Whether in a cubicle or home office, workplace culture is full of absurdities that anyone who has held a job can appreciate. From apathetic coworkers scrolling TikTok to illicit romances, the full extent of the foibles of humanity are on display, so it’s no wonder fiction writers have mined its depths. These novels capture the humor, heartbreak, madness, and even terror that encapsulate the modern workplace.—Elizabeth Reiser
“Black Buck”
By Mateo Askaripour. 2021. Mariner.
When a chance encounter gives Darren the chance at a dream job, he reinvents himself as a ruthless salesman. Then tragedy strikes. Tackling race in corporate America, Askaripour’s novel is darkly funny and insightful.
“Convenience Store Woman”
By Sayaka Murata. Tr. by Ginny Tapley Takemori. 2018. Grove.
Keiko is content working in a convenience store, until others question her path, making her begin to do the same. This short novel explores career expectations and what it means when your identity becomes lost in work.
“Discontent”
By Beatriz Serrano. Tr. by Mara Faye Lethem. 2025. Vintage.
Marisa appears to be a successful young woman excelling in life, but she is bored and angry. She hates her job and everyone around her and spends most of her workday stealing ideas from others between bouts of watching YouTube and self-medicating.
“JPod”
By Douglas Coupland. 2006. Bloomsbury.
Coupland was an early satirist of the digital workplace in Microserfs (1995). Here he portrays a bunch of precocious, angsty designer-geeks whose last names start with J slotted into a pod of cubicles in a giant Vancouver videogame corporation.
“Personal Days”
By Ed Park. 2008. Random House.
Park’s version of the office tale offers a satirical look at the hours we lose to workplace absurdity. Compared to the TV show “The Office,” but with a bit of mystery thrown in, this vignette-like tale is a humorous take on corporate culture. Art from the cover of Discontent.
“Several People Are Typing”
By Calvin Kasulke. 2021. Doubleday.
In Kasulke’s inventive, funny, tender, and compelling first novel, told in Slack messages, Gerald, a middling employee at a New York public-relations firm, has his consciousness uploaded to the workplace app. While kind coworker Pradeep tends to his bodily needs, Gerald’s productivity increases.
“Severance”
By Ling Ma. 2018. Farrar.
Set in a postapocalyptic America, Ma’s tale follows Candace Chen as she navigates a zombie pandemic. Rather than eating brains, these zombies are forced to perform mindless routines repeatedly. A commentary on identity, consumerism, and how we prioritize work.
“Then We Came to the End”
By Joshua Ferris. 2007. Little, Brown.
Ferris captures the ennui of the workers at an advertising agency where layoffs are running rampant. By using the first-person plural point of view, the novel makes the reader feel like a temp worker observing both the ridiculous and the mundane of a failing corporate office.
“There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job”
By Kikuko Tsumura. 2021. Bloomsbury.
Feeling burnt out, a woman decides to take on temp jobs that involve very little thinking on her part. As the narrator moves from job to job, convenience and ease aren’t making her happy. The question is how one finds meaning in a culture that prizes work so highly.
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