Amphibian by Christina Neuwirth
Written by Ashley Kelmore, Posted in Reviews
4 Stars
Best for:
Anyone who has every worked in an office.
In a nutshell:
Due to slumping sales figures, Management have decided to slowly flood the sales floor.
Worth quoting:
“She had always secretly suspected that her work at MoneyTownCashGrowth was meaningless. She had her clients and she sold them things, but none of it actually meant anything.”
“‘I’m sure that’s not allowed, to mock your employees like that.’ Hanna, and her lack of experience with the Evans of this world! Rose blushed with how much she wished that she, too, still led such a sheltered life.”
Why I chose it:
It looked clever.
Review:
This is an absurd book in the best ways. It’s a novella, so a quick read, but author Neuwirth still manages to fit quite a few highly relevant observations into just under 130 pages.
Rose works in finance, and one week receives an email that the floor where she and her colleagues in sales have office will be slowly flooded with saltwater until productivity turns around. Management (who does not work on the floor and so will not be subject to this slowly increasing discomfort and indignity) seems to operate under the philosophy that the best way to get workers to do something is to harm them.
Throughout the book, the water continues to rise. Staff at first think it’s a bit fun, but as it impacts their lives in and outside of work (what will they tell their friends, how can they go out in public at the end of the day when soaking wet), Rose and others get more desperate.
The book is a decent metaphor not just for the toxicity of workplaces — and how upper and middle management contributes to it — but also for how individual workers choose to react.
What’s next for this book:
Keep and recommend
