Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World

by Marcus Buckingham

You may not care which company you work for, but since you do care about which company you join, these signifiers are crafted to help a company attract a certain kind of person by highlighting what the company thinks this kind of person values. This is why these signifiers show up time and again in promotional materials, and why they are so prominent in various company rankings—because companies want it that way. These kinds of perks are plumage—peacock feathers for people. They sound cool because they’re designed to get your attention, just like plumage is. So when you read about how a certain company gives each employee “twenty-percent” time to focus on personal projects or claims to always promote from within, just remember that these beautiful feathers are designed almost exclusively to attract you, and that this attraction, as most attractions tend to, will fade.