There is a terrible irony in the fact that I am hard at work reading a book about how to avoid working. Hello Laziness (Why Hard Work Doesn't Pay) is the English translation of a book that stormed French offices last year.
Bonjour Paresse, as it was titled in French, is a short diatribe against modern business culture and an imprecation to shirk and evade responsibility for work as a matter of principle. Corinne Maier, the author, narrowly escaped disciplinary action from her employers who, rather uncharitably, did not appreciate being associated with a study in atrocious management.
So far, I have to admit, Hello Laziness is not a great read. It sounds like polemic that has been hastily translated. And as every francophone knows, the French language is great for weaving rhetorical flourishes that do not, when broken down and reconstituted in short anglo-saxon chunks, say very much at all. But then maybe Ms Maier is just practising as she preaches. Why write a long, in-depth study when you can make a mint out of a shallow pamphlet? Smart.
More to the point, why would someone think that the famously industrious online editor of the Observer is qualified to review such a work?
