Several People are Typing by Calvin Kasulke
Gerald, a mid-level employee of a public relations agency with offices in New York, has been uploaded—at least, his awareness has—into the business’s internal Slack channels. Gerald’s coworkers believe it’s a clever ruse to take advantage of the company’s new work-from-home policy, but since his productivity has skyrocketed, his managers are more than glad to allow him to work from wherever he claims to be.
Gerald asks his coworker Pradeep for assistance in escaping from the impending abyss of a disembodied life online and in learning what became of his body. Gerald’s reality, however, gets more seductive and ludicrous the longer he remains in the emptiness. In the meantime, Gerald’s coworkers are dealing with real-world PR disasters of their own.
Several People are Typing by Calvin Kasulke
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Their largest customer, a premium dog food manufacturer, is currently recalling a tainted batch of food that is thought to be poisoning Pomeranians across the country. Their CEO also believes his workplace furniture is being sabotaged. Why can’t everyone work from home if Gerald is allowed to do so all the time? When one of the persons is only a line of text in an app, is true love still conceivable between two people? And what on earth does the emoji “dusty stick” mean?
Calvin Kasulke is here to record the shocking, absurd, and completely relatable aspects undermining our collective sanity in a time when office paranoia and politics have followed us home… and offer us hope that we may still discover a human connection.
I really liked this epistolary book, which was told through slack channel messages. Although I did follow the book, I have to admit that the complete cast of the audio version may have improved the experience. I adore novels like these, and this one offered a humorous interpretation of WFH that was really current. Despite being satire, the messages were pertinent and on par with the office mentality I had personally encountered.
The public relations agency Gerald works for assumes when he informs his superiors that his consciousness has been uploaded into Slack that he is attempting to prolong his time spent working from home. But not even a little. Gerald’s new reality is that the Slackbot only offers unhelpful ideas for searches in the Help Center when he tries to obtain some assistance from it.
In the meantime, Tripp is left to handle Beverley’s onboarding since he is the only person in the office on the snow day when the new employee joins. A PR crisis is being experienced by one of their most significant clients since someone broke into the Bjark Dog Food facility and tainted the dog food. Rob has to draft dozens, or even hundreds, of tweets to reassure clients that their products are safe after many Pomeranians have already passed away.
Despite Tripp auctioning off Gerald’s desk (which is next to the windows), Lydia’s complaints about the howling that follows her everywhere, and the #gents-only discussions about how long you have to date someone to make a big deal out of Valentine’s Day, bosses Doug and Kerolyn try to keep everyone on their tasks.
Pradeep visits Gerald’s flat to see how he is doing as Gerald is caught in Slack and talking to the Slackbot about the terrible beauty of sunsets. Pradeep finally accepts that the whole “disappeared into Slack” thing isn’t a bit when he discovers Gerald at his computer in a state like a coma. Unsure of what to do with Gerald, he offers him some food and water and cleans him up a little.
Pradeep keeps taking care of Gerald’s body throughout time. Doug tries to figure out how his standing desk got broken, Rob delves deep into the dog food copy in an effort to save the Pomeranians (and the customer), and Tripp and Beverley consider how a workplace is similar to a cult with its Important Mission…
