Lessons from the Hive: The Buzz on Surviving and Thriving in an Ever-Changing Workplace

Departing from the usual inspirational-aphorisms-and-workbook-exercises approach, former Berrett-Koehler president Decker offers a fictionalist workplace minidrama, complete with family demands, blindsides and backstabs by colleagues, and pressures from above and below on the corporate ladder. Written almost completely in dialogue, the story centers on Bee Natural, a small candle company recently acquired by a corporate parent that has installed a new CEO, who is contemplating taking the company into wax-relaxed beauty products. The story features Dana, the lifer marketing director whose conduct seems to be not completely under her control; her new assistant, Nikki, an enabling veteran of Overeaters Anonymous; sales director Matt Parker, with whom Dana ""shares"" Nikki; and Todd Ramos, who is spearheading the new product line. A corporate reporter following the company's transition and off-site friends and family round things out. Their charged interactions will be familiar to anyone who has worked anywhere near a cubicle, headset or corner office; if the dialogue feels aggressive and banal, it also feels true-to-life. Perhaps most compellingly, Decker never steps in to tell readers what to think of the often poor decision-making of the various characters, though he does offer an appendix of ""discussion questions."" If behavior modification comes from self-recognition, identifying with one or more of Decker's nuanced stand-ins may be a first step.