Workplace-set comedy tends to emphasize foibles and dysfunction, petty gripes and legitimate grievances. Turetsky’s upbeat HR Data Doodles series, now in its third volume, goes against that grain, showcasing a diverse and engaging cast of human resources professionals who work together to face challenges, adapt to change, and flourish both as a company and as individuals. That approach still feels novel, three books in, even as the cast and the software company at which they work demonstrate how to handle growth and change with aplomb. This volume finds the team at OUPM, post acquisition, handling recruitment, retirement, and other urgent human resources concerns as the company begins an ambitious new project developing next-gen VR … and an HR Artificial Intelligence who eventually will be named Charlie.

As in the second volume of the series, Turetsky’s approach is to favor storytelling over punchlines, though the jokes that are here (including some about gamer focus groups) land with a new consistency. When Teddy, the office’s eccentric comic foil, asks Charlie, the new AI, to tell a joke about dinosaurs, Charlie snaps back “I could, but the jokes are extinct.” The depiction of Teddy as an affable fellow whom colleagues celebrate as “a hoot” exemplifies the spirit of Turetsky’s project: rather than make fun of each other, as in other office narratives, his HR crew has fun with each other, while planning ahead, meeting the needs of all stakeholders, and giving OUPM the tools for success. A new recruiter, brought on to hire the VR team, makes sure to pin down the company’s precise needs before starting her search, noting “We cannot just hire people thinking that we need to do some work for an artificial deadline.”

Diverse, driven, and always listening to each other, the HR Data Doodles series demonstrate all that readers may wish companies could be. Turetsky’s vibrant character design, appealing faces, smart workplace dialogue, and insights into what a fully empowered, ready-to-adapt HR team can accomplish all will please readers looking for positive examples of office teams taking on the future.

Takeaway: Inspiring comics of HR pros facing and shaping the future.

Comparable Titles: Karen Beaven’s Strategic Human Resource Management, Thomas H. Davenport and Steven M. Miller’s Working with AI.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A-
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A