The Other Side of the Ledger

2013 eLit Awards, winner of Bronze medal, Short Story Fiction category. In The Other Side of the Ledger the author uses an original and comic angle about office culture bound to resonate with anyone who has ever been challenged by compulsory meetings, interminable policies and procedures, technological changes, ambiguous communications, unavoidable socialising in the workplace, or the inextricable nature of office politicking. Although each story is set in a different workplace, each has a common thread that somehow unravels when human nature and bureaucratic bungling intertwine within the unnatural confines of an office environment. In this light-hearted series of short stories, while some explore the ramifications of personality clashes, lapses of professionalism and managerial failures, others expose the more personal emotions of losing a job, facing a period of unemployment or looking for another job. Many of the characters and plots are tempered by a greed for position or power, or tinged by an office romance, or tainted by a white collar crime... but underneath the layers, human vulnerability is never forgotten.