The Employees by Olga Ravn: A Frightening Future and Why We Should Fear It

I asked ChatGPT to recommend a disturbing dystopia that's currently flying under the radar, and it suggested The Employees by Olga Ravn. Excited about a book that is equally disturbing that will also cause some psychological trauma in me (as per ChatGPT), I ordered it from my local library and began to read it. What I found was something entirely different.

So, what is The Employees about? Is it disturbing? Will I have nightmares? And should you read it? Keep reading to find out. And for the record, this review has no spoilers. However, I went in completely blind and had no idea what this book was about before opening it.

The Employees by Olga Ravn Explained?

The Employees by Olga Ravn is a novella of roughly 140 pages (I say roughly because I read it on my library app, and since I’m getting old, I had to increase the font size to read it better). That always increases the page numbers. The real page number is 144, by the way.

It’s set on a spaceship where the employees who live and work on it log their complaints, ask questions (and answer them), and send out memos. And that’s what we read. We read the memos. If you had to work where you lived, I’d file a complaint, or a memo, every day!

The story unfolds with each memo. And the crew consists of human and non-human “androids.” They never call them androids; they call them humanoids. That’s just the word I’m using in this review.

Then, there is what they call the objects.

What are the objects?

The objects are there from the beginning, and are often described as small, disgusting creatures. Some employees love them, others are curious about them, and others simply don't like or trust them. One thing is for sure: as soon as they were brought on board, the spaceship's ambiance began to change.

The imagery associated with the objects is very interesting. They almost feel like chickens, or swine, or some disgusting bottom-feeder. And the questions that arise from human and non-human folk make the moral dilemma interesting because they are a species, an animal of nature, if you will. So who decides what happens to them? And why should anyone have the right to do so?

The Employees by Olga Ravn: A Disturbing Dystopian Workplace Novel

I’d call it space opera. Dystopia is secondary, though implied throughout. Considering you are no longer on Earth, the company you work for decides your every day, including your fate.

It can unfold like a series in your mind. Each memo or statement, as the book calls it, can be quick, or have so much subtext that you can create an entire scene or episode in your brain.

It is a thought-provoking book that describes some of the most beautiful things that make us human.

One thing it did for me was make me realize how human we really are. With all the talk of AI in the world right now, it’s easy to get lost in how different AI is from an actual human, and how similar.

However, our feelings will always make us human. Our memories give us the experience of humanity; our love for one another can never be taken away.

Even if you give an android fake memories and a simulation of what could be considered feelings, it is not the same thing.

We are deeply human, and we should be proud of that. We should feel, and love, and paint as slowly as we want, not as quickly as AI.

What I didn't like

I liked the book, but I have to say ChatGPT got it wrong. It is not deeply disturbing. It is not scary. I wouldn’t classify it as horror. Dystopian? Yes. It feels like a future where large corporations govern, and some might say we are headed in that direction. As a non-corporate lover, I am tangled in this life: I detest corporations, yet I have the human need to be part of them, since they provide our livelihood (aka money to survive). And my basis is changing as I work to make this website, my travel blog, and my freelancing better. Why do I do this? Because I don't want to depend on large corporations (and we all do one way or another). So, why give them more power than we need?

So, don’t let ChatGPT decide your every book. Continue reading reviews; hell, review them yourself.

The Employees by Olga Ravn is easy to read. Each statement is intriguing and short enough to make you want to keep reading. It's a page-turner, which is always fun. However, my expectations going into this book (I don't know why I had these expectations) were of a splatterpunk vision of the future. It was not that.

Final Words

Ultimately, the book is rather bleak. And that’s about as horrific as it gets. That bleakness creates the story's overarching existential crisis. But it is not as deeply disturbing as ChatGPT stated. It feels more like a necessary work of art. It’s a statement that needs to be heard. But on iMonstre, I have to judge it by how horrific it is. It is a horror website after all.

Should you read it? It’s short enough to read in a day. It is well written (and translated from Danish, so I felt some things might’ve been lost in translation). It works well. If you hate corporate America, capitalism, and large enterprises, this one is for you.

Read it, and let me know what you think.