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Girl Friday

An Extraordinarily Ordinary Working Life

by Kristine Philipp

Narrator Kristine Philipp

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Length 8 hours 18 minutes

Language English

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Summary
About the author
About the narrator

Girl Friday – a job title used in 1970s workplaces for a junior administration assistant or receptionist. Common synonyms include junior office chick, shit-kicker, donkey worker, general dogsbody or gofer (go for this, go for that).

Kristine Philipp was 15 when she lied to get a junior office job as a Girl Friday in 1975 – she took the job because she thought she only had to go to work on Fridays. In the 40 years that followed, Kristine went on to experience the full gamut of working life – from joblessness, self-employment, mind-numbing office roles, toxic workplaces and out-of-control workloads. Then in her fifties, she became unemployable and ready to tell all.

Girl Friday is a hilarious and moving memoir about one woman’s career, but it echoes the larger issues that are faced by many workers: pay inequality, income and housing insecurity and the often alienating nature of the twenty-first century workforce. This is a story about resilience and reinvention. A story about how we are not human resources, we are human beings.

Biography & Memoir Children's Art Nonfiction

Kristine Philipp began life in Melbourne in 1960. In 1975 she started office work, on and off for forty years, in the university sector, small business, the public service and community organisations. In 1984, she was the subject of a half-hour episode for Faces of Change, an ABC TV documentary series and book about women in Australia, and was remembered by Anne Deveson in her 2003 book Resilience. Kristine inspired and helped to develop the lead character in Mary Callaghan’s 1988 feature film Tender Hooks. She won a scholarship and graduated with BA Hons in cinema-media studies in 2000. Kristine has written and performed stand-up comedy shows at Fringe Festivals, and writes articles for Friends of the Earth. Kristine’s creative non-fiction short stories are published in a local literary journal, on ABC online and are produced as audio stories. Kristine is an unemployable old punk, and Girl Friday is the memoir of her working life.

Kristine Philipp began life in Melbourne in 1960. In 1975, she started office work, on and off for forty years, in the university sector, small business, the public service and community organisations. Kristine has written and performed stand-up comedy shows at Fringe Festivals and writes articles for Friends of the Earth. Kristine’s creative non-fiction short stories are published in a local literary journal, on ABC online and are produced as audio stories. Kristine is an unemployable old punk, and Girl Friday is the memoir of her working life.