If you loved
The Employees
Olga Ravn · Book · 2022
If you loved The Employees, you are clearly drawn to the unsettling intersection where corporate bureaucracy meets existential dread.
Films on the same thread
Bugonia
Yorgos Lanthimos · Film · 2025
Much like the sterile, paranoid environment of The Employees, this film captures the suffocating dread of corporate obsession and the dangerous blurring of identity under intense institutional pressure.
Alien
Ridley Scott · Film · 1979
The Employees shares this film's claustrophobic focus on the human cost of corporate greed, where the cold indifference of a distant company turns a routine voyage into a nightmare.
Mickey 17
Bong Joon Ho · Film · 2025
This story mirrors the themes of expendability and identity crisis found in The Employees, examining how institutional coldness treats human life as nothing more than a replaceable asset.
Project Hail Mary
Phil Lord · Film · 2026
While more optimistic than The Employees, this narrative shares the central focus on isolation and the struggle to maintain one's sense of self while trapped in deep space.
Series on the same thread
Star Trek: Lower Decks
Mike McMahan · Series · 2020
If the workplace reports of The Employees intrigued you, this series offers a comedic look at the same bureaucratic doldrums and the struggle to maintain humanity within rigid hierarchies.
The Orville
Seth MacFarlane · Series · 2017
This series explores the humanity of its crew against the backdrop of an exploratory ship, echoing the character-driven reflections on existence that defined The Employees.
Severance
Dan Erickson · Series · 2022
This show perfectly captures the existential alienation of The Employees, focusing on how corporate structures manipulate memory and identity to strip workers of their true selves.
The Expanse
Mark Fergus · Series · 2015
The institutional corruption and social stratification in this series provide a broader, systemic version of the corporate malaise that Ravn so masterfully explores in The Employees.
Podcasts on the same thread
Unexplained
iHeartPodcasts · Podcast · 2026
This podcast captures the uncanny, unsettling atmosphere of The Employees, presenting strange, inexplicable narratives that challenge the boundaries of reality and human understanding.
Ologies with Alie Ward
Alie Ward · Podcast · 2026
Just as The Employees dissects the oddities of human and non-human life, this show explores the bizarre, fascinating details of our world through the lens of expert curiosity.
Keep exploring
Common questions
Is The Employees a standalone book?
Yes, The Employees is a standalone novel by Olga Ravn. It chronicles the fate of the Six-Thousand Ship through a series of staff reports from human and humanoid crew members, focusing on their daily tasks and existential experiences without being part of a larger series.
What is the format of The Employees?
The Employees is written as a series of staff reports. These reports document the complaints and experiences of the human and humanoid crew members aboard the Six-Thousand Ship, creating a narrative that explores the daily tasks and existential conditions of the crew in this sci-fi setting.
Has The Employees received any literary recognition?
The Employees has received significant critical acclaim. It was shortlisted for both the International Booker Prize and the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize. Additionally, the book was longlisted for the 2022 National Book Award, recognizing its original approach to the science fiction genre.
What is the tone of The Employees?
The Employees is described as both funny and doom-drenched. It presents a riotously original existential nightmare that explores the lives of the crew on the Six-Thousand Ship, blending dark, complex themes with the specific format of staff reports provided by the human and humanoid workers.