Anyone who has ever worked in an office environment will most likely recognize the title of today's book from at least one email they have received from, or even written to, a coworker. I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue promised to be a funny and relatable look at office work culture and all the complications within it.
The Situation: For Jolene Smith, her administrative job at Supershops is not at all something she aspired to, but it is the one thing in her life holding her world together. The rent may barely get paid, but her measly paycheck keeps her from having to move back in with her controlling mother, while also allowing her to stay stocked in the alcohol she knows she needs to stop drinking. For the most part, Jolene makes a concerted effort to interact with her coworkers as little as possible, knowing full well that she has now been labeled at the very least as 'antisocial,' and maybe at worst as 'hostile.' She finds some relief from the monotony in her whited-out hidden messages in her emails to people...that is until one of them is discovered.
The Problem: Now Jolene is required to complete a mandatory harassment training with the new human resources representative, Cliff. If this was not bad enough, something has been installed on her computer so that her emails can be monitored. But someone goofed: Whatever application was installed is allowing Jolene to see everyone's emails, as well as their inter-office chats. And none of it is good. When it becomes clear that a round of layoffs is on the horizon, Jolene must act fast to change how her coworkers see her if she hopes to keep her job. This means reaching out, working hard, and - horror of horrors - maybe actually caring. This plan cannot work forever, but hopefully just long enough for Jolene to secure her job.
Genre, Themes, History: This is a novel set in present-day Calgary, Canada, with much of the action taking place inside of the administrative offices of Supershops, where Jolene works as an admin. When her practice of hiding less-than-friendly messages at the bottom of her emails is discovered, an IT mix-up gives her access to everyone's emails, opening up a world of information on the coworkers she has never liked. There are secrets being kept; underhanded plots discovered; and of course, Jolene finds out how her coworkers really feel about her. While inter-office politics may be the focus, the book also deals with mental health, trauma, and unmanaged guilt.
My Verdict: As a professional paper pusher myself, there were parts of this book that I felt deeply. The obvious eavesdropping (people always think they are being sly...they are not); the passive aggressive emails; the back-stabbing; the front-stabbing; the obvious delight in a disliked coworker's downfall; and of course, the supervisor that no one likes and is not great at their job, but will never be fired. It is all here, and while the character of Jolene is not exactly a model employee, the author manages to garner enough sympathy from the reader to where I was rooting for her, even through her many, many mistakes. Her world is fully-formed, in all of its tedious and monotonous non-glory, complete with a pushy parent and a needy neighbor kid. Somehow both light-hearted and frustrating, I recommend this book to anyone working the 8 to 5 grind and trying their best to make it work.
Favorite Moment: There are some delightful nuggets in here, but I especially enjoyed a moment when Jolene pushes past her fear of speaking up in boardroom meetings, and her general dislike of making an effort, and manages to make a real, positive, impression.
Favorite Character: Poor Cliff. Being the new human resources guy means he is immediately the enemy, even without having done anything wrong. Everything he does and says is suspect, and having to evaluate employees in an already terrible office environment that he did nothing to cultivate has to be a special kind of hell.
Recommended Reading: I recommend Rainbow Rowell's Attachments, one of her earliest novels.
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