There are no signs saying „Caution, Slip Hazard“ on the rainy wet steps of the career ladder, even though these steps hold surprises that one can slide into. The fantastic tale about starting-from-the-bottom-arriving-at-the-top (social advancement) seems questionable and implausible. Less steep ascents are less straining.

In Slippery Stairs/Glitschige Stufen Leonie Nagel combines texts with diagrams and photographs. The texts are concerned with wage labor experiences. The diagrams describe paths with start and finish points and the photographs show staircases on which one can retrace such paths. However, it is often unclear whether the highest number of steps will take you to the top and if the first step is really the beginning, since the starting point cannot be the same for everyone, as much as it would be desirable.

Making use of an extended translation technique, the book is published simultaneously in German and English.