cover image The Cubicle Survival Guide: Keeping Your Cool in the Least Hospitable Environment on Earth

The Cubicle Survival Guide: Keeping Your Cool in the Least Hospitable Environment on Earth

James F. Thompson. Villard Books, $12.95 (216pp) ISBN 978-0-8129-7676-2

Veteran cubicle laborer Thompson has gotten into every nook and cranny of his subject, the ubiquitous workplace environment known, unofficially, as the ""cubicle farm,"" in this humorous but uneven workplace guide. Chapters cover basics like handling the phone (including how to surreptitiously screen calls) and inter-office communication (never whisper), as well as advanced topics like ""Anti-Spy Methods"" (equipping one's computer monitor with rear-view mirrors) and maintaining proper posture and blood circulation (through exercises like the ""Red-Carpet Chest Thrust"" and the ""Booger Flick""). Though there are sound tips here, funny stuff dominates-Thompson includes a handy ""Stink Pyramid"" to measure the relative offensiveness of lunchtime smells like fast food, microwave meals and fish. In other places, advice reads more like filler: when confronted with a coworker's family photos, Thompson suggests that readers ""...be sincere, but cautiously so. ... most of us are indeed ugly, warped and possess faces that age like fallen apples on a driveway."" True enough, but mere common sense will probably preclude the idea to insult coworkers' loved ones. More an excuse for frivolity and catharsis than a practical resource, this hit-and-miss guide will give cube dwellers plenty to chuckle over in the break room.