In 1853, famed American novelist Herman Melville penned a novella entitled “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street.” It is the story of Bartleby, the third scrivener hired by a wealthy Manhattan lawyer (the narrator) to copy legal documents and also run his office effectively. From the outset, Bartleby appears to be an asset to the practice, but one day he snaps, and when asked by his employer to proofread a copied document, Bartleby retorts, “I’d prefer not to.” This soon becomes Bartleby’s stock response to all requests.
Bartleby’s productivity index plummets, and he actually moves into the office as he appears to have no life outside his work. Bartleby becomes the consummate control freak with a healthy dose of a not-so-latent passive-aggressive personality disorder thrown in for flavor. His employer ends up relocating his practice to escape Bartleby. The new tenant has Bartleby forcibly evicted and Bartleby winds up imprisoned in the infamous Tombs jail, where he ultimately starves himself to death, having preferred not to eat. The implications and application of Melville’s novella will be high lighted in the next post.