Eleanor Reeve · Book Two · In development
NOT MY DEPARTMENT
A darkly funny guide to guilt, responsibility, and the problems that were never yours to fix.
Nobody remembers exactly when they became responsible for everybody else. There was no ceremony, no announcement, and no revised job description. Nevertheless, the appointment appears to have taken place.
A favor becomes a recurring task. Competence becomes an expectation. The person who notices a problem becomes the person expected to fix it. Before long, a responsibility nobody formally assigned has become remarkably difficult to relinquish.
In Not My Department, Eleanor Reeve examines the obligations we inherit, accumulate, and sometimes help maintain ourselves. Through fictional illustrative stories, research, and dry humor, the book asks how we can distinguish real duties from arrangements that have simply become familiar.
Inside Part I: How We Become Responsible
The current manuscript's first four chapters explore the unauthorized appointment, inherited job descriptions, the competence penalty, and guilt. The book is still in development; publication date has not been announced.
Not every obligation is optional
The book does not suggest abandoning genuine duties or people who depend on us. It asks a more difficult question: which responsibilities are justified, which need to be shared, and which became ours merely because we were there?
From the promotional desk
Promotional illustration. The official subtitle is shown above on the book cover.
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