches to executives while the company built labyrinthine org charts of managers whose jobs involved relating to other managers. When layoffs came, these "loyal soldiers" suffered what Bennett described as equivalent to "divorce or death." Workers lost not just financial stability but their entire social worlds. The resulting corporate cynicism transformed managers from assets into costs, and the idea of lifelong careers became quaint. Companies learned to methodically strip elements providing worker stability while maintaining the mantra "it's not personal, it's business." The legacy of a century of business theory about culture and management surrounds today's corporate environments-visible in open office plans, break rooms, and happy hours that coexist with refusal to match 401(k)s. But these ideas are most noxious in start-up culture. Modern start-up culture differs fundamentally from corporate behemoths by starting from a premise of rejection-of old-school decorum, dress codes, and departmental organization. Instead of trying to paper over corporate cynicism, start-ups consolidated it to power "entrepreneurship." The web nurtured belief that anyone with the right idea could achieve staggering success and "disrupt" entire industries with minimal staff. Start-up culture elevated founder worship to cultish levels while demanding all-consuming devotion to the company's utopian "mission." The rejection of corporate structure meant eschewing hierarchies, HR departments, and organizational charts until absolutely necessary. This structural weakness, combined with hustle culture and the fetishization of productivity, spread beyond tech companies to become the new corporate ideal.

Chapter 8

Creating Truly Flexible Cultures

Paul Hershenson, who hasn't worked in an office for thirty years, takes Fridays off for hiking. His company, Art+Logic, has never had a formalized workspace yet has built a cohesive work culture. Their sixty-five employees enjoy truly flexible, asynchronous work arrangements-like a graphic designer who restructured her schedule after childbirth to work midday and evenings, or a developer who plays golf several times weekly. What might seem like an extravagant fantasy actually works through clear communication of expectations. Employees are generally available during business hours but can create schedules that work for them if they're transparent about it. The company culture is built on genuine trust that employees will meet expectations, not just empty mottos. Their long-term strategy focuses on retaining valuable employees rather than immediate growth. Melissa and Johnathan Nightingale found themselves quickly rising through Mozilla's ranks with increasing managerial responsibility but no training. Since 2017, they've worked as management consultants, discovering that poor management typically stems from ignorance rather than malice. Most new managers are plucked from non-management positions because they excel at individual tasks, then thrown into leadership with minimal guidance. This creates either micromanagers or absentee leaders. The Nightingales argue that flexible work success depends not on technology or executive vision, but on middle management. Bad management allows inequities to grow and creates burnout, even in reduced-hour scenarios. Companies must recognize management as a discrete, valuable skill requiring specific other-oriented competencies rather than treating it as an add-on to reward productive individual contributors. Despite diversity initiatives, corporate leadership remains overwhelmingly white and male, with organizations resistant to seeing themselves clearly. Many companies approach DEI superficially, seeking quick-fix trainings rather than addressing underlying inequities. When DEI isn't treated as mission-critical, it becomes merely an add-on.

Get more out of Out of Office

Get daily insights from 100K+ lessons
Words light up in sync with the audio
Your library saved on every device

Chapter 9

Technology's False Promises

The early 1990s saw the emergence of expensive, clunky laptops like the Nippon Librex 386SX, marketed to business professionals as tools for working anywhere. While telecommuting had been growing since the 1970s, these new technologies promised liberation from office constraints but ultimately trapped workers in an always-on work culture. The Business Dad in the Adirondack chair wasn't freed from the office-he was imprisoned by it in nature. This paradox persists today with our pocket supercomputers enabling work to infiltrate every moment of our lives. Though modern technology promises efficiency and time savings, these benefits rarely translate to less work-instead, they create space for more productivity. Despite miraculous technological advances, few have delivered on their liberating promises. Video conferencing becomes Zoom fatigue, collaborative messaging apps become surveillance tools, and shared calendars become ways for others to commandeer our time. In 1981, Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff visited a newly modernized pulp mill where workers were rebelling against the air-locking doors separating the bleach plant from the computerized control room. Though designed for safety, the workers forced the doors open daily-a living metaphor for worker resistance to automation. This resistance stemmed from how technology transformed tangible, physical knowledge into abstract data, stripping workers of their specialized skills and the leverage those skills provided. Sensors and computers quantified craft knowledge and handed power to managers who controlled the data. While executives framed automation as progress and worker relief, many laborers felt diminished-one machinist described feeling like "a rat in a cage," another complained, "I'm a worker, not a sitter." Word processors transformed office work but at significant human cost. Workers reported profound alienation as social jobs became isolated data entry positions. Claims representatives lamented to Zuboff about losing connection with colleagues and the outside world. When asked to illustrate themselves in their new roles, they drew disturbing images: chained to desks, surrounded by aspirin bottles, dressed in prison stripes, wearing blinders, closely monitored by supervisors, enclosed without sunlight, bleary-eyed and frowning.

Chapter 10

Reimagining Physical and Virtual Spaces

In 1993, ad agency co-founder Jay Chiat had a revolutionary vision: eliminate personal space entirely to create "creative unrest." His Venice office, designed by Frank Gehry, featured no cubicles, no filing cabinets, and no fixed desks-employees would check out PowerBooks and portable phones daily. The space was visually stunning, with conference rooms housed in old Tilt-a-Whirl cars and whimsical design elements throughout. Though initially celebrated as visionary, workers quickly grew to hate it. Employees felt rootless and constantly surveilled, with insufficient PowerBooks causing interminable checkout lines. Many resorted to using their car trunks as makeshift file cabinets. After Chiat sold the company in 1995, the new owners quickly softened the most unsustainable elements, eventually moving to a new space with actual desks arranged in "nests" and "neighborhoods." Corporate campuses evolved from sprawling office parks into deliberately insular environments designed to blur work-life boundaries. Architect Clive Wilkinson, who designed Google's Googleplex, revolutionized office design by creating spaces specifically for spontaneous encounters-bleachers, nooks, and collaborative areas. While initially conceived as humane support for hardworking employees, Wilkinson now recognizes the danger: "Making the work environment more residential and domestic is clever, seductive, and dangerous. It blurs the difference between home and office." This blurring creates a gravitational pull, tethering workers to the office longer as their colleagues become their closest and eventually only friends. Email's evolution exemplifies how office technologies create new problems while solving old ones. Ray Tomlinson's 1971 innovation using the @ symbol was initially just a workaround for leaving messages. By the 1990s, email promised to eliminate paper but instead increased paper consumption by 40% while creating its own overwhelming burden. Google's Gmail attempted to solve email overload through searchable archives in 2004, but this unlimited storage only encouraged more emails. Gmail's creator Paul Buchheit later admitted, "People have become slaves to email. It's not a technical problem... It's more of a social problem."

See every word as you hear it

Read along effortlessly as each word of Out of Office lights up in real time.

Chapter 11

Avoiding the Surveillance Trap

Most companies will return to offices in some form post-pandemic. The challenge isn't remote work or in-person work individually-it's creating effective hybrid schedules without reinforcing hierarchies based on physical presence. Twitter's Chief HR Officer Jennifer Christie is tackling this by deliberately making the office less appealing to level the playing field. "You need to eliminate the idea that you'll miss out if you're not in the office," she explains. Twitter is dismantling the tech campus philosophy that keeps employees well-fed and comfortable in the building. Their strategy includes requiring everyone in meetings to dial in via laptop (ensuring remote participants can see and hear everyone), eliminating team spaces, implementing unassigned "hot desking," and encouraging coordinated "episodic" collaborative work days. Dropbox has gone further by becoming "virtual-first"-shifting all individual work to remote while creating redesigned "studios" for episodic collaboration. These spaces won't have assigned desks or encourage camping out, and the company provides co-working passes in cities without studios. After more than a year away from physical offices, we've gained perspective to ask deeper questions about these spaces: What's the purpose of being present forty hours a week? Did the office actually make us more productive? What is an office, really? The virtual office is difficult to embrace. What we miss about physical offices-the ambient murmur, spontaneous interactions, social presence-is poorly replicated by chat platforms. Attempts at creating virtual environments often feel corny or dystopian. But Dayton Mills' company Branch offers something different by creating "spatial conversations" through a 2-D platform where employees become colorful avatar blobs navigating customizable office spaces. Its most compelling feature is proximity-based audio-as avatars approach each other, voices gradually become audible, mimicking real-world interactions. Many employers resist properly redesigning remote work, opting instead for surveillance. Hubstaff, used by over 13,000 remote businesses, presents itself as a productivity tool while functioning as invasive monitoring software. It takes screenshots, tracks activities, and generates productivity scores that often fail to capture the true nature of knowledge work-as journalist Adam Satariano discovered when his 14-hour workday registered just a 22% productivity score because phone calls and reading weren't counted as "work."

Chapter 12

Building Community Beyond Work

If your grandparents lived in America, they almost certainly belonged to social organizations. These "joiners" of the civic generation born around 1930 participated in countless groups-from religious organizations and fraternal orders to social clubs and philanthropic societies. These groups provided social infrastructure, community connection, and often mutual aid, binding residents and their needs to one another. By 2000, political scientist Robert Putnam documented in "Bowling Alone" how these organizations had declined dramatically. This wasn't due to poor recruitment or outdated amenities, but reflected a fundamental shift from collectivism to individualism. Cities face profound challenges as remote work reshapes urban patterns. Geographer Leslie Kern notes that cities weren't built to be everything to everyone-skyscrapers have traditionally been single-use structures designed around men's linear work journeys, while women's journeys have always been more complex with multiple stops for childcare, errands, and eldercare. Meanwhile, "Zoom towns"-midsize cities like Madison, Richmond, and Sacramento-are booming with tech workers seeking walkable, culturally rich areas with affordable real estate. However, this creates "small towns with big-city problems" as housing costs soar beyond local wages. In Bozeman, Montana, living costs are 20% above national average while median income is 20% below, with rent increasing 58% in one year. Tulsa, Oklahoma offers a template for intentionally integrating remote workers. Since 2018, the city has offered $10,000 incentives for remote workers to relocate, providing affordable downtown housing options and co-working spaces. More importantly, the program features a full-time staff that carefully selects participants and helps integrate them into the community. America's childcare crisis stems from a 1971 missed opportunity when Nixon vetoed the Comprehensive Child Development Act despite bipartisan support. The resulting system is a costly, inequitable patchwork of waitlists, nanny shares, and family care arrangements that undervalues caregivers while burdening families. Real solutions require treating childcare like public education-as essential infrastructure funded by tax dollars. Promising models include Massachusetts' "Common Start" legislation (capping costs at 7% of household income), Vermont's H.171 (limiting costs to 10% of income while closing teacher pay gaps), and Portland's universal preschool initiative (providing free care while raising teacher salaries to $74,000). We've lost sight of what gathering with others is truly for. Pre-pandemic, our digital calendars became status symbols of overbooked lives, with many social obligations feeling underwhelming and disconnected from genuine meaning. Priya Parker argues in "The Art of Gathering" that we've forgotten the "crackle and flourish" that makes gatherings meaningful. True community isn't about navigating social politics or joining another book club you'll resent-it's about finding networks that matter and establishing reciprocal care. Mutual aid exemplifies this approach, flourishing during the pandemic when state support failed. Unlike traditional charity, mutual aid embraces reciprocity-everyone both gives and receives help without means-testing or hierarchy. Community fridges operate on this principle, with the same people stocking and taking food as needed. Participating in mutual aid requires time-the kind that becomes available when work addiction eases-and humility in recognizing everyone eventually needs support. These networks provide both practical assistance and spiritual hope, as seen with young Boston organizers who created a massive mutual aid network during the pandemic's early days.

★★★★★

You made it to the end of Out of Office

Loved by 1M+ learners

“23 days in and I have used it every single day. It is part of my daily habit now.”

jayallen

Key Themes in Out of Office

remote work culture
work-life boundaries
productivity theater
labor exploitation
flexible workplace design

Quotes from Out of Office

Digital tools have simply made us work more.
Boundaries are easily trampled by the pressure to be constantly available.
Breaking them cannot be seen as a path to distinction.

Characters in Out of Office

Charlie WarzelCo-author and journalist
Anne Helen PetersenCo-author and journalist
Tobi LutkeTech leader and Shopify CEO

About the Author

Charlie Warzel and Anne Helen Petersen, authors of Out of Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working from Home, are award-winning journalists and cultural critics specializing in work, technology, and societal shifts. Warzel, a contributing writer at The Atlantic, built his career analyzing digital culture and disinformation, while Petersen—a former BuzzFeed senior culture writer with a PhD in media studies—pioneered viral analyses of celebrity and labor through her "Scandals of Classic Hollywood" series. Their expertise converges in this nonfiction exploration of remote work’s transformative potential, informed by their own relocation from New York City to rural Montana and Petersen’s popular "Culture Study" newsletter.

The pair draw on decades of reporting for outlets like The New York Times and Esquire to dissect workplace inequities, advocating for systemic reforms around flexibility, compensation, and burnout. Petersen’s prior books, including Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud and Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation, established her as a leading voice on generational labor struggles, while Warzel’s tech journalism has been featured in PBS Frontline documentaries. Out of Office has been cited in major publications like The Washington Post and NPR as a defining text on post-pandemic work culture, solidifying their reputations as essential critics of modern labor dynamics.

Download Summary of Out of Office

Get the Out of Office summary as a free PDF or EPUB. Print it or read offline anytime.

Users also liked

Unworking

Jeremy Myerson & Philip Ross

Future of the Office

Peter Cappelli

The New Corner Office

Laura Vanderkam

Smart Work

Jo Owen

Remote Work Revolution

Tsedal Neeley

The Future of Work Is Already Here book cover

Remote Work Statistics 2026: 60+ Data Points on Hybrid Work & RTO

Remote & Hybrid Work Statistics 2026 | 50+ Data Points & Insights | Searchlab

AI reshapes global labour market into two distinct paths, rewarding human skills: PwC 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer

AI at Work: Why Strategy Matters More Than Tools | BCG

6 sources

The Future of Work Is Already Here

The workers who travel, play tennis, and do chores on the clock - Fast Company

1 source

The Rise of the Soft Off Day

Remote, Not Distant

Gustavo Razzetti

FAQs About This Book

Discover more

LEARNING PLAN

The Art of Uninterrupted Living

In an era of constant connectivity, many professionals struggle with burnout and the inability to truly disconnect. This plan is designed for high-achievers who feel overwhelmed by guilt and blurred boundaries, offering a roadmap to protect their time and mental health.

3 h 4 m•4 Sections

LEARNING PLAN

Stay focused through 8-hour workdays

In an era of constant digital distractions, the ability to maintain cognitive endurance is a competitive advantage. This plan is designed for professionals and remote workers who struggle with afternoon fatigue and want to transition from busywork to high-impact output.

3 h 20 m•4 Sections

LEARNING PLAN

Spot hidden habits killing productivity

In an era of constant digital noise, traditional time management is no longer enough to stay effective. This plan is designed for professionals and students who feel busy but unproductive, offering the tools to reclaim focus and master cognitive energy.

3 h 16 m•4 Sections

LEARNING PLAN

Reclaim Your Rest

In an era of constant connectivity, many high-performers struggle with a brain that refuses to shut down. This plan is designed for anyone feeling mentally exhausted yet physically restless, offering practical tools to transition from high-gear productivity to deep recovery.

1 h 30 m•3 Sections

LEARNING PLAN

How to make more work friends?

Many professionals spend more waking hours with colleagues than family, yet struggle with workplace loneliness and lack meaningful connections at work. This learning plan is ideal for remote workers, new employees, those transitioning to management roles, or anyone who wants to transform their work environment from merely professional to genuinely fulfilling through authentic friendships.

5 h 12 m•4 Sections

LEARNING PLAN

Stay focused working remotely with shoes

Remote work requires a specialized set of self-regulation skills that traditional offices don't demand. This plan is designed for professionals struggling with home distractions who want to master their focus and energy through proven productivity systems.

2 h 53 m•3 Sections

LEARNING PLAN

Energy First: The Sustainable Productivity System

Traditional time management often ignores the biological reality of human performance, leading to burnout. This system is designed for high-performers and knowledge workers who need to optimize their cognitive output while maintaining long-term health and focus.

2 h•4 Sections

LEARNING PLAN

Stay productive 17:50–22:30 for 14 days

This plan is designed for professionals and students who struggle with evening fatigue and need to reclaim their post-work hours for meaningful progress. It bridges the gap between biological energy management and tactical time architecture to ensure high-output consistency.

3 h 31 m•4 Sections

From Columbia University alumni built in San Francisco

LOVED BY

1,000,000+ curious minds.

4.7

avg rating

1M+ learners

"Instead of endless scrolling, I just hit play on BeFreed. It saves me so much time."

@Moemenn

"I never knew where to start with nonfiction—BeFreed’s book lists turned into podcasts gave me a clear path."

@Chloe, Solo founder, LA

117

"Perfect balance between learning and entertainment. Finished ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ on my commute this week."

@Raaaaaachelw

"Crazy how much I learned while walking the dog. BeFreed = small habits → big gains."

@Matt, YC alum

108

"Reading used to feel like a chore. Now it’s just part of my lifestyle."

@Erin, Investment Banking Associate , NYC

254

"Feels effortless compared to reading. I’ve finished 6 books this month already."

@djmikemoore

"BeFreed turned my guilty doomscrolling into something that feels productive and inspiring."

@Pitiful

4.5K

"BeFreed turned my commute into learning time. 20-min podcasts are perfect for finishing books I never had time for."

@SofiaP

"BeFreed replaced my podcast queue. Imagine Spotify for books — that’s it. 🙌"

@Jaded_Falcon

201

"It is great for me to learn something from the book without reading it."

@OojasSalunke

"The themed book list podcasts help me connect ideas across authors—like a guided audio journey."

@Leo, Law Student, UPenn

483

"Makes me feel smarter every time before going to work"

@Cashflowbubu

See more on how BeFreed is discussed

From Columbia University alumni built in San Francisco

LOVED BY

1,000,000+ curious minds.

4.7

avg rating

1M+ learners

"Instead of endless scrolling, I just hit play on BeFreed. It saves me so much time."

@Moemenn

"I never knew where to start with nonfiction—BeFreed’s book lists turned into podcasts gave me a clear path."

@Chloe, Solo founder, LA

117

"Perfect balance between learning and entertainment. Finished ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ on my commute this week."

@Raaaaaachelw

"Crazy how much I learned while walking the dog. BeFreed = small habits → big gains."

@Matt, YC alum

108

"Reading used to feel like a chore. Now it’s just part of my lifestyle."

@Erin, Investment Banking Associate , NYC

254

"Feels effortless compared to reading. I’ve finished 6 books this month already."

@djmikemoore

"BeFreed turned my guilty doomscrolling into something that feels productive and inspiring."

@Pitiful

4.5K

"BeFreed turned my commute into learning time. 20-min podcasts are perfect for finishing books I never had time for."

@SofiaP

"BeFreed replaced my podcast queue. Imagine Spotify for books — that’s it. 🙌"

@Jaded_Falcon

201

"It is great for me to learn something from the book without reading it."

@OojasSalunke

"The themed book list podcasts help me connect ideas across authors—like a guided audio journey."

@Leo, Law Student, UPenn

483

"Makes me feel smarter every time before going to work"

@Cashflowbubu

"Instead of endless scrolling, I just hit play on BeFreed. It saves me so much time."

@Moemenn

"I never knew where to start with nonfiction—BeFreed’s book lists turned into podcasts gave me a clear path."

@Chloe, Solo founder, LA

117

"Perfect balance between learning and entertainment. Finished ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ on my commute this week."

@Raaaaaachelw

"Crazy how much I learned while walking the dog. BeFreed = small habits → big gains."

@Matt, YC alum

108

"Reading used to feel like a chore. Now it’s just part of my lifestyle."

@Erin, Investment Banking Associate , NYC

254

"Feels effortless compared to reading. I’ve finished 6 books this month already."

@djmikemoore

"BeFreed turned my guilty doomscrolling into something that feels productive and inspiring."

@Pitiful

4.5K

"BeFreed turned my commute into learning time. 20-min podcasts are perfect for finishing books I never had time for."

@SofiaP

"BeFreed replaced my podcast queue. Imagine Spotify for books — that’s it. 🙌"

@Jaded_Falcon

201

"It is great for me to learn something from the book without reading it."

@OojasSalunke

"The themed book list podcasts help me connect ideas across authors—like a guided audio journey."

@Leo, Law Student, UPenn

483

"Makes me feel smarter every time before going to work"

@Cashflowbubu

"Instead of endless scrolling, I just hit play on BeFreed. It saves me so much time."

@Moemenn

"I never knew where to start with nonfiction—BeFreed’s book lists turned into podcasts gave me a clear path."

@Chloe, Solo founder, LA

117

"Perfect balance between learning and entertainment. Finished ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ on my commute this week."

@Raaaaaachelw

"Crazy how much I learned while walking the dog. BeFreed = small habits → big gains."

@Matt, YC alum

108

"Reading used to feel like a chore. Now it’s just part of my lifestyle."

@Erin, Investment Banking Associate , NYC

254

"Feels effortless compared to reading. I’ve finished 6 books this month already."

@djmikemoore

"BeFreed turned my guilty doomscrolling into something that feels productive and inspiring."

@Pitiful

4.5K

"BeFreed turned my commute into learning time. 20-min podcasts are perfect for finishing books I never had time for."

@SofiaP

"BeFreed replaced my podcast queue. Imagine Spotify for books — that’s it. 🙌"

@Jaded_Falcon

201

"It is great for me to learn something from the book without reading it."

@OojasSalunke

"The themed book list podcasts help me connect ideas across authors—like a guided audio journey."

@Leo, Law Student, UPenn

483

"Makes me feel smarter every time before going to work"

@Cashflowbubu

See more on how BeFreed is discussed

Start your learning journey, now

Chapter 12

Out of Office

OverviewOverview of Out of Office

One book. Many ways to hear it.

The Future is Flexible: How Remote Work Can Transform Our Lives

The Dark Side of "Flexibility"

See every word as you hear it

Auditing Your Real Workload

Guardrails, Not Boundaries

Get more out of Out of Office

Designing Work for Everyone

The Myth of Company Culture

See every word as you hear it

From Corporate Man to Start-up Hustle

Creating Truly Flexible Cultures

Get more out of Out of Office

Technology's False Promises

Reimagining Physical and Virtual Spaces

See every word as you hear it

Avoiding the Surveillance Trap

Building Community Beyond Work

You made it to the end of Out of Office

Key Themes in Out of Office

Quotes from Out of Office

Characters in Out of Office

About the Author

Download Summary of Out of Office

Users also liked

FAQs About This Book

What is Out of Office by Charlie Warzel about?

Who should read Out of Office?

Is Out of Office worth reading?

What are the four key themes in Out of Office?

Discover more

1,000,000+ curious minds.

1,000,000+ curious minds.

One book. Many ways to hear it.

The Future is Flexible: How Remote Work Can Transform Our Lives

The Dark Side of "Flexibility"

See every word as you hear it

Auditing Your Real Workload

Guardrails, Not Boundaries

Get more out of Out of Office

Designing Work for Everyone

The Myth of Company Culture

See every word as you hear it

From Corporate Man to Start-up Hustle

Creating Truly Flexible Cultures

Get more out of Out of Office

Technology's False Promises

Reimagining Physical and Virtual Spaces

See every word as you hear it

Avoiding the Surveillance Trap

Building Community Beyond Work

You made it to the end of Out of Office

Users also liked

Discover more

Overview of Out of Office