Author Jack Heath has drawn on a collection of toxic workplace experiences to craft his latest murder mystery, Kill Your Boss. The novel features a villainous library manager named Neville Adams, who is killed off in a satisfyingly gruesome fashion.
Heath recalls his own encounters with bad bosses, including a fast-food supervisor who mooned a female colleague and a CEO who ordered employees to slap each other during a conference call. The CEO was later described as an expert in employee motivation.
Friends shared even worse stories: a manager who wanted uneaten prawns returned to a buffet, a boss who teased a diabetic employee and later sent a bag of sugar as a joke, and another who tried to trick a worker into eating allergens.
Heath combined these horror stories into the character of Neville Adams, head of library services in the fictional town of Warrigal, NSW. Using an online 'Splat Calculator', he determined that Adams would hit the ground with 4410 joules of force after being pushed off a library roof.
The author also researched carbon monoxide poisoning, noting that the gas is odourless and can be easily leaked from a gas heater. He consulted fellow author Benjamin Stevenson, who suggested adding a third victim to the plot.
Heath dedicated the book to his two best bosses, Steve and Andrew, from Dymocks Belconnen, acknowledging that they showed him it was possible to run a business without turning evil.
