Even though I haven't worked in a cubicle since being laid off a few years ago, I remember my cube-life with fondness (and with any luck may get back into cube-dom eventually). So when I read a newspaper review about this book, I couldn't resist... It's a very slim book, but it comes with - um, well, with decorations, kind of - more later, once my eyes have recovered from the glare!

[Later...]

This little book was lots more fun than I expected from its slim size. While the concept of decorating a cubicle isn't entirely new (there's at least one other book out about this, Cube Chic), this book takes it to wonderful extremes: each suggested theme comes with a list of components, estimated cost - and advice on how to threaten, bribe, or blackmail your manager if s/he tries to make you remove your new decorations! A few examples: the "Beachfront Cubicle" design involves covering the floor with sand and installing a tanning lamp, in addition to the less unexpected palm-tree-in-the-corner/tropical-screen-saver ideas. Under "Benefits" it says "Studies show that tanned, relaxed workers are much more likely to get respect, promotions, and invitations to after-work cocktails than the pale, nervous wrecks who actually get things done."

A more offbeat option: the "Wizard of Oz Cubicle" - no, there's no yellow brick road or red slippers. In this case the wizard is the man behind the curtain, so the scheme calls for huge red velvet curtains to surround your cube and add an air of mystery, a closed-circuit video screen so you can project your image without actually having to face people, and lots of dry ice and strobes to enhance the effect. And "if a manager gets Wicked Witchy Poo on your redesign scheme: route your microphone through an equalizer to distort your voice into something particularly terrifying - say a cross between Darth Vader and Tammy Faye Baker. Then announce that you're surprised to see the manager show his or her face in public due to (fill in the blank with some gossip you've heard about the manager; if you haven't heard any, just ad lib something particularly disgusting)."

Getting the general idea? I think these are more in the Dilbert-character school of design - but some of 'em still do sound like fun, such as the Dominatrix Dungeon cubicle ['nuff said], and the "Barbecuebicle", both of which include the hopeful suggestions that you might be able to recoup the costs of the redesign by charging for services or food (respectively).

So... this is a totally frivolous book, but in a *good* way!

[Consumer information: just for fun, I took all the little gadgets that came with the book and applied them to my PC - temporarily, I assure you! If you click on the photo and look very closely you can see the dollar-sign paperweight holding down some BC sticky-notes in front of the terminal, a little heap of gold-colored push-pins scattered nearby (there was nothing handy that I could stick them in!), the little disco ball suspended on the left, the "Pimp" mousepad (note its size compared to the actual mouse and deduce its relative uselessness as a mousepad, but maybe you could think of something else to do with it), the leopard-print "fringe" (which isn't actually fringed, though a little work with a pair of scissors could fix that - there are two strips in the package, of which one is stretched across the base of the terminal and the other I cut in two and used on the sides), and the cute little yellow "Bling!" key that I perched in the middle of the keyboard (it has adhesive tape on the bottom so you could stick it anywhere, and if you pull the adhesive away there's a hollow pin inside that might let you use it to replace an actual keyboard key - if you're willing to pull one off to make the experiment; I wasn't). And that, plus the little book, is what's in the box!]

Controlled release:

I gave this to my friend Mike in New York, who's sometimes a cubicle-dweller himself, hoping he'd find it amusing!