My boss recently bought a couple of books that he expected my team to read.
In the past when previous bosses have done this, I've generally gained a lot out of reading the books, even if I disliked some aspects of their arguments I've been able to get a lot of insight from the arguments and evidence presented.
But this book is complete garbage. Truly first rate trash. It barely qualifies as a book. Conquer Your Rebrand, is ostensibly meant to be a business strategy guide to branding. But it is more like a long winded LinkedIn post. It's clearly an attempt by the author to fill his sales pipeline that's barely disguised as him passing on 'expertise.' It presents no compelling arguments, no evidence, is severely lacking in any sort of citations and is written like someone desperately trying to flog a timeshare at a weekend convention. I have redlined the shit out of it but I got so infuriated reading it that I can't imagine how to have a decent discussion with my boss about this book without seeming like my low opinion of this book reflects back on him (which in reality it really does.)
I think it's so much worse because I just finished two brilliant books on my own time —Jack Welsh: The Man Who Broke Capitalism and When McKinsey Comes To Town: The Hidden Influence of The World's Biggest Consulting Firm — that both present compelling arguments, detailed referencing and excellent writing.
How would you handle this?
It depends on the context. If you're asked to evaluate something and all you have to say about someone's work is that it took effort there is a lot unsaid. As in "at least they tried".
If you're saying "wow that looks like it took a lot of work" it means that you're acknowledging that someone spent a lot of energy on something. Like if its a really elaborate piece of art and you're just marveling at it.
If someone's saying this to you about your work they most likely mean the latter since the former is pointlessly cruel. Unless they're trying to bully or harass there is no need to tell someone their work is worthless.