Death Is Not Meeting Expectations

Death has an impeccable professional record. Since the first human being died, he has arrived on time, escorted every soul to its destination and never once requested a holiday. By any reasonable standard, he is an outstanding employee. Jeff, his line manager, disagrees. Apparently, the one-star reviews are piling up, and punctuality is no longer enough to satisfy management.

Customers describe Death as rude, intimidating and lacking in empathy. Jeff would like him to be warmer. More approachable. Possibly a little more fun. Death points out that he is the Grim Reaper, not a children's entertainer. Jeff puts him on a twelve-month performance improvement plan anyway. Even the oldest profession in human history has apparently acquired targets, feedback and a worrying emphasis on presentation.

Ordered to interview a cross-section of the recently deceased, Death encounters furious complainers, satisfied customers and people who seem to have fundamentally misunderstood the nature of mortality. He would much rather reminisce about the Vikings, complain about the decline in afterlife standards and explain why nobody appreciates his contribution to human history. Unfortunately, none of that appears likely to count as measurable progress.

As the interviews continue, something unexpected happens. Listening to the dead begins to teach Death what makes being alive so wonderful, and why people are understandably reluctant to give it up. Their complaints contain more than poor scores. Beneath the irritation and misunderstanding are attachments, disappointments and all the unfinished things that make his reliably completed appointments so unwelcome.

His performance ratings, however, remain terrible. And management has some rather exciting ideas about his replacement. Death Is Not Meeting Expectations is an irreverent, unexpectedly warm comedy about terrible management, even worse bedside manner, and a conscientious employee discovering that the business of ending lives requires an inconvenient amount of understanding them.