Welcome to the Company (or what it’s really like working here)

by: Eileen McVety

Published by: Inkwater Press

Reviewed by Muhammed Hassanali

The cover of the book shows a man with a plastic smile towering over a large corporation called Gordon Wiggins Company (or GWG). Behind him radiate sun rays into a clear blue sky. The book’s title and the author’s name were written in the sky. Behind this “happy” façade, the “W” in “Welcome” looked like it contained an outline of a dagger – I was anticipating subtle humor – the type of humor where an ordinary situation is rendered funny through its description.

Welcome to the Company is a spoof on employee handbooks that are standard fare at most companies. Like the handbooks it mocks, the section on company overview describes a fictitious company (GWG). The next section describes the functions of its various departments and profiles its management team. Benefits are covered next (such as free coffee), followed by office communications (who to contact, communication protocol, and the purpose of the various meetings). Next is professional behavior which covers business attire, office décor, conflict management, and client etiquette.

The catch-all Company Policies section covers affirmative action, performance reviews, management training, drug testing, sexual harassment, disciplinary action, and termination of employment. The next two sections are FAQs and closing thoughts (a letter penned by Gordon Wiggins himself). Like other employee handbooks, this one is not without its errors. The most glaring one is that the percentages for “race” do not add up to 100%, while the other statistics do.

It turned out that the humor was of the type that I had anticipated. The humor of this book lay in its exaggerations, not its commentary. I guess as spoofs it exaggerates the situations they portray to the point of humor, and that this is a better model that the one I was anticipating.

It took me less time to read Welcome to the Company than it did to read my company’s employee handbook I was issued. I read it in about thirty minutes during my lunch break without choking from combining my eating with a dose of reading. Having read it, I feel that the book is best enjoyed when one is not inhibited by reading the chapters in order.

Armchair Interviews says: A light-hearted look at working in a big corporation.