Is This Working?: a 'strangely gripping' look at British working life

Author Charlie Colenutt weaves an 'utterly fascinating and thoroughly depressing' history of jobs

Book cover of Is This Working by Charlie Colenutt
Colenutt's book is inspired by the 1974 bestseller Working, based on interviews with US employees
(Image credit: Picador)

In 2021, Charlie Colenutt left his job as a trainee barrister, which had come to feel meaningless during the pandemic, and "set out on an adventure", said Christina Patterson in The Sunday Times.

"For the next two years, in coffee shops, pubs, kitchens and front rooms, he talked to 100 people about their jobs." The result is "Is This Working?", a "strangely gripping" oral history based on his interviews. The book is structured thematically, so a chapter entitled "Bodywork" is made up of interviews with a panel beater, a warehouse worker, a security guard and a sex worker, while "Talkwork" features a call-centre worker, an estate agent and a therapist. They reveal that while a few people love their jobs, the majority find them a grind.

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