THE WORKING LIFE
The Age
Saturday September 19, 2009
Apply Within: Stories of Career Sabotage Michaela McGuire Melbourne University Press, $27.99 SUNDAY Age columnist Michaela McGuire has come up with a marvellous theme for her first book. Like many young women, she has worked her way through university in a variety of jobs, but unlike most young women she decided to write about them.Part of her skill lies in the guileless way she describes the bizarre workplace behaviour that she comes across. The manager of a video shop insists that McGuire keep busy despite having nothing to do. One day the manager told her that she had watched her on the surveillance tape and that, on the previous night, McGuire was standing stationary for 17 minutes. Her mistake was to ask the manager how many hours she had spent watching the tape.Other jobs included door-to-door sales and working for a casino. And then there was the MP she worked for during his election campaign. When he met his lover in front of KFC at the local shopping centre, the lover kept kissing McGuire as well as the MP just to make sure people didn't think she (the lover) was playing favourites.As well as being as funny as a crutch, McGuire's book, which was lifted from her blog, will reassure readers that they're not going mad. Yes, there are some really weird things that happen out there in the workforce, you just have to try to laugh.
© 2009 The Age
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