Customer Reviews

Death By Powerpoint

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As the stereotypical corporate slave that I am, I found this book very amusing, helpful and practical. I've never been one to get involved in office politics, but after reading this I learned that there are smart ways to get involved without getting burned. The book gives very clever ideas for breaking up the monotony of the 9 to 5 grind, "survival" tips for that horrible coworker you want to strangle, and hilarous tricks for making boring meetings entertaining. Overall, I thought it was a hilarious jab at how pathetic we have become, yet it has practical ideas on advancing your career and making the most of your job. Excellent (and quick!) read.

I was starting to create quite a raucous in the bookstore when I picked up this little gem. Even though I paid way more than if I had ordered it online here, I just couldn't let it go. Anyone who's been through the corporate world the past 10 years will get it because you were there, you lived it, and you faced death by powerpoint on a frequent basis. The little pictures that go along with it are absolutely hysterical. [...], and the book should have included a few more current trends. Buy it if you'd like that little trip down memory lane. It's ok, you can laugh about it now.

Why is this book so cheap? If you like the TV show "The Office," you will LOVE this book. Funny, interesting research, great quotes, all mixed in with some practical advice. I actually laughed out loud a few times! This makes a great gift... the low price is just gravy!!!

The book 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?

_Death By PowerPoint_ 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 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 exaggerate the corporate life and provide tips for surviving _The Office_-like environment without going insane.

If you've worked in ANY kind of office environment, this book is for you. Flocker provides descriptions and analysis of the many characters and scenarios that corporate lackeys find themselves in on a daily basis. Flocker provides even more value by providing do's/don'ts tips on how to use the dysfunctional office atmosphere to your own advantage. As a self-admitted slacker, I can validate many of his theories and suggestions.

This book falls into a genre perfected by Scott Adams and his Dilbert book series (specifically The Dilbert Principle.) Flocker isn't an Adams wanna-be. He refreshes and updates the "life in the dysfunctional corporate world" view, and adds the further aspects of "how to use this to your advantage" and "how to have fun at your co-workers' expense."

I picked this up in an airport bookstore and plowed through the entire book during my flight (200+ pages). It is a very easy, quick, and humorous read. You'll find yourself passing this on to other jaded co-workers once you're finished.

Michael Flocker hits the stapler on the head in this all-too true-to-life satiric guidebook to officeLife survival ... all the idiosyncrasies of the workaday world are captured in the most hilarious barrage of observation ... the little pukeyCovered tome covers everything from email cautionary tales to personality types and how to deal with them ... and i have to say { or at least bloggishly type here } that just reading this book will make the ofttimes near-weighty existence of corporate life in America bring a smile to your lips and a gleam to the eye ... many kudos ... a must read ... amen

This is a very funny read and is a good item for people stuck in the rut of everyday worklife (as in do you sit in a pod at work?). You'll definitely see your world in this book like the TV show The OFfice.

Death by PowerPoint reads like Flocker had ideas for two different books and was just typing them into his computer as they came to him with the intention of separating them when the time came to publish. Separation was however never done with seriousness and propaganda type messages mixed with childish humour (not that there's anything wrong with that) that gives the complete opposite message to the serious advice. In other chapters, the comparison of the office employees to a beehive and the different type of bees occurs. There no clear order to this book or theme.

As a self help book to combat bullying co-workers, dress for success and so on it is actually quite well done assuming the reader can differentiate between the jokes and the serious advice. I thought the his response to dealing with bullies who try and force more work onto others was brilliant such a work bully on a company online noticeboard saying wouldn't it be great if those reports could be presented alphabetically and the great reply of that's a great idea thanks for volunteering to do that, obviously I wouldn't have time for anything like that if you are prepared to do that, that will make a big difference.

His trying to be funny inserts were hit and miss and if you mistakenly followed them would probably get you fired such as in a dull presentation yell out at the top of your voice looking at the person beside you Stop touching me! If the humour angle is why you're checking out this book you'd be much better off to purchase the book Hardly Working: The Overachieving Underperformer's Guide to Doing as Little as Possible in the Office as it is a lot better done and a lot funnier along with clearly being a parody.

Corporate life, like high school, has a social order that separates the drones from the workers. The queen bees, better known as executives, sit back and enjoy the fruits of their workers' labors. In fact, bosses made approximately 40 times more money than average workers in 1980; the figure jumped to about 400 times more by 1999. That's unfair, but so is life in the workplace. Michael Flocker offers amusing observations and practical (as well as funny, but impractical) advice in his satirical look at office survival. He covers everything from dress codes and office politics to etiquette and office romances. We recommend this book to any employee who's looking for a little comic relief. That pretty much includes everybody.

Death by Powerpoint author Michael Flocker asserts in his introduction that as modern and fancy as we are in our office cubicles, we still work for corporations equivalent to the feudal lords of medieval times. In an anthropologically-savvy style, Flocker deconstructs the modern office into hive hierarchy, personality types, corporate vocabulary, and sample verbal and written communications. The chapters are hit-or-miss when it comes to humor (some of the jokes are pushing a decade in age), but the illustrations are zany, and the attitude is right. Don't become a cog in the wheel--having fun poking sticks at your troublesome co-workers and bosses.