is this a joke?

[marcicat]

Yesterday, a mid-to-high-level employee at my workplace posted to the company's semi-defunct intranet, saying (essentially) 'here's a book a bunch of us are reading here!'

And I thought, 'is this a joke?' (Fun fact: the company tried to start a quarterly book club once. It lasted for a single quarter.)

I should have left it at that, but being curious and fully willing to read about books on company time, I looked for more info. A quick search left me feeling both bemused and angry -- the book appeared to be pushing the US version of 'corporate teamwork' that says the 'good' employees are the ones who stand out as 'exceptional contributors' and 'take on leadership without being asked.' (ie. employees who do more work than they are compensated for)

It was the same old song and dance, but presented as if it was something new, and again I thought, 'IS this a joke?' A bubble of hope made me click through to read the reviews on ye olde amazonne.

Apparently it was not a joke.

(Although I personally did laugh very hard at the excerpt in one review that used the example of the Apollo 13 crisis as a way to berate employees for wanting to leave work when their shift is over.)

Comments

[bonibaru]

We had this happen a few years ago. The book was called "Unbossed", unbossed later became part of our lexicon of corporate speak, and I hate it to the very depths of my soul.