The Employees

A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century

By: Olga Ravn

Narrated by: Hannah Curtis

Length: 2 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

Shortlisted for the International Booker prize, The Employees reshuffles a sci-fi voyage into a riotously original existential nightmare.

Funny and doom-drenched, The Employees chronicles the fate of the Six-Thousand Ship. The human and humanoid crew members complain about their daily tasks in a series of staff reports and memos. When the ship takes on a number of strange objects from the planet New Discovery, the crew becomes strangely and deeply attached to them, even as tensions boil toward mutiny, especially among the humanoids.

Olga Ravn’s prose is chilling, crackling, exhilarating, and foreboding. The Employees probes into what makes us human, while delivering a hilariously stinging critique of life governed by the logic of productivity.

©2018, 2021 Olga Ravn & Martin Aitken Gyldendal (P)2022 New Directions Publishing Corp.

Unusual, Dark Science Fiction

Based on the title, I was surprised that this story takes place aboard a spaceship in deep space. The “employees” are robots, humanoids, and humans. It’s very unusual in the way it’s structured and has a dark, haunting vibe to it as it unfolds. The mystery of what was going on kept me intrigued. I recommend it for anyone who likes dark, unusual, sci-fi.

Some insight into work

Elliptical narrative. Why were the "objects" being collected? What caused the conflict on the ship?

Beautiful writing and pointed meaning

Wonderful commentary on work, life, companionship and what makes us alive told through subtle and very well done prose.

Didn’t find the humor BUT …

It was actually haunting (imho) the text stayed with me, it made me uncomfortable (in an existential sort of way.)

Not the best thing I ever listened to - BUT - it is worth the time and the discomfort.

An existential look at humanity in the tradition of Rod Serling

The story is told through a series of short, daily interviews with the protagonist (think log entries) who works aboard a commercial vessel transporting unnamed cargo. Those interviewing her are unnamed, but might be executives or scientists working in robotics. The crew is a mix of human and android. The questions asked of the protagonist are not mentioned, only her responses and reflections. It takes close listening to sleuth out what is happening on the ship given the style of narrative, but any fan of Serling’s show and his existentialist writing will enjoy this. The characters in the story may or may not be what they appear to be….or maybe they are?

Absurd Corporate Sci-Fi Existential Epic

LOVED this read, what an incendiary satire of professional work in the modern world. Brilliantly conceived form, a book I could not put down.

No clue what was this about

I came out of the book with only a very vague se sense of what was going on. Must be one of the most hermetic novels I came across, and not in a good way.

Very sad, terribly depressing

Not exactly what I need to read at the moment. The author must be a very unusual person to write such a dreary tale.

I was hoping for more, and yet....

It definitely keeps you at the edge of your seat once it starts! I had no idea what this book was about. Once you start reading, the first thing you find is the "rules" of this universe, what you're about to find: random statements from employees talking about their workplace... Where is this place? What's going on there? How many are there? Are they all humans?

Some of those questions find their answers as the story keeps moving forward. A fabulous concept that gets stuck in just that, a concept. The development feels disconnected, it was like reading many confessions from a booth in a reality show. Somehow, you kinda understand who's talking, their conflicts and the evolution of it, but it's still hard to follow.

People get killed, humanoids don't understand, someone is kicked out... So, what? We don't really know the characters and we don't care about them, love them or identify with them. This could've been a Black Mirror episode instead of a book, and it would've been clearer.

At the end, the story makes sense and it goes to familiar places, inevitably. And it's no surprise. And it leaves you feeling like something was definitely missing there.

Lost on the way to a story

The book is prose, disconnected and almost stream of consciousness. There is a good story hidden in there somewhere - if you have the patience to wait… and wait… and wait.