Company

Front Cover
Scribe Publications Pty Limited, Mar 5, 2007 - Fiction - 352 pages

When is physical violence an appropriate response to management policy? Why is that one reserved parking space always empty? And when does helping yourself to an extra doughnut at morning tea become a criminal act?

At Zephyr Holdings, no one has ever seen the CEO. The floors are numbered in reverse, the Mission Statement could mean almost anything, and the beautiful receptionist is paid twice as much as anybody else, but appears to do no work. One of the sales reps uses relationship books as sales manuals, and another is on the warpath because somebody stole his doughnut.

In other words, it’s a typical big company. Or at least, that’s what everyone thinks, until fresh-faced employee Jones—too new to understand you just don’t ask some questions—starts investigating. Soon Jones uncovers the company’s secret: the answer to everything, what Zephyr Holdings really does, and why every manager carries a copy of the Omega Management System. It plunges him into a maelstrom of love, loyalty, management, and corporate immorality—and whether he can get out again. Now that’s a good question.

In the tradition of William Gibson, Joseph Heller, and Douglas Coupland, Company is a biting, incisive, and delightful satire of corporate culture.

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About the author (2007)

Max Barry began removing parts at an early age. In 1999, he successfully excised a steady job at tech giant HP in order to upgrade to the more compatible alternative of manufacturing fiction. While producing three novels, he developed the online nation simulation game NationStates, as well as contributing to various open source software projects and developing religious views on operating systems. He did not leave the house much. For Machine Man, Max wrote a website to deliver pages of fiction to readers via e-mail and RSS. He lives in Melbourne, Australia, with his wife and two daughters, and is thirty-eight years old. He uses vi.www.maxbarry.com

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