Here we have a workplace satire where the employees don’t even have names, just reductive titles like Scissors Guy (who steals all the scissors) or Leftovers (who leaves leftovers in her desk) or Porn Guy (who shares porn gifs back and forth with another guy). There’s the Intern, the CEO, and of course, the Cleaner.

I don’t use the buzzword “unputdownable” lightly, if at all in my reviews. And it looks like the word “propulsive” is also enjoying some buzz right now. But I actually did struggle to put down The Cleaner. I didn’t want to stop reading — I needed to know what the Cleaner would do next, if she would get caught, what would go wrong.

This story was more about the people unseen, how they were judged by the trash they left behind more than what they could actually be seen doing and saying to people. The Cleaner feels she really knows these people and takes care of them without ever having seen them. Unlike L., the night-time security guard, her job is her entire life, and she desperately wants to be part of the vibrant community she imagines the daytime workers share.

The satirical archetyping of characters was well done because it makes it even easier to relate to one’s own workplace. Does your office have a Yarn Guy, or a Vinyl Guy? Do people metaphorically bring their kids to work by setting up their school science projects in a shared space? What’s the gossip about the intern, and how does competition play out? It’s all analyzed with the dry yet sharp and biting humor of realistic satire here. I could even imagine some scenes (particularly the ones where the Cleaner is in the CEO’s office) happening on a stage theater like on SNL. The Cleaner looks around his office at her handiwork then closes the door behind her with satisfaction as she exits stage right.

The thing is, as a night worker, the Cleaner is starved for meaningful connection, not just coworker camaraderie. Besides L. she also interacts with M., the delivery person, and the intern who allows her a little peak into the loud, chaotic world of the daytime crew. This emotionally dependent but ambitious young woman provides the Cleaner the opportunity to learn with her and place some subtle suggestions in her ear using what she’s found out about the company by snooping around.

But really, they are all alienated and lonely in their way, and find ways to make little meaningful connections in their night where they can, whether it’s with a plant in the break room, a fish in the CEO’s office, or the ghosts of the daytime employees.

However, even the daytime employees are more alienated than the Cleaner would ever have guessed. They’re not looking up at each other over the course of their workday just because she tilts the angle of their desk to move a person into their line of sight. More likely than not, they are absorbed into their own world, totally oblivious to their coworker next to them, no matter how loud they’re speaking. Things just happen to them and they don’t even question who might have done it. They may not even know there is a night cleaner.

This book is a funny but no less poignant reminder that for most people, work is not their life or their family, no matter how a company might suggest that with its many stickers, posters, relationship building activities, fliers, or memos. The story traces the arc of a bottom-most employee who genuinely cares about the company doing well, and having that drive pulled out of her when it becomes clear how much management doesn’t know how to appreciate the actions of such employees. And a change in management usually doesn’t change that.