Bonjour Laziness: Why Hard Work Doesn't Pay (Paperback)

by Corinne Maier (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
“Provocative . . . highly readable . . . refreshing . . . [and] practical. . . . An exhilarating complaint against work.” –The Los Angeles Times

“[Maier] has become a countercultural heroine almost overnight by encouraging . . . workers to adopt her strategy of ‘active disengagement.’” –The New York Times

“A graceful attack on the corporate world [and] a trenchant dissection of ‘corporate culture’ [with] practical suggestions for subverting the workplace.” –The Village Voice

Product Description
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 WorldCom) that management has your best interests at heart. Your goal is to devote yourself to the pursuit of corporate profit, make your company number one, and reap the benefits of its success.

Or is there something else you want to do with your life?

Bonjour Laziness dares to ask whether you really have a stake in the corporate sweepstakes, whether professional mobility is anything but an opiate. It shows you how to become impervious to manipulation and escape the implacable law of usefulness.

In short, this book explains why it is in your best interest to work as little as possible.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (September 12, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400096286
• ISBN-13: 978-1400096282
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #608,605 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bonjour Laziness, October 8, 2006

By	Rada Lankina (Arlington, VA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a great book and a "going-to-the-shrink" experience for those of us who are surrounded by incompetent and cowardly co-workers. Also inspiring - ever wondered when is the time to climb up the ladder - well, «since you spend all day doing the job of the person above you, the higher up you are, the less you have to do», says Corinne Maier - so hurry up!. However, she also notes that "it's better not to be too high up either, since you spend all your time performing...., in plain view".

I must also compliment the translator of this book from French - Sophie Hawkes did a great job!

2.0 out of 5 stars Her wit is based on misperceptions, July 4, 2009

By	bobh "bobh" - See all my reviews

This book isn't funny if you work in business. The author tries to ridicule business behavior, but she does it out of context. Early in the book she satirizes "business jargon". She says its "all nonsense". But it's not nonsense, it's just technical language that takes training to understand. Example: she quotes a couple sentences from a corporate strategy guide for a computer conversion. But when i read it, it really did make sense, it did describe what the project plan's goal was. Now, she may not have understood it, because she's not trained in computers. But that doesn't mean it's nonsense.
She also makes fun of how companies aren't really democracies, that they exist solely to make a profit. Well, i thought, um, yeah, that's true. And the point of a farmer investing in fertilizer and water is to grow food. If the workers endlessly discuss "strategy" and "fairness", we'll starve. Does she have better plan? No. She just implies what is, stinks.
I'm not a corporate apologist, but her satire isn't effective. Go with Scott Adams or "The Office" or the movie "The Corporation".
Here's a funny clip on corporate motivational seminars.
[...]

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, April 13, 2008

By	Sven7 "Sven7" (Sweden) - See all my reviews

I picked up this book, hoping it would be amusing. It wasn't. Perhaps it is funny if you're French and work in a large company, a description that doesn't fit me. But I doubt it's funny even then.

It has to be said that the author has a talent for witty headings (such as in the title "Bonjour Paresse", a drift with the classic "Bonjour Tristesse" by Francois Sagan). In the actual text, however, she tries to be clever and elegant but fails.

The bulk of the book is a lot of whining about everybody else being an idiot in different ways. She's upset about business people speaking nonsense using fashionable-but-meaningless buzzwords. Heard that one before, anyone?

I was also provoced by the hypocrisy of the author. I'm sure she doesn't want her "do nothing useful at work" philosophy to apply to her childrens' schoolteachers, her doctors or her taxi drivers, for example. In the same vein, she claims to have read "No Logo" by Naomi Klein, but has nothing to say about people in poor countries working in sweatshops while rich people in France bear the fruits of their labour while pretending to work.

OK, I realise the book is meant to be ironic. But the irony doesn't catch. For actually entertaining criticism of office life, I suggest reading some Gaston Lagaffe comics, or the book "Random Acts Of Management" by Scott Adams, which the author lifts a number of funny lines from. Another book she quotes, by Michel Houellebecq, seems promising, I hope I have better luck with that one...