This article focuses on work-related self-help books and asks what kinds of promises self-help books make as a reward for change. In work-related self-help guides, the employee is advised not only to change their affects and relation to work but also to inspire others. Thus, the employee is presented as a potential reformer of the work organisation who is not dependent on other people or the structures of working life. The 'cruel optimism' promise of a reward for this is constant change and self-improvement, which becomes the goal in itself. This article adds to the relatively limited research in the field of work-related self-help literature.