Reading this gave me mild anxiety . . . and also made me laugh because of how true it is in it's depiction of the corporate world. 11/10, would read again.
By the way, have you read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by any chance? Your absurdist situations sort of remind me a lot about it.
Looking forward to taking some of your insights and observations into H1 2024. New Year’s resolution 4 has also been reprioritised to 2… receive an office with a closet large enough to fit two people.
It's always easy to recognize the writing of someone familiar with the corporate employment atmosphere. I'm filled with a sense of shared experience; like soldiers from different companies, but who fought in the same war…
I loved the twists in this story (both the unexpected turn in the middle, and Victor's actually touching choice at the end). It reminded me a bit of Then We Came to the End by Joshua Farris. Only one part rang false: the employee handbook name. There's no way the words wouldn't be reorganized to spell out some kind of acronym. Something like: Consolidated Organization Relationship Expected Values and Leadership Structure (COREVaLS). Kidding aside, this was both well-written and funny.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the nuance of annual performance reviews and their emotional roller-coaster, while on maternity leave at 4am. Although I feel the author captured the atmosphere well, I was disappointed to see no mention of either of the main characters' "soft infrastructure". I will, however, be eager to read more stories from this author in future.
Oct 31, 2023·edited Oct 31, 2023Liked by Luke Skelton
Great story, without spoiling for others - there is a great turn partway through. The story is two genres in my mind, that swaps at this point. However, the characters remain true to themselves throughout. When this story is funny, it's still partly emotional - and when it's emotional, it's still partly funny.
I liked the details too - there was one line that jumped out - where Victor, actively witnessing somebody committing a crime, corrects himself to say they are the 'alleged' criminals - that made me laugh.
And finally, as somebody who has survived annual performance reviews, this whole thing touched me close to home.
Reading this gave me mild anxiety . . . and also made me laugh because of how true it is in it's depiction of the corporate world. 11/10, would read again.
By the way, have you read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by any chance? Your absurdist situations sort of remind me a lot about it.
Looking forward to taking some of your insights and observations into H1 2024. New Year’s resolution 4 has also been reprioritised to 2… receive an office with a closet large enough to fit two people.
It's always easy to recognize the writing of someone familiar with the corporate employment atmosphere. I'm filled with a sense of shared experience; like soldiers from different companies, but who fought in the same war…
I loved the twists in this story (both the unexpected turn in the middle, and Victor's actually touching choice at the end). It reminded me a bit of Then We Came to the End by Joshua Farris. Only one part rang false: the employee handbook name. There's no way the words wouldn't be reorganized to spell out some kind of acronym. Something like: Consolidated Organization Relationship Expected Values and Leadership Structure (COREVaLS). Kidding aside, this was both well-written and funny.
I find the ambiguity of the story frustrating: should I love or hate Victor and to which metric should this feeling be attributed? /s
This is fantastic and I really enjoyed reading it!
Such an interesting and original story! I also couldn’t help admiring how clean and crisp your writing is. Thanks for the great read!
Loved this Luke . It was both comedic and meaningful , both honest and far fetched . Bravo
I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the nuance of annual performance reviews and their emotional roller-coaster, while on maternity leave at 4am. Although I feel the author captured the atmosphere well, I was disappointed to see no mention of either of the main characters' "soft infrastructure". I will, however, be eager to read more stories from this author in future.
Great story, without spoiling for others - there is a great turn partway through. The story is two genres in my mind, that swaps at this point. However, the characters remain true to themselves throughout. When this story is funny, it's still partly emotional - and when it's emotional, it's still partly funny.
I liked the details too - there was one line that jumped out - where Victor, actively witnessing somebody committing a crime, corrects himself to say they are the 'alleged' criminals - that made me laugh.
And finally, as somebody who has survived annual performance reviews, this whole thing touched me close to home.