 |
Charlie is a 44-year-old newly retired army engineer peddling his skills in the private sector. Post-military life is presenting a sharp learning curve, with fewer professional opportunities than he'd hoped. His skills land him in a cutthroat corporate subculture manned by a mix of politically connected hacks and managerial climbers. Their collective goal is to write the winning proposal for a lucrative government outsourcing opportunity, a superhighway. Soon, however, office drama devolves into a tawdry show of workers and wives behaving badly.
Successful workplace drama requires a fine narrative line between generalized commentary for a broad audience and niche content that only the coworker in the next cubicle might pop up like a prairie dog to appreciate. Here, the balance is mixed. Most workers recognize the appeal of a new professional opportunity as well as the drag from a team of jerks. Likewise, many employees spend more time together than with their families, so interpersonal workplace connections can run deep, as can the conflicting needs and motivations of project teammates. But do the details of a work day, from who prints the report to who clicks through the slideshow, make for a compelling story?
By demonstrating the intricate monotony of white-collar work, the book showcases how ego infiltrates and sabotages even mundane tasks. Similarly, taking the reader into employees' home lives illustrates the way private and professional influences affect a seemingly regular day at the office. Most of all, the book is an effective reminder of how consuming the workplace can be. For many professionals, the office is no longer a five o’clock world, and the drama at work is the stuff of novels.