This is a tongue-in-cheek guide written by a French economist, who decrees that hard work just doesn’t pay
By C Maier
Allen & Unwin, 2005
$24.95
This is a tongue-in-cheek guide written by a French economist, who decrees that hard work just doesn’t pay. He claims Hello Laziness will help readers exploit the business they work for, which up until now has been exploiting them.
Yes, it’s a cynical book without apology, and can be amusing as well as extremely irritating in parts. The author also takes a swipe at money as the lifeblood of work, the concept of success (which is really just about competition with others) and the questionable value of qualifications. With other catchy chapter headings like ‘The biggest rip-off of all,’‘The idiot on your left,’‘Business is doomed’ and ‘Laziness without fear,’ it might be hard to stick with this book if you are anyone who (shock, horror!) might actually enjoy working.
The most valid part of Maier’s acerbic attack is on business language and how meaningless much of it is. Jargon is a fixed response to the complexity of real life, Maier says. In addition, business speak deliberately makes the simple sound complicated, regards grammar as a relic of the past and sticks to the most familiar, signposted roads. However, while Maier ultimately may argue that it is possible to be a slacker and get away with it, whether or not you’ll be happier doing so is debatable.
