#max berry

Truly exceptional conceptual landscape paintings from Australian artist Max Berry.

Max Berry, Flowers, 2021.

WHAT TO READ WHEN YOUR WORKPLACE IS FULL OF DRAMA

James Comey gave his testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, accusing the White House of “lies, plain and simple.” And that’s probably true, but since we don’t really know what, if anything, will come of this investigation, let’s turn our thoughts away from the Oval Office and toward the many, many women and men who work under this administration in offices in Washington, DC and across the country. Comey himself asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions not to leave him alone again with the president—if you’ve never had a boss that engenders that kind of fear-slash-repulsion (not to mention one who’s likely to live-tweet your every failure, from spilling coffee on your keyboard to wearing the wrong pair of shoes), count yourself among the lucky few.

In honor of the World’s Worst Boss, we’ve put together a list of books with bad bosses and workplace drama for you to read while we wait to see if we can get that orange guy fired.

Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville

Cubed: The Secret History of the Workplace by Nikil Saval

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris

Kevin Kramer Starts on Monday by Debbie Graber

The Assistants by Camille Perri

The Circle by Dave Eggers

A Working Stiff’s Manifesto by Iain Levinson

Lightning Rods by Helen DeWitt

Company by Max Barry

The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving

The Door by Magda Szabó

The Godfather by Mario Puzo

Inferno by Mary Jo Bang

The Pale King by David Foster Wallace

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

Transmission by Hari Kunzru

The Beautiful Bureaucrat by Helen Phillips

Max Berry, Red Flowers, 2020.