The Company Man Ellen Goodman: Death In The Work Place

In the narrative “The Company Man” Ellen Goodman attacks the inhumanity of the business world through an impersonal tone and emphasizes that family is far more important than working for a business. Corporate America's typical business man works from 8 to 10 hours a day anywhere. Phil was the company man of his job. He worked six days a week sometimes until eight or nine at night, making himself a true workaholic. Goodman continually utilizes numbers to stress that Phil was merely a statistical figure.

The story represents how Phil was addicted to working while demonstrating very unhealthy habits. A workaholic is a person who is addicted to work, that never has time to quit, and that risks all in existence for the sake of a profession.

In the beginning, the author uses a dark tone, “He worked himself to death, finally and precisely, at 3am Sunday morning.” She repeated this statement three times throughout the passage, constantly reminding readers that work was a very big factor of his death and that he was primarily exhausted.

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Goodman stated that Phil was “a perfect type a workaholic” and that he worked like “The Important People. Ironically, the term 'Important People' means those who spend their entire time on work-related activities, attempting to earn cash and authority. A workaholics obsessiveness with work is very time consuming, which prevents them from maintaining healthy relationships, creating hobbies/interest, or even protecting their health.

Phil didn’t take the drastic measures to protect his health. He ate an egg salad sandwich everyday at work and because he worked six days a week it was safe to say that it wasn’t a very healthy thing to do.

Goodman mentioned that Phil was indeed overweight by 20 or 25 pounds. She stated that he thought it was okay because he didn’t smoke. Phil neglected his health because he was so dedicated to his work. If he didn’t work so much maybe going to the gym could have been easily fitted into his schedule or maybe being home to eat dinner with his family.

The story talks about each of Phil’s family members and depicts how their relationship was with him. With each family member its very obvious that he didn’t really have a relationship with any of them due to putting his job first. At the funeral a family friend comes up to his wife and says, “I know how much you will miss him,” Phil’s wife replied, “I already have”. His wife was insinuating that she missed him way already years before he passed away. This shows Phil's appalling and miserable life with his family. Compassion was illustrated throughout the narrative especially when Phil’s “dearly beloved” eldest son went around asking his neighbors what his father was like and how embarrassing it was.

When Phil’s daughter was around him “they had nothing to say to each other” and also how his “favorite son” stated “My father and I only board here” showed that although they lived together, they were strangers. Phil stayed up many nights worrying about his “favorite son” but didn’t try to cut back on some of his work to get to know him. Although he had one off day in the week you can see it was very unimportant to him because his priorities were messed up. You can clearly see how Phil’s consumption of work minimized his affection towards his family. Phil failed to be a father as well as a husband while being successful in his area of work.

At the end of the story, Phil’s boss begins looking for his replacement on the day of the funeral and asks, “who’s been working the hardest?” This could have been said indicate that this could happen to anyone and that everybody is replaceable. The issue portrays the malicious cycle in todays society. The person that will supposedly take Phil’s place would have been “working the hardest”. Phil will be replaced by someone who could possibly be following in his footsteps and drastically repeats the same tragedy. Goodman is basically saying that in the work force there isn’t any time to waste but only time to work.