“Bartleby, the Scrivener” is a classic tale about workplace alienation. Melville’s narrator, a Wall Street lawyer, hires Bartleby as a copyist. At first, Bartleby seems ideal: quiet, efficient, and reliable.
Soon, however, he begins to resist with his repeated phrase, “I would prefer not to.” The narrator struggles with Bartleby’s passive defiance. Bartleby’s withdrawn presence slowly disrupts the entire office.
Through this unusual character, Melville shows how repetitive work can slowly drain one’s humanity, exploring the boundaries between identity and the tasks that define our working lives.
Joshua Ferris’ novel humorously captures the absurdity and tension of modern office life. Told from the viewpoint of a collective “we,” this book portrays employees facing impending layoffs at an advertising agency.
Each worker responds to the stress differently, revealing insecurities, rivalries, and quirky behaviors. Ferris cleverly uses his distinct narrative voice to highlight how work shapes identity and social interactions, even when office tasks seem meaningless.
“Then We Came to the End” portrays the ever-changing nature of modern corporate culture, and the complex ways we define ourselves through jobs and colleagues.
In “The Jungle,” Upton Sinclair depicts the brutal working conditions in Chicago’s meatpacking industry. Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant seeking the American dream, faces exploitation, unsafe work environments, and relentless cruelty.
Sinclair’s vivid descriptions expose corruption, human misery, and injustice, painting a stark picture of how work can destroy lives. While famously prompting reforms in food processing, the novel is deeply human, centering on workers struggling simply to survive day by day.
Sinclair’s story forces readers to reflect on the profound, human cost hidden behind everyday goods and jobs.
“The Circle” by Dave Eggers explores life inside a giant tech company that resembles real-world firms dominating today’s world. Mae Holland, the protagonist, starts her ideal job at the Circle, fascinated by promises of transparency, connectivity, and progress.
She soon discovers how the company’s invasive culture erodes personal privacy, twisting work into a totalizing force.
Eggers questions the line between corporate loyalty and personal integrity, depicting how modern workplaces shape individuals and society in disturbing ways, constantly blurring boundaries between life, work, and identity.
“Microserfs” portrays young software developers working at Microsoft in the 1990s. Reflective and funny, Coupland takes readers inside a world of endless coding, late nights, caffeine, and sardonic humor.
As the characters later set up their own company, their workplace becomes both a source of community and anxiety. The novel documents how the endless quest for meaning and authenticity exists within corporate culture.
Coupland’s sharp observations comment on Generation X’s struggle to define themselves through technology, entrepreneurship, friendship, and ultimately, the nature of work itself.
In this fast-paced novel, Lauren Weisberger depicts the absurd and demanding role of junior personal assistant under tyrannical fashion editor Miranda Priestly.
Andrea Sachs, the young protagonist, struggles as she juggles impossible demands, constant criticism, and stressful tasks. Weisberger humorously critiques a toxic workplace culture, one that slowly strips away Andrea’s personal life and her identity.
Beyond glamorous dresses and celebrity parties, the story illustrates the costs of ambition and professional obsession, exposing the darker side of work in an attractive but ruthless industry.
Max Barry’s “Company” is a sharp satire of corporate life, presented through the experiences of Stephen Jones, an enthusiastic new hire. Stephen quickly realizes his company isn’t quite what he thought.
Mysterious management, inexplicable company policies, and absurd corporate behaviors abound. Barry cleverly attacks bureaucracy, underscoring how corporate culture distorts the nature of work and employee purpose.
Through humorous scenarios, the novel reveals workplace alienation, the strange logic driving organizational decisions, and ultimately the absurdity hiding behind corporate slogans and teamwork clichés.
“American Psycho” presents Patrick Bateman, an investment banker immersed in the excess of 1980s Wall Street. Ellis portrays the shallow obsession with status, wealth, and appearance dominating the finance industry at the time.
Bateman’s gruesome violence serves as an extreme metaphor for the ruthless emptiness beneath corporate success and high status careers.
The novel sharply critiques workplace materialism and greed, illustrating the disturbing possibilities when work turns humans into superficial competitors, consumed by image over morality, and cold ambition over human connection.
Combining dystopian fiction and cultural commentary, “Severance” by Ling Ma follows Candace Chen, an office worker in a publishing firm as a global pandemic breaks out.
Before society’s collapse, Candace keeps going to deserted offices, continuing monotonous administrative tasks as a form of routine and comfort. Ma brilliantly portrays work’s ability to define our lives, even in a world quickly deteriorating around us.
This novel insightfully links the emptiness of office routines with larger societal alienation, reflecting upon the nature of employment and our persistent attachment to the routines of work.
“Stoner” beautifully depicts the quiet, steady life of William Stoner, an English professor at a midwestern university. Through Stoner, Williams presents an insightful look at academic work and the quiet battles within academic departments.
Focusing on the character’s teaching career, complex friendships, campus politics, and professional disappointments, Williams forms a deeply moving portrait of how intellectual labor deeply impacts an individual’s personal life.
The novel makes clear the profound effects work has on happiness, fulfillment, and our understanding of self-worth, gently examining the intersection between personal and professional worlds.
In Wilson’s influential novel, Tom Rath balances pressures of corporate life with his personal responsibilities as a husband and father.
Facing moral compromises and the daily grind of a corporate job, Tom struggles to reconcile his identity with societal expectations and economic necessity. The novel examines post-war America’s assumptions about success, security, and work-life balance.
Ultimately, Wilson uncovers the emotional toll and personal costs behind the image of the obedient corporate employee, questioning if workplace conformity can coexist with personal authenticity and fulfillment.
Steinbeck’s masterpiece chronicles the Joad family’s quest for work after losing their Oklahoma farm during the Great Depression. “The Grapes of Wrath” shows harsh realities migrant workers face as they move west, vulnerable to exploitation, hunger, and displacement.
Steinbeck openly critiques the economic system, exposing injustices and inequalities experienced by workers lacking power and choices.
With powerful scenes and unforgettable characters, the novel illuminates how survival through hard work does not always bring dignity or security, but might threaten human values instead.
In “A Hologram for the King,” Eggers follows American businessman Alan Clay, desperately seeking professional redemption as he travels to Saudi Arabia.
Waiting to pitch his innovative IT solution to King Abdullah, Alan encounters frustrating business practices, cultural differences, and personal uncertainties.
Eggers portrays how globalization impacts ordinary workers, highlighting increasing isolation, anxiety, and uncertainty in today’s precarious economy.
Alan’s experience becomes symbolic of a global workforce searching for personal value, meaning, and hope within a rapidly changing world of work.
In Malamud’s quietly powerful novel, Frank Alpine becomes employed in the grocery store of Jewish storekeeper Morris Bober. Set in the poverty and daily struggle of mid-century Brooklyn, the two form a difficult, complicated relationship based on poverty, loyalty, and guilt.
Malamud explores how work can become intensely personal, a site of struggle, morality, and redemption.
By depicting both men’s lives and work as intertwined, the novel explores the challenges workers face in building meaningful relationships amidst financial struggles, personal shame, and societal pressures.