Writing About Work

I write a lot about work. I’m fascinated by the claims work makes on us, the crowds it places us in, the behavior it forces on and from us, and the madnesses, variously and usually unsuccessfully disguised, that we bring to work with us.

I’ve written and published essays, articles, and an interview about aspects of my life in higher ed, where I was part of that army of administrators who, oddly, tend to be ignored by fiction and nonfiction writers. Those writers overwhelmingly have focused on faculty and students, while the busy herds of administrators have been left largely uninvestigated and unexposed.

Here’s a link to the first of my more benign writings about higher ed administration, published in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the major newspaper for the gargantuan higher education industry.

The first five essays for the Chronicle were written under one of my pseudonyms, Lauren Moore. My colleagues at the college discovered the identity behind my pseudonym, but the often-prickly president’s council members surprised me by praising the essays.

From the first essay (“Reasons for Leaving”), you can see the others by searching the Chronicle site for Lauren Moore and for Marie Pelangy (my second pseudonym, which was not discovered).

I have a vague sense that the essays became more and more pessimistic over the two years that I wrote them.