I liked about 90% of this workplace drama. It got a little ridiculous at points but the underlying idea of how you spend so much time with your co-workers that they are almost family and yet there is so much you don’t know and the relationships are so tied to the office they almost never survive without it.

I think the author lost steam on some threads and abandoned them which I found frustrating and she spent too much time on unnecessary footnotes which I found annoying and gimmicky.

Overall thumbs up. ( )

Brilliant, funny, real and honest. I love longish, intricately plotted, character-driven stories, so this was perfect for me. Masterfully done, each character got their own arc that dovetailed with the larger plot. shows people in and out of offices, which I've never seen before. I also loved the way you see office life from different points of view--demographics, gender, etc. Aging in the office, male-female relationships, sexual politics, etc. Bravo! ( )

A corporate tale, one of a few documenting the grueling downturn of the financial crisis and its victims and survivors. It takes place within the HR department of a consulting company, the fiefdom of Rosa, a 15 year veteran, and her direct reports, who are in various states of discontent and incompetence. When Rosa suffers a medical crisis, her staff simultaneously covers for and undermines her. Org charts sprinkled throughout the book illustrate the dismal dismissals and additional responsibilities. The personal lives of the diverse staff are also explored. It's a good but not great read - too long? Too many characters? Too much Rosa and too little upper management? All of the above, but with a surprisingly satisfying ending.

Quote: "Heather had forged her career by echoing any man seated to her right." ( )

My Review of “This Could Hurt” by Jillian Medoff

Jillian Medoff , Author of “This Could Hurt”, has written a unique and intriguing novel that combines big business with personal lives. The genre of this novel is fiction.Jillian Medoff describes her characters as complex, complicated, lonely, confused, flawed and emotional perhaps due to the circumstances of the times.

In our society, everyone has to work to pay the bills, and some people are lucky to find a job that offers them everything that they are looking at. There are professional people who are doctors, nurses, teachers, police-officers, postal-workers, government employees, and many others that work in set organizations. In Jillian Medoff’s novel, the setting is a big company that holds the executives responsible, who hold the employees responsible for productivity. At Ellery Consumer Research, financial changes occur with the economic climate. The bottom line is to produce more, with costs being less. Often that means instead of hiring, letting go and firing employees. Of course this is very stressful.

At Ellery Consumer Research we get to glimpse at the lives of several people and their life in the workplace and out of the workplace. Rosa is one of the women who made it to the top of the corporate ladder. She tries to meet and anticipate the needs of her staff, even though she has a high pressure job. Rosa does try to be fair, and this is even more stressful, as she finds out who is loyal and those who betray the company. There is a big difference in living to work, and working to live.

Not everyone can take the stress, and several of the employees are lonely and looking for a relationship. Some are looking for friends. Some of the characters are go-getters and others are lazy and don’t carry their weight. Rosa tries to find a balance between what is good for her employees, and what benefits the company.

When something traumatic occurs, everyone is forced to take a deep look at what they really want. For those who enjoy some controversy and a different type of novel, I would highly recommend this. ( )