Corporate Ties by Ben Woods

Jason Harris has found the perfect job as a web developer with a Fortune 500 financial subsidiary. He meets his cool and quirky coworkers and even scores a date with an Indian princess/database administrator.

This lasts all of eight days. Due to “organizational restructuring,” the parent company announces that all employees at Jason's location are being relocated to corporate headquarters in another state.

Each person mulls the idea of exchanging a laid-back, business casual dress environment for a cafeteria, a fitness center, and a strangling — by a necktie (corporate attire only, please) and organizational bureaucracy.

The men and women in suits arrive to document the documents, proactivate the buzzwords, and cage the project managers.

Is the job really worth it? And why exactly do people give up their independence to become company drones?

 

Latest news

"Highly recommended" by Midwest Book Review
January 17, 2012

The reviews are finally coming in for "Corporate Ties," and this is one of the best so far - a "highly recommended" by one of the leaders in small press reviews, Midwest Book Review. Here's the actual review:

Chapters 1-5
January 10, 2012

If you're debating on whether or not it's worth your time to read "Corporate Ties," feel free to check out samples in various places. If you have a Kindle or Nook, you can download previews. Also, you can view the first five chapters in PDF format on my media page. Or if you can convince me to send you a copy, I might consider that as well!

I plan to have some exciting news soon about my first big break with the book, but I'm still waiting on the announcement myself. Stay tuned!

Reviews starting to appear
December 13, 2011

I'm still in the early stages of getting the word out about "Corporate Ties," and I already have a handful of decent reviews on Amazon. I will eventually post all here, but for now, here are some snippets:

"Overall, the book is engaging and well-written with a real appeal to those who enjoy situations similar to Dilbert cartoons."
- Beth, Tennessee

"I felt like I personally knew everyone in the book and was living out the novel."
- Lynda, New York

About the author

Ben Woods, author of Corporate Ties

Ben Woods is a freelance writer who has written workplace- and humor-related articles for Belo Corporation and Scripps Interactive Newspaper Group websites, American City Business Journal newspapers and other technology and independent media websites. His first book, a tech-humor fiction novel titled "The Developers," delves into government conspiracy, online privacy and crazy people on the Internet.

He works in Baltimore as a web developer for AOL. During the past five years, he has held full-time computer programming positions with companies large and small, collected a stack of employee manuals and health insurance cards and worked with a litany of CEOs, PMPs, BBMs and A-HOLEs.

Woods (shown here while being suffocated with a necktie in the Amazon rainforest) has a journalism degree from Purdue University and is working on a master's degree in Professional Studies at Towson University in Baltimore.