Work

March 1, 2003
The latest addition to this wildly popular series continues--surprisingly--to display the wit, style and plain-old smart-ass insight of its multiple predecessors. The secret to Piven's and Borgenicht's success seems to be in maintaining, at all costs, a dead-pan and practical approach to survival techniques in ever-wilder scenarios (though, considering that these are"survival" guides, wilder in this case actually means increasingly mundane). Thus, in this volume--based on the assumption that we spend"so much time in the work environment that the odds are staggering that something is going to go wrong while you are there"--the authors provide precise instructions on how to survive working in a cubicle, being trapped in a bathroom or walk-in freezer, and getting caught"slacking" ("Blame your browser" is one suggestion for habitual Web-surfers). Helpful hints on how to survive an interview are balanced with equally helpful, but funnier, tips on how to ditch a meeting ("If you are planning to crawl under the table, wear loose-fitting clothes"). From dealing with a"nightmare" boss or co-worker to escaping from a lion cage, and from removing a tie caught in a document feeder to treating a finger cut on a deli slicer (step one:"Turn off the slicer"), the authors know the secrets.

May 1, 2003
The latest addition to this wildly popular series continues--surprisingly--to display the wit, style and plain-old smart-ass insight of its multiple predecessors. The secret to Piven's and Borgenicht's success seems to be in maintaining, at all costs, a dead-pan and practical approach to survival techniques in ever-wilder scenarios (though, considering that these are"survival" guides, wilder in this case actually means increasingly mundane). Thus, in this volume--based on the assumption that we spend"so much time in the work environment that the odds are staggering that something is going to go wrong while you are there"--the authors provide precise instructions on how to survive working in a cubicle, being trapped in a bathroom or walk-in freezer, and getting caught"slacking" ("Blame your browser" is one suggestion for habitual Web-surfers). Helpful hints on how to survive an interview are balanced with equally helpful, but funnier, tips on how to ditch a meeting ("If you are planning to crawl under the table, wear loose-fitting clothes"). From dealing with a"nightmare" boss or co-worker to escaping from a lion cage, and from removing a tie caught in a document feeder to treating a finger cut on a deli slicer (step one: "Turn off the slicer"), the authors know the secrets.

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