It’s the summer solstice, and it’s warm outside, and there’s a train strike, and even though I don’t commute it makes me feel very lazy. Which is ironic, as this post is all about the world of work.

I am inspired by one of the books I’ve enjoyed most so far this year: Marzahn, Mon Amour, by Katja Oskamp, expertly translated by Jo Heinrich and published by Peirene. It’s a memoir by a writer who during an ‘iffy’ patch in her career retrains as a chiropodist and finds a job in a salon in Marzahn, a neighbourhood of communist-era high-rises in East Berlin.

Her clients are older, and – among the ingrowing toenails and painful corns – have tales to tell: illness, bereavement, surviving the Nazis and the communists. Katja also makes new friends with her colleagues; one charming chapter describes an outing to a local spa. There are many quiet joys, and I relished the book’s celebration of working people. Its stories are poignant and often enjoy a certain deadpan humour.

The book was chosen for the Berlin Reads One Book citywide reading campaign. I think much of its success arises as the writing is unfussy – effortless, simply observed. It wasn’t trying too hard, as too much writing is. What could be more intimate than working on someone’s feet, I guess?!

And Katja became a writer again. Sometimes, the fix to an iffy patch is a change of scenery and some fresh company.

As a writing experiment: in ten-minute writes, describe some of the people you have worked with – colleagues, associates, clients, regulars. An unforgettable encounter at a sales conference, or that moment when someone cracked in the office, or that person whose presence in your life from 9 to 5 across a span of several years still haunts you to this day.

Give us a few details of appearance, describe tics and habits, and perhaps relate something of their histories and their lives outside work. Perhaps allow us a sense of what you gave to them, and they gave to you.

Enjoy the solstice!