firing unneeded employees. Another character is Mr. Singlebury, a long-time employee who must be fired.

The tone of the story is restrained, but it is clear that the narrator is writing the report as a way of managing their emotions about having to fire vulnerable people. The narrator is contemptuous of his boss, who never reads past the second sentence of anything, and who doesn't think of his employees as individuals. At the same time, the narrator is apparently unable to muster the courage to stand up to his boss.

Singlebury, on the other hand, is a bit like Melville's Bartleby, in that he seems to have always worked in the building and in that his life outside of work seems marginal at best. He is virtually part of the place, but his firing gives the story its morbid twist and emphasizes the literal meaning of the "axe" in the title. When late at night Singlebury shows up at work quite literally a walking corpse, his head almost severed, the reality of "axing" employees, and the inhumanity of the workplace, become clear.

In “The Axe,” by Penelope Fitzgerald, we have a ghost story that also engages in a spot of social criticism, demonstrating how modern-day business practices can reduce loyal workers to ghosts of their former selves.

After being let go despite years of hard work and loyal service, Singlebury becomes a ghost of his former self. His work was his life, and so once he's shown the door, his life is effectively over. His employers were fully aware of how much Singlebury’s job meant to him, but they let him go anyway, convinced as they were that efficiency savings were necessary.

It's not surprising, then, that after a distraught Singlebury takes his own life, his ghost comes back to haunt his old office. In social critical terms, this can be seen as a commentary on how ruthless modern-day business practices will always come back to haunt companies who treat their employees, especially those who have given years of loyal service, like pieces of junk that can be thrown on the scrapheap.