Stephen Richey worked for California land development companies and corporations for 30 years. He became increasingly aware of the incredible pressures everyone who worked in the industry had on them and found nearly all corporations of every kind doing the same to their people. He saw the younger people, starting their careers, people who had been working for several years, and those who were the senior members, in an endless cycle. He himself felt the pressures to produce, stay employed, feel good about his work, and be a viable part of the corporation he worked for. As time passed, it became more and more difficult. In his latter years of working for a corporation, a major recession occurred. The mind set of the corporation changed and the continuous pressure that was always there, increased. One day, it occurred to him, to write a book of how life in a corporation, deep in a recession, struggling to stay in business, affected those employed by the corporation. He wrote "The Galley." He was working outside the office on a rainy day, setting in his pickup truck, in the parking lot of a doughnut shop, deep in the gigantic Los Angeles conglomeration of cities. He realized, how he was exchanging the days of his life for the money the corporation he was working for was paying him. He decided the exchange was not one he was satisfied with. He saw clearly the progression of events he willingly chose to be a part of, to get him to where he was. It was a natural, reasonable, process taking years, climbing the corporate ladder when the opportunity presented itself. On that day, he realized where he was and how others were there also, where he most likely would be there in time. He decided to move on. He began the very next day to change the course of his life. The "Galley" is about life in most corporations. Everyone today, working for a corporation or large company will find him or herself in the book. Corporations are alive only because people choose to become a living part of the corporate organism. It's not bad for everyone, but everyone should be aware of the days of their life they will forfeit for their corporation's goals and not necessarily their personal goals. When finding yourself surrounded by young men with the dots on their ties matching the dots on their socks and women, who maintain their jobs due to the lengths of their skirts, their cleavage, or breast size, instead of their ability, then "The Galley" should be read. "The Galley" ends well as can nearly everyone's career, if they are willing.