Lay-offs abound

The other day I was put in mind of a good book I read last year: Then We Came to the End, by Joshua Ferris. The tale is set in a high-end Chicago advertising agency, which, in these belt-tightening times, appears to be spiralling down the swanny – and fast. Those who have worked in an office environment will recognise the nuances of the story and the variety of personalities throughout; those who have experienced said office life in a ‘creative industry’ environment will appreciate them even more. Email perils, lunch-break politics, forced conversation and niceties, distractions, gossip, corporate camaraderie, the group dynamic, the creative process and the myriad opportunities for timesheet padding. Add to these the introverted, skeptical stirrings of regret, insecurity, isolation, mental block, purposelessness, lack of self-worth…the list goes on. And if all of that wasn’t bad enough, now the firm are letting people go.

After he left college, the author worked as a copywriter for an Ad agency for three years. He was “fascinated by the behemoth structure in place – the hierarchies, the coded messages, the power struggles… such an awesome, malignant, necessary, pervasive, inscrutable place deserved a novel’s attention.” In terms of what his Then We Came to the End creative department would produce in terms of a slogan to promote his book, Ferris conceded: “They wouldn’t have a single clue. They would bemoan the assignment while being happy to have a job to bill time to. After a couple of days they’d get down to business and feel woefully inadequate to the task. Eventually something would emerge, but there would be no consensus. The book would disappear from bookstores within two weeks and the firm would go bankrupt.”

It was after discovering this brilliant website that I wanted to write a few words about this book. The site is laid out as a blueprint of the office floor. Echoes of the creatives' deepest thoughts and daydreams reverberate around the walls. The dull groan of the photocopier is just audible over the whirr of servers and other overheated hardware. There are even links to some of the characters’ MySpace pages. I never encountered a book so meticulously supported before. Maybe there are lots of other examples, but this is the first I’ve ever discovered. The teaser below, as well as the interview used above can also be found on the site.