Death By PowerPoint begins with absorbing insight into the life of the drones and queen bees. The queen bee sits all day while her slaves service her and feed her royal jelly that no one else can have. Who knew the world of bees could be fascinating and resemble the corporate world?
The book takes a satiric approach in exploring what’s what in the corporate world. Flocker describes employee personalities and situations, and explains how to deal with them, or rather protect yourself and stay under the radar. Casual Friday? What do you do? Even something as simple as casual Friday can make a worker bee fret. Get tips on dealing with “fashionipulation” for manipulating your world with clothes.
Learn how the cubist culture got started and what cube decorations say about a person. The elephant in the room doesn’t exist as the book punches the art of politics in the face. Throttle a passive-aggressive communicator’s attempts to take advantage of you and protect yourself from the backstabber. The corporate lingo chapter covers original and “I wish I had thought of that” terms. It doesn’t rehash too many of the terms heard in the corporate halls.
The e-mail etiquette chapter offers little new material, but the book would be incomplete without it. Rarely does an office skip the mandatory fun events, so prepare yourself for that upcoming team-building session with the “Mandatory Fun” chapter.
Funny quotes and curious facts appear sprinkled throughout the pages along with sticky notes and abused bathroom door characters. Beware there are R-rated words and scenarios such as the chapter on office romance, but not too much.
Anyone reading this must take care in deciding whether to follow advice since some wouldn’t fare well for the worker bee while others could lead to a memorable moment at the office. Death By PowerPoint offers tips and a much-needed laugh at the dysfunctional corporate world. Treat the book more as a humorous one rather than a self-help book.
Anyone needing comic relief or an escape from the throes of the corporate world should grab this easy and fun read. Like Office Space and Scott Adams’ Dilbert, Flocker uses words to exaggerate about corporate life and provide tips for surviving The Office-like environment without going insane.
Title: Death By PowerPoint: A Modern Office Survival Guide
Author: Michael Flocker
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 0306815125
Date: November 2006
Format: Paperback
Pages: 219
Cover Price: USD: $12.95 Amazon: $10.36