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Company by Max Barry
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Company (original 2007; edition 2007)

by Max Barry

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
1,1703616,905 (3.64)23
Nestled among Seattle's skyscrapers, The Zephyr Holdings Building is a bleak rectangle topped by an orange-and-black logo that gives no hint of Zephyr's business. Lack of clarity, it turns out, is Zephyr's defining characteristic. The floors are numbered in reverse. No one has ever seen the CEO or glimpsed his office on the first (i.e., top) floor. Yet every day people clip on their ID tags, file into the building, sit at their desks, and hope that they're not about to be outsourced. Stephen Jones, a young recruit with shoes so new they squeak, reports for his first day in the Training Sales Department and finds it gripped by a crisis involving the theft of a donut. In short order, the guilty party is identified and banished from the premises and Stephen is promoted from assistant to sales rep. He does his best to fit in with his fellow workers--among them a gorgeous receptionist who earns more than anyone else, and a sales rep who's so emotionally involved with her job that she uses relationship books as sales manuals--but Stephen is nagged by a feeling that the company is hiding something. Something that explains why when people are fired, they are never heard from again; why every manager has a copy of the Omega Management System; and, most of all, why nobody in the company knows what it does. "Always entertaining, Dufris reads this story of corporate revolt with comic timing and tongue firmly planted in cheek, making it an ideal audiobook to enjoy on one's way to work." --AudioFile… (more)
Member:BookNrrrd
Title:Company
Authors:Max Barry
Info:Vintage (2007), Paperback, 352 pages
Collections:Your library, To Sell or Trade
Rating:****
Tags:Fiction, Humor, Work, Psychology

Work Information

Company by Max Barry (2007)

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» See also 23 mentions

English (35)  Spanish (1)  All languages (36)
Showing 1-5 of 35 (next | show all)
Compelling satire of corporate politics - reads something like a mash up of Heller's Catch 22, and Ballard's High Rise -but in an office setting . Amusing, albeit unnerving if you've ever worked in a corporate environment. All too accurate.
Worthwhile, offbeat read. ( )
  arthurfrayn | Aug 5, 2023 |
The first part of this book--during which you think you're simply following the main character through his life in a corporate world--is great, but it takes a strange turn midway through. We find out that the company is actually a farce designed so that a group of researchers can study the ways in which people function in this world. It's an interesting premise, though I must say I enjoyed the story more before the twist. ( )
  sashathewild | Jul 2, 2023 |
Quirky. Many against the machine of capitalism and people as fodder. Alright I liked Jennifer Government better. ( )
  SteveMcI | Jan 13, 2023 |
Hits much too close to home ( )
  goliathonline | Jul 7, 2020 |
This is our book club book for March. It seems like if you work in the corporate world, it would probably be pretty funny. I'm pretty far removed from that world, though, so it's kindof tedious. Putting it down, moving on to something else. ( )
  CiaraCat | Jan 9, 2020 |
Showing 1-5 of 35 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (2 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Max Barryprimary authorall editionscalculated
Dufris, WilliamNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Jęczmyk, LechTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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For Hewlett-Packard
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Monday morning and there's one less donut than there should be.
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Wikipedia in English (1)

Nestled among Seattle's skyscrapers, The Zephyr Holdings Building is a bleak rectangle topped by an orange-and-black logo that gives no hint of Zephyr's business. Lack of clarity, it turns out, is Zephyr's defining characteristic. The floors are numbered in reverse. No one has ever seen the CEO or glimpsed his office on the first (i.e., top) floor. Yet every day people clip on their ID tags, file into the building, sit at their desks, and hope that they're not about to be outsourced. Stephen Jones, a young recruit with shoes so new they squeak, reports for his first day in the Training Sales Department and finds it gripped by a crisis involving the theft of a donut. In short order, the guilty party is identified and banished from the premises and Stephen is promoted from assistant to sales rep. He does his best to fit in with his fellow workers--among them a gorgeous receptionist who earns more than anyone else, and a sales rep who's so emotionally involved with her job that she uses relationship books as sales manuals--but Stephen is nagged by a feeling that the company is hiding something. Something that explains why when people are fired, they are never heard from again; why every manager has a copy of the Omega Management System; and, most of all, why nobody in the company knows what it does. "Always entertaining, Dufris reads this story of corporate revolt with comic timing and tongue firmly planted in cheek, making it an ideal audiobook to enjoy on one's way to work." --AudioFile

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