This is not the newest manifestation of the “Dress Casual” trend.

Naked
at Work (And Other Fears): How to Stay Sane When Your Job Drives You Crazy

Is a book that I’ve been reading. It’s a self help book, but not the “do these things
to make yourself better” vein. More in the “this is why the world seems to be the
way that it is”.

I picked this up at the library because I liked the title, and I was happy to find
that it has a fair amount of wisdom in it. For example, just because we think about
ourselves all the time does not mean that other people think about us all the time.
That means if our boss sounds grumpy when he meets us in the hall, it’s much more
likely that he’s not grumpy about us, but about other, more important things in his
life.

The big surprise for this book – based on my assumption that the title was dreamed
up by the publisher to sell more books – was that it is genuinely funny. Paul Hellman
has a style that is not unlike Dave Barry’s, and in my book, that’s a pretty good
place to be. Here’s an example of an anecdote from the book:

Anecdote #20: Traffic Item in the paper: A union debate whether to block rush
hour traffic to “draw public attention to worker’ gripes.” Is there a connection between
rush hour traffic and workers’ gripes? I think yes! I’m a worker, and one of my main
gripes is — rush hour traffic. Maybe the union’s motto should be, “We’re not going
anywhere and neither are you.” But I doubt the public would react favorably: “This
traffic is driving me NUTS!!! And yet — it’s also increasing my sympathy for workers’
gripes!” Anyway, it doesn’t really matter. You can’t block rush hour traffic. It’s
already blocked! That’s the whole point of rush hour traffic. If the union really
wants public support, they should figure out a way to unblock it.