The Unwritten Rules of Work: Social Class and Neurodivergent Identities by Dr. Anna Kallschmidt delivers an evidence-based guide to navigating professional life when the rules are never written down.
In workplaces across industries, many employees feel like they are working twice as hard for half the recognition. Promotions feel arbitrary, feedback feels vague, and expectations remain frustratingly unclear. In The Unwritten Rules of Work: Social Class and Neurodivergent Identities, industrial-organizational psychologist Dr. Anna Kallschmidt reveals why this experience is not imagined and why it is far more common than leaders realize.
Dr. Kallschmidt is a pioneering researcher and the first to publish empirical research demonstrating that social class continues to operate as a cultural identity at work, even after economic mobility. Recognized by the American Psychological Association as a leader in socioeconomic status research across psychology disciplines, her work challenges the long-held assumption that workplaces operate as meritocracies.
Drawing on years of qualitative and quantitative research, The Unwritten Rules of Work exposes the unwritten rules of professional success that shape hiring, performance evaluations, advancement, and leadership perceptions. These rules are rarely taught, often shift as employees rise through organizations, and disproportionately disadvantage first-generation professionals, people from working-class backgrounds, and neurodivergent employees.
Through real stories from employees and organizations, Dr. Kallschmidt unpacks how class-based norms intersect with race, gender, and neurodivergence. Topics include assertiveness expectations, office politics, conflict avoidance, boundaries at work, handling difficult coworkers, and why so-called professionalism often masks cultural bias rather than competence.
Unlike traditional leadership books centered on personal anecdotes, The Unwritten Rules of Work speaks to multiple audiences at once. Employees gain clarity on what is expected and how to navigate opaque norms without sacrificing authenticity. Leaders and managers gain insight into why well-intentioned systems fail and how misunderstanding invisible rules undermines engagement, retention, and performance. HR professionals receive a research-backed framework for creating clearer expectations, fairer evaluations, and healthier workplace cultures.
The motivation for the book began in Dr. Kallschmidt’s first week of her Ph.D. program, when she encountered the concept of contextual performance, described as everything beyond the job description, without explanation. Her research set out to define what that “other stuff” really is and who has access to learning it. This book ensures that no one has to walk into a workplace without knowing what success truly requires.
Dr. Kallschmidt has worked with global organizations including Big 4 firms and Ivy League institutions. Her work has contributed to increased employee retention, improved climate survey results, and consistently positive trainee feedback. Her guiding philosophy is simple: people versus profit does not have to be a choice. In healthy organizations, they support each other.
The Unwritten Rules of Work is the missing manual for modern work and a call to build workplaces that are fair, transparent, and built to help people thrive.
