Please Fire Me

April 15, 2011

Chromy and Morris adapt their online venue for venting, PleaseFireMe.com, into a fictitious primer for a working-class revolution.

Perhaps people hate their jobs more in an economic downturn when the option to quit is no longer on the table and the words "You're fired!" can often provide the comfort of a steady unemployment check. That conundrum is what inspired Chromy and Morris to create their popular website where irate, disgruntled employees post their frustrations without fear of reprisal. This literary rendition framed as a faux revolutionary manifesto provides rants from the humorous ("Please fire me. I am dressed like a smoothie") to the zany ("Please fire me. I work in a restaurant. One day, I meet this nice old lady who gives me a hug. Then she says, 'Oops, I probably shouldn't be doing that; I have TB' ") to the downright ridiculous ("Please fire me. My wife went into unexpected early birth of my first child. When I asked my manager if I could leave work to be with my wife at the hospital he replied, 'Well, that's just poor planning on your part. What's more important, your career or your family?' ") Smirks and sidesplitting laughs are abundant, but the scattered format of the hit-and-miss revolutionary dialogue the authors use to plug the gaps between the real-life testimonies is apt to leave readers unsatisfied. When the book does work, however, even the most despondent of workers won't be able to help cracking a smile at this collection of hilarious tales from the labor front.

Scan for the funny and skip the rest.

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