Lucy Kellaway

Lucy Kellaway is my favourite caller out of bullsh*t business speak and has been doing it in the FT for more years than most. Her Sense and Nonsense in the Office book is a must but appears to have been allowed to go out of print by Pearson (?). Lucy’s new book is an autobiography of sorts with the snappy title Re-educated: How I Changed my Job, My Home, My Husband, & My Hair (Ebury). It takes us through different parts of her life but really covers what happened after she separated from her husband, bought a new house, became a teacher, and set up a new company - Now Teach - to encourage business people to become teachers later in life and share the benefit of their experience and knowledge. She is refreshingly honest about her experiences and how much she herself has learned throughout the process, and often hilarious in her self-deprecation. One reads with clenched teeth at times but can only admire her endeavour, determination, and the essential value of an excellent, omnipresent sense of humour.… (meer)

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3746279.html

Classic novel of corporate life in London, as expressed through the emails of Martin Lukes, both self-obsessed and utterly un-self-aware, working through hubris, nemesis, and just possibly catharsis. You can spot pretty early on what is going to happen - as soon as the attractive new PA comes on the scene, it basically writes itself (her surname is actually Tartt, in case you needed the obvious pointed out to you even more clearly) - but having said that I anticipated the middle part of the book, Kellaway brings in a couple of twists at the end that I admit I did not expect.… (meer)

What to say… what to say. How unique or creative can a story about office liaisons get? When lead characters have names like Bella and Stella, I tend to expect some form of chick lit read so I was kind of hoping for a light-hearted “comedy of errors” kind of story. While there are some comic moments, Kellaway uses this story more as a vehicle to poke at things like corporate hypocrisy, gender roles and positions of authority. While the author could have chosen any industry as the backdrop for the passion shenanigans, she chose “big oil”, probably because advertising and fashion have already been done to death. The big oil setting also lets Kellaway incorporate all the traditional devices – power suits, power meetings, multi-layer corporate hierarchy, high flying business travel – and even plays with the known market volatility for some distraction from the rather tedious “why am I still in this relationship” bemoaning that goes on, and on, and on. It is the continual whining and, as one reviewer has pointed out, the representation that, unlike men, women seem unable to focus on their work while involved in an illicit affair. That made this a rather irksome read for me.

Overall, an okay read if you like stories set in an office environment, and probably best read as a parable.… (meer)