Most of us spend at least a third of our lives at work – everyone’s got to earn a crust, after all. So, why don’t more people write more memoirs about their workplaces? I’m not sure I can answer that, but I can provide this list of the best workplace memoirs to read when you want to peek behind the scenes.
The Gap by Benjamin Gilmour
The Gap is named for a notorious suicide spot, a clifftop at Sydney’s Watson’s Bay. For the summer of 2008, Gilmour worked as a paramedic based out of the nearest ambulance station. The paramedic’s job is usually to talk down would-be jumpers, sometimes to help with retrieving a body, or informing loved ones. Gilmour wrote this book, from his detailed notes and diaries, at the urging of fellow paramedics, who want to open a conversation about suicide and mental health. This workplace memoir is a real eye-opener regarding the toll taken by being a knight in shining armour. Read my full review of The Gap here.
Diary Of A Bookseller by Shaun Bythell
Naturally, big readers and book lovers will be drawn to workplace memoirs about their dream job: bookselling. Diary Of A Bookseller is Shaun Bythell’s highly entertaining collection of anecdotes from his time as owner of a second-hand book shop in a remote Scottish village. From eccentric customers and oddball staff members, to surreal buying trips and small-town events, this memoir is a heartwarming and honest peek behind the curtain. Read my full review of Diary Of A Bookseller here.
Servo by David Goodwin
In Servo, David Goodwin recounts his time working the graveyard shift at a suburban Melbourne service station: the good, the bad, and the very, very weird. He calls it “a six-year voyage of sex, drugs, and sausage rolls”. This workplace memoir will give you new perspective on the humble service station, a utilitarian venue frequented by people from all walks of life at some point or another. You’ll come to this book for the freaks and the weirdos, but you’ll stay for the window into the world at night and the stories of the comrades who staff it. Read my full review of Servo here.
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
Workplace memoirs can’t all be hilarious and heartwarming. When Breath Becomes Air follows the unusual situation of a doctor becoming a patient, when 36-year-old Paul Kalanithi is diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. It’s “an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both”. Kalinithi sadly passed away in 2015 before his memoir was complete, but his words live on in his best-selling memoir and continue to inform and inspire millions of readers around the world. Read my full review of When Breath Becomes Air here.
Maid by Stephanie Land
Unless you’re an heiress or married rich, you’ll know what it’s like to take a job for the money. Maid is a memoir about that very experience, working a job that you feel is beneath you (rightly or wrongly) simply to survive. Stephanie Land dreamed of becoming a writer, but an unplanned pregnancy led to her raising a child as a single mother and working the only job that was available to her, as a “nameless ghost” cleaning the houses of America’s middle class. Reader responses to Land’s story have varied wildly, but we can all agree that it deals a blow to the American Dream.
This Is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay
Workplace memoirs aren’t just for entertainment – some of them are written in the hopes of affecting real-world change. That’s what Adam Kay hoped for when he published his diaries from his time working as a junior doctors in Britain’s National Health Service, This Is Going To Hurt. At the time of publication, the NHS was facing political threats like never before – a life-saving system gutted by budget cuts and stretched thin by lack of staff and overwhelming demand. Kay’s diary is at turns hilarious and heartbreaking, and opened a lot of eyes to the reality lived by everyone who wears scrubs. Read my full review of This Is Going To Hurt here.
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty
It can’t be easy to work macabre jobs: undertakers, grave diggers, they must all struggle to tell new acquaintances what they do to earn a living. Caitlin Doughty is braver than most, as she wears her morbid fascination openly and honestly. She published Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, a workplace memoir about her experiences working in a crematory and caring for the dead. She leans into the gallows humour, and uses it as an entry point to encourage us all to think more about death and dying and our cultural attitudes towards mortality.
Unnatural Causes by Richard Shepherd
Dr Richard Shepherd knows more about life and death than most of us. He has worked as a forensic pathologist for over thirty years, and performed over 23,000 autopsies. In his workplace memoir Unnatural Causes, he writes about the huge personal cost that comes with uncovering the truth that a body can hide. He has worked on high-profile cases that you’re guaranteed to recognise – Princess Diana, the Hungerford Massacre, 9/11 – and that’s a big draw-card, but you’ll stay for the unguarded moments, and the radical vulnerability that he shows shining a light where the rest of us would rather not look.
Made In China by Anna Qu
When Anna Qu was a child, her mother left her in China for years to start a new life in America. When she finally brought Anna to join her, it was far from the American Dream she had imagined. In Made In China, she details how she came to live with an American family that abused and exploited her, and she was forced to work first as their maid, then in their Queens sweatshop. It might be a bit unseemly of me to include this book in a list of workplace memoirs, but I felt obligated to at least acknowledge the reality that not all work is voluntarily undertaken or fairly compensated. Read my full review of Made In China here.
The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher
Let’s get back to memoirs set in more fun workplaces, shall we? The Princess Diarist is Carrie Fisher’s account of working on one of the most famous film sets of all time: the Star Wars franchise. Fisher writes: “This is an episode that’s only potentially interesting because its players became famous for the roles they were playing when they met,”. Sure, her anecdotes about workplace affairs and colleagues partying together are only compelling because Star Wars became a cultural touchstone, but they’re fascinating nonetheless, if not only because Fisher is a truly hilarious comic writer with absolutely no shame. Read my full review of The Princess Diarist here.
Once Upon A Tome by Oliver Darkshire
If you’re familiar with Oliver Darkshire, it’s probably because you’ve come across his Tweets about working in Sotherans, one of the worlds oldest bookshops. If you found them entertaining, you want to run – not walk – to your own local bookshop and pick up a copy of Once Upon A Tome. Subtitled “the misadventures of a rare bookseller” and described as “by turns unhinged and earnest”, Darkshire details the best and the worst of his normal job in his unusual workplace, from the weird clientele to the bizarre books to the resident ghost on site.
Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee
Given how much time we spend at work, and how much it shapes our identities, it’s no surprise that our choice of workplace can change our life. For Bri Lee, it seems that decision was more pronounced than most. Her workplace memoir, Eggshell Skull, begins as her account of working as a judge’s associate on the regional circuit of the District Court. The cases she encounters, however, and their emotional impact lead to the most significant decision of her life, to finally report the man who sexually abused her as a child and bring forward her own case. Read my full review of Eggshell Skull here.
Our Members Be Unlimited by Sam Wallman
No matter how awful your workplace is, you should bear in mind that it could be infinitely worse – we have over a century’s worth of work by committed unionists to thank for small mercies like fair wages, weekends, and access to a bathroom. Sam Wallman is a comic artist/cartoonist and committed unionist, and Our Members Be Unlimited is a workplace memoir that combines his two great loves. He describes it as “a longform comic book informed by [his] time working as an elected delegate in a call centre, as an organiser for a large blue collar union, and as an undercover union activist at Australia’s first Amazon warehouse.” Read my full review of Our Members Be Unlimited here.
How To Lose Friends And Alienate People by Toby Young
We like to think that our career should have a neat, upward trajectory – one job, then a promotion, then another, then another, until we reach the top (or retire, or die). It’s a nice dream, but for many of us it looks something more like Toby Young’s experiences detailed in his workplace memoir How To Lose Friends And Alienate People. He leaves London as a high-flying journalist to take a new job as a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. It feels like his ‘big break’, but two years later he finds himself fired, friendless, and stumbling from shitty job to shitty job to try and make his way back. This is the best workplace memoir to read when you find yourself at the bottom of the barrel.
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