We Are The Living Dead

Another great find from an Ottaker's bookstore, David Bolchover's The Living Dead is billed an expose of modern office life.

In contrast to the common perception that we are all grossly overworked and stressed in our jobs, Bolchover claims that the modern workplace is actually full of underutilised, poorly managed people who are barely contributing to the organizations they work for. He draws memorably on his experience of working for a large corporate who managed him so badly that they forgot he even existed.

Far from blaming the workers, he blames a system of line management which fails to nurture the talents of individuals or motivate them to be productive.

Some great statistics on office life from the sleeve ...

• 40 per cent of all casual drugs users in the US (people who use drugs just once a month) still choose to do it at work. 19.6 per cent of people who take drugs at work do so at their workstation.
• One in three mid-week visitors to the theme park Alton Towers has taken the day off work on a dishonest pretext.
• One in five US workers has had sex with a co-worker during work hours. Full sex, that is. 44 per cent of men and 35 per cent of women have had at least some sexual contact at work.
• One third of UK young professionals are hungover at least twice a week on working days. Two thirds admitted to having called in sick due to alcohol at least once in the previous month.
• 70 per cent of Internet porn sites are accessed during the 9 to 5 working day.
• More than half of the UK's 14.5 million pet owners say they would need between two and five days off work to grieve for a dead pet, while 10 per cent said they would need as much as two weeks.
• Monday (23 per cent) and Friday (25 per cent) are the days most commonly taken off sick by UK employees. Wednesday is the most rarely taken (8 per cent).
• UK doctors receive 9 million 'suspicious' or 'questionable' requests each year for sick notes.

Despite being the overachieving author of the 90 Minute Manager and the holder of an MSc in The Politics and Government of Russia from the LSE and an MBA from Cass Business School, Bolchover manages to strike an engagingly populist tone by throwing rocks at the incompetent management bogeymen whilst making excuses for the indolent workforce.