Bonjour Laziness: Jumping Off the Corporate Ladder

by Corinne Maier

Book Overview

Your company wants you to be loyal. You should feel lucky-after all, your job is a privilege (think of all those who would like to have it). And you know (despite what you've read about Enron and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375423737
• ISBN13: 9780375423734
• Release Date: May 2005
• Publisher: Pantheon Books
• Length: 137 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

Highly Entertaining

It's not a self-help book but a look at the corporate world that, from my perspective after working at some major corporations, is dead on. Work within large corporate organizations is very much as she describes it. This book gets it right whether it is in France or the US. Corporate America is one strange place. This book is a great read and extremely funny! If it doesn't sell well in America it's because we take ourselves way too seriously.

Entertaining..

This book was originally published in French, and as such, a bit of the context has persisted. However, there's a lot to be learnt from in this book about surviving in a large organization. The word play is excellent. Very enjoyable -- a fun read!

Very funny and too true - very disengaging

I ordered 3 copies of this book for friends at work - we are now completely disengaged - finding it very hard to put any effort into work. It is a very good read and very funny. Surprising that a French woman's experience of working in a large corporation in France is so similar to mine in this country. It opens your eyes and reinforces what you already know about politics in a big company. As I pass the copies around the office, it is like a cancer that is spreading - not sure what the engagement score of the department will be by the time everyone has read it!

A fun read!

According to Corinne Maier job satisfaction will come with working less. Certainly at odds with the thesis that success in life is getting ahead in the corporate world and bringing home that fat paycheck. Certainly, Maier won't agree with all the stuff you (might) have learned at business school. Especially, she won't agree with the thesis that the goal of life is to conform, to impress your superiors and to fit in with a larger (corporate) culture. In a nutshell, she thinks that this whole corporate culture is phony. You might not agree with everything she says - but you should read the book anyhow! Who knows - it might be an eyeopener. -Simon

wonderful book

This book is really eye opener. Of course, the thesis is not new. Of course - everybody knows Dilbert. But Dilbert is something a little bit different - a joke. True, this joke is about real world, real people - but it's a joke. Bonjour laziness is not a joke, this is a book that shows that different life, different kind of work is possible. Of course, what Ms Maier proposes is a provocation - let's try to pretend that we work. Why? because all of this, our bosses, our desks, our positions our visiting cards is just an illusion. Try to live real life, life for yourselves, not life for your company. If you are trying hard to make a career you may not like this book. But try to answer one question. Imagine you are 75 years old and you wonder what your life was for. What will be the answer? That you earned a couple of bucks for your company? That you became the youngest manager in your company? Or maybe you'd prefer: I was happy?