Hardie Grant acquires Wankernomics

Hardie Grant has acquired world rights to Wankernomics by comedians James Schloeffel and Charles Firth.

Wankernomics is ‘the hilarious must-have handbook for anyone who has ever had to endure the buzzwords, bureaucracy and bullsh*t of the modern working world,’ said the publisher. ‘This business self-help guide teaches readers how to outmanoeuvre their colleagues and climb the corporate ladder with nothing more than an obnoxious LinkedIn profile, a pack of Post-it notes and the phrase “circle back”.’

Schloeffel is the founder and writer of satire website The Shovel, and has written for the Guardian, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian Financial Review and the Independent.

Firth is a co-founder of the Australian satirical comedy group The Chaser, and has worked in television, radio and publishing for 25 years. He is author of American Hoax (Macmillan) and is co-creator of the ABC television series Optics.

The authors founded Wankernomics in 2023 as ‘a way to help ordinary people navigate the modern workplace, and as a way for James to work through his unresolved issues’.

‘This book is the culmination of more than 130 ideation sessions, 56 off-site workshops, 23,000 passive aggressive emails, 45,000 Slack messages. Oh, and a day and a half writing it,’ said the publisher.

Said Hardie Grant publishing director Pam Brewster: ‘The minute I checked out the Wankernomics live show, I saw the potential for a fabulous, funny, satirical book. The authors, James Schloeffel and Charles Firth, agreed.

‘This book is full of laugh-out-loud moments that recognise the utterly nonsensical things that workplaces have us all doing. Liberating, superbly funny and containing some uncannily spot-on advice, such as how to start your own corporation, this book is impossible to put down.’

The book is due to be released on 5 August 2025.

Pictured [l–r]: James Schloeffel, Charles Firth.

Category: Local news Rights and acquisitions