Vanessa Blair does not love her job. As a telemarketer, she has to cold call strangers and make her quota of sales or her name will go on the whiteboard of shame. But she can live with the phone calls and the rejection, the long hours and the meetings where they encourage her to “put the we in tweam.” It’s bad, al of that, but what is worse is the fact that the owner of the company, Xavier Adams, walked around all the time in bare feet, which Vanessa found nauseating. And then there were all the activities—the Office Olympics, the Christmas party where she had to dress as the tree, the Prom.
But one day, Vanessa gets called into Xavier’s office, where she is told that face is a problem. She is getting fired because of her face. Despite all of her hard work, all of her consistent good work, she is being fired because her facial expressions show her derision toward management, and it’s affecting other employees. As she’s sitting in the parking lot, trying to get her head around what just happened, her best friend Jane is escorted out with a box of her stuff too.
That evening, they’re joined by their friend Tricia, who hasn’t lost her job yet but was put on permanent probation. They drink too much, play with the five calico kittens that Vanessa is fostering, and talk about what they would do to Xavier and his company Directis if they could. Tricia brings up Sun Tzu. She wants to bring the wisdom of The Art of War to their revenge fantasies.
Only Tricia doesn’t leave them at fantasies. She starts by bugging the company conference room, giving Jane and Vanessa transmitters so they can listen in whenever they want. That’s how they find out that he seems to be living at the office with his wife’s cat, who he has kidnapped. But it’s his conversations with his managers that prove more enlightening, making Vanessa wonder what is really going on at the company.
Meanwhile, she needs to find a job so she can keep the kittens in kibble and herself in espressos. But before she does that, she files for unemployment, as she promised her mother she would. Directis tried to stop her, asking her to sign an agreement saying she wouldn’t sue or file for unemployment in exchange for three days’ pay. She didn’t sign it. But her application does raise some questions at the unemployment office, so she ends up going to the office to answer more questions.
As the days and weeks go by, Vanessa applies for dozens of jobs and does some volunteer work for the animal shelter. She talks more with the unemployment office, particularly a man named Carter who also loves calico kittens, as Directis fights against her claim. Jane finds a job as a bartender that will allow her to go to school during the day. And Tricia keeps fighting from the inside. She’s able to snag some documents from the dumpster, which need to be isolated for several days before they’re suitable for human consumption, and creating a diversion with a glitter bomb that empties the office.
As Vanessa’s mother hears more about what happened to her, she enlists her bridge friends to go after Xavier also. They do internet research and reconnaissance, creating a conspiracy board on the wall of Vanessa’s apartment. Vanessa thinks it’s a little crazy, but she appreciates their support (especially since they bring her favorite muffins each visit), and the kittens like to climb on the yarn they used to connect the photos they took.
With people working on the inside and Vanessa and her friends (and her mother) working from the outside, it seems only natural that whatever Xavier is doing will come to light. But in the meantime, Vanessa has to figure out what she wants for her life. Does she want to keep thinking about her time at Directis and making war, or does she want to create a new life for herself?
You Should Smile More is the work revenge novel that we all secretly wish we were living, brought to us from Anastasia Ryan. This laugh-out-loud story blends the wisdom of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War with the modern workplace. It’s about finding friendship and support in the soul-sucking workforce of low-paying, high-effort jobs and using that experience as a motivation to find the work that you’re passionate about.
As soon as I saw the title for this book, I knew I wanted to read it. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve been told to smile more or that my attitude could use some work, so I was ready to go all in with this novel. Then I started reading it. And I loved it even more than I expected to. Ryan has a lot of fun with the work revenge storyline, but having Vanessa’s mother and her friends show up as fellow fighters on her behalf was such a pleasant surprise. I loved all these characters (aside from the leadership at Directis, of course), and my only regret is that I don’t get to hang out with them anymore.
Anyone who has ever held a low-paying, humiliating, soul-crushing corporate job that asked far more than you should have had to give to it will cherish this story and want to share it with all their coworkers.
Egalleys for You Should Smile More were provided by Sourcebooks Casablanca through NetGalley, with many thanks.
