The Art of Bootlicking: A Corporate Climber's Guide

You’ve met them. You’ve endured them. Perhaps you’ve even smiled at them in a meeting while your dignity quietly called for help.Every company has a species no one lists on the organisation chart, yet everyone recognises instantly: bosses who need to be worshipped, leaders who vanish when things go wrong and reappear in the success photo, prophets of purpose who talk about transformation while someone else puts out the fire, and Human Resources — that sanctuary of therapeutic smiles, inspirational announcements and stale oat biscuits.The Art of Bootlicking – A Guide for the Corporate Climber is a sharp, elegant and wickedly funny satire of office life, where power dresses itself up as leadership, mediocrity learns strategic vocabulary, and dignity usually loses by unanimous committee decision.A book for those who have survived endless meetings, performance reviews where obedience matters more than merit, useless committees and feedback sessions that begin with a smile and end with your self-esteem filed away in Human Resources.Here you will find narcissistic bosses, corporate ghosts, toxic managers and professional flatterers capable of turning any sentence from the boss into corporate doctrine.This book does not promise to improve your leadership or transform your professional life in seven steps. It does something far more uncomfortable: it gives a name, a face and a method to a reality everyone has seen, but few dare to say out loud.An acidic, elegant and painfully recognisable read for anyone who still has enough lucidity left to laugh at the system… before the system offers them a promotion in exchange for losing it. Read more