Stable Strategies for Middle Management by Eileen Gunn

Stable Strategies for Middle Management by Eileen Gunn • Page count: 8 "Stable Strategies for Middle Management" is a 1988 science fiction short story by Eileen Gunn. It is about a woman who has undertaken a drastic form of bioengineering as a way to move up the corporate ladder. The story follows Margaret, a woman who works in the advertising department of a large corporation. In an effort to prove her loyalty to the company, and train herself for a management position, she is in the process of undergoing company-sanctioned transformation to a giant insect. When she wakes up one morning to find that her tongue has changed into a stiletto and her hand into a chitinous comb, she is puzzled as to how those changes will help her corporate aspirations. As she attends her meetings throughout the day she finds herself distracted by the desire to suck her colleagues' blood, encase her friends in wax and sting her supervisor. In the end her new instincts for business prove to be more useful…