Company
Stephen Jones is a shiny new hire at Zephyr Holdings. From the outside, Zephyr is just another bland corporate monolith, but behind its glass doors business is far from the beautiful receptionist is paid twice as much as anybody else to do nothing, the sales reps use self help books as manuals, no one has seen the CEO, no one knows exactly what they are selling, and missing donuts are the cause of office intrigue. While Jones originally wanted to climb the corporate ladder, he now finds himself descending deeper into the irrational rationality of company policy. What he finds is hilarious, shocking, and utterly telling.
Stats for nerds
2recommend
2mentions
2people
2011–2025years
100% recommend
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- If you don't think HR is malicious, you should read Company by Max Barry.
- Here's a couple that I've enjoyed lately. Only "The Deal" and "21 Dog Years" are tech centered, but all of them are good reads and amusing. Descriptions are pulled from Amazon. I've included affiliate codes, but feel free to strip them.
"Then We Came To The End" by Joshua Ferris
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/031601639X?ie=UTF8&tag=...
It's 2001. The dot-com bubble has burst and rolling layoffs have hit an unnamed Chicago advertising firm sending employees into an escalating siege mentality as their numbers dwindle.
"Company" by Max Berry
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400079373?ie=UTF8&tag=...
Barry once again satirizes corporate America. This time, he takes aim at the perennial corporate crime of turning people into cogs in a machine. Recent b-school grad Stephen Jones, a fresh-faced new hire at a Seattle-based holding company called Zephyr, jumps on the fast track to success when he's immediately promoted from sales assistant to sales rep in Zephyr's training sales department. "Don't try to understand the company. Just go with it," a colleague advises when Jones is flummoxed to learn his team sells training packages to other internal Zephyr departments. But unlike his co-workers, he won't accept ignorance of his employer's business, and his unusual display of initiative catapults him into the ranks of senior management, where he discovers the "customer-free" company's true, sinister raison d'être.
"The Deal" by Joe Hutsko
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1438235844?ie=UTF8&tag=...
Hutsko debuts with an effort to re-create the near-demise of Apple Computer with a thinly disguised cast of fictional alter egos. Hutsko, who worked closely with Apple CEO John Sculley, casts Peter Jones in the role of Apple founder Steve Jobs. As the novel opens, Jones is unseated from his position by his best friend, Matthew Locke, a buttoned-down Sculley type who engineers a power-play and steals control of Jones's innovative computer company, Via Technology.
"The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement" by Eliyahu M. Goldratt
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0884270610?ie=UTF8&tag=...
In this intriguing, readable business novel, which illustrates state-of-the-art economic theory, Alex Rogo is a UniCo plant manager whose factory and marriage are failing. To revitalize the plant, he follows piecemeal advice from an elusive former college professor who teaches, for example, that reduction in the efficiency of some plant operations may make the entire operation more productive. Alex's attempts to find the path to profitability and to engage his employeesi n the struggle involve the reader; and thankfully the authors' economic models, including a game with match sticks and bowls, are easy to understand. Although some characters are as anonymous as the goods manufactured in the factory, others ring true. In addition, the tender story of Alex and his wife's separation and reconciliation makes a touching contrast to the rest of the book. Recommended for anyone with an interest in the state of the American economy.
"21 Dog Years : A Cube Dweller's Tale" by Mike Daisey
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/074323815X?ie=UTF8&tag=...
In 1998, Daisey gave up his life of frequenting cafes, temping and participating in small-time theater to join an up-and-coming bookseller called Amazon.com. Here, he offers a kind of workplace coming-of-age memoir the young hero comes to terms with his ambition, synthesizes it with his liberal arts education and finally spits it out. All the dot-com punching bags are here: the lampooning of new economy jargon, the girlfriend worrying about her boyfriend's sudden obsession with the company picnic, and jokes about Pets.com. What saves the book from being an exercise in shooting fish in a barrel is Daisey's sharp eye: he renders even banal corporate moments with energy and wit.
