The Cubicle Manifesto

by Mainak Dhar

The cubicle: a small, compressed, half room where we spend half our lives bored, stressed, and secretly planning holidays. Where imagination and creativity die a slow death and ‘out of the box’ can mean only one thing—leaving the office. Mayukh, a young and harried manager, can’t believe his misfortune when he discovers one morning that his computer has been taken over by a virus. Especially when he has enough work on his plate to last him a lifetime. But things take a strange turn and soon the virus starts a revolution that gradually frees our hero from the tyranny of pressure and the shackles of stress. It reconnects him with his true self and family, and brings him more success than he could ever imagine. So if you’ve been spending more time in your cubicle than anywhere else, The Cubicle Manifesto is the revolution that you’ve been waiting for; one that you can start in the comfort of your own cubicle.

Genres: Business

Unknown Binding

First published July 20, 2011

About the author

After finishing his schooling at Modern School, Barakhamba Road and his under-graduation at Hindu College, Delhi, Mainak Dhar graduated from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He has spent two decades in the corporate sector — starting with Procter & Gamble in India. He spent eighteen years with P&G, fifteen of them outside India across the Asia Pacific region. In 2014, he moved back to India as the CEO of the India operations of a major consumer products multinational.
A self-described cubicle dweller by day and writer by night, Mainak is also the author of over a dozen books, some of which have been bestsellers in India and abroad. These books have been translated into Turkish, Vietnamese, Japanese, French, German and Portuguese. He lives in Mumbai with his wife, Puja, and their son, Aaditya. When not at work or with his family, he can usually be found working on, or thinking about his next book. Learn more about him and contact him at www.facebook.com/AuthorMainakDhar.

Reviews

[Karthik Kailash · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mayukh, Group Manager, Marketing, at a top multinational is a professional who pushes himself to the maximum,and believes that the more you slog, the better work you produce.

As he slogs his life away in a cubicle, with a stop over at home just to sleep and be back in his cubicle, a strange turn of events force him to change his way of working. A mysterious force, which Mayukh suspects to be a virus, starts taking over Mayukh's laptop and instructs him how how to go about. Initially irritated at this, Mayukh reluctantly follows the instructions only to find out that an alternative path may also work, sometimes much better.

A self help book packaged as a simple story. Good succinct read.

[Yousef · Rating 5 out of 5]

My cubicle manifesto:

I choose not to be a slave to Cubicle Tyranny.

My primary employer is You Corp and I will do what is right for it’s stakeholders.

The NPV of Happiness means I will act now when it comes to You Corp.

My calendar is my tool, not my master, and I will prioritize appointments for myself.

To think out of the box, I will take myself and my people out of the box.

I will cut off the leash of the blinking red light when I leave my cubicle.

I will connect to remind myself of what I am and who I was outside my cubicle.

I will bring my personality into my cubicle to show who’s in charge here.

[Lars · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hm. I was expecting a satirical essay'ish manifesto telling me about the stupidity of cubicle work. Instead I got a short story about Mayukh who works all the time. He has no time for lunch and he's always too late for dinner with his wife and kid. That's no good.

All until his computer and Blackberry starts giving him clues on how to live his life. Spend less time at work, more time with the family. That sort of stuff.

The virus (for it appears to be a virus who's doing the typing) tells our protagonist fortune cookie gems like 'To think out of the box, take yourself out of your box'. The 'quotes on love and life'-stuff you'd normally find at a site like Pinterest, dominated by women (true story). You get the picture, right?

I was more in the 'two stars'-area, but I decided to add a third star, because it is rather well written and you get into a pretty good rhythm reading it.

All in all, it's a nice little story. But if you find that it's a real life changing experience for you to read it, you're probably in so deep shit that it'll take more than a 114 pages long (or short, if you will) book to help you. Just saying.

[Lars K Jensen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hm. I was expecting a satirical essay'ish manifesto telling me about the stupidity of cubicle work. Instead I got a short story about Mayukh who works all the time. He has no time for lunch and he's always too late for dinner with his wife and kid. That's no good.

All until his computer and Blackberry starts giving him clues on how to live his life. Spend less time at work, more time with the family. That sort of stuff.

The virus (for it appears to be a virus who's doing the typing) tells our protagonist fortune cookie gems like 'To think out of the box, take yourself out of your box'. The 'quotes on love and life'-stuff you'd normally find at a site like Pinterest, dominated by women (true story). You get the picture, right?

I was more in the 'two stars'-area, but I decided to add a third star, because it is rather well written and you get into a pretty good rhythm reading it.

All in all, it's a nice little story. But if you find that it's a real life changing experience for you to read it, you're probably in so deep shit that it'll take more than a 114 pages long (or short, if you will) book to help you. Just saying.

[Amaruvi Devanathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, a marketing manager by day, who spends his waking hours working in a cubicle and leads a miserable life at a personal level by not even being able to pay attention to his wife and kid, turns a new leaf with the help of a computer virus. How does that happen and how does his life as well as that of his family and his immediate reports change is the crux of the story.

Very well written and lucidly presented, this short novel, if I may say so, is so entertaining and down to earth that any cubicle dweller would be able to relate to the content.

As the story progresses you begin to realize that you are the protagonist and the life that unfolds is that of yours. That is because of the manner of narration and sequencing of the events and real world situations that modern workers a.k.a. ‘Slaves’ undergo in the corporate world.

A must read for everyone in the corporate world irrespective of the position that one might be in. You will cherish the time spent in reading this book and who knows your life might be changed too, sans the virus.

The author ,Mainak Dhar , deserves a great round of applause from the cubicle dwellers of the world.

[Charlotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like Spencer Johnson’s Who Moved My Cheese, this quick to read and engaging little book is a parable that sets out to shift the reader’s attitude to their work, life and management style.
In fact, it’s something of a modern day, office-set fairy tale, with a benign computer virus playing fairy godmother to protagonist, Mayukh, a marketing manager for an electronics company.
Mayukh works late most nights, lunches at his desk, misses family events or spends them typing frantically into his Blackberry. He faces health issues due to a lack of exercise, and has lost his creative spark and the respect of his staff.
The Cubicle Manifesto virus forces Mayukh to rethink his priorities. It shuts down his laptop at 6pm, inserts Mayukh-time (for paying bills and running errands) and “connect” time (to keep in touch with old friends) into his calendar, and locks him out of his Blackberry during family time. The impact on his health, relationships and career is instant.

[Atulya Mahajan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great book for corporate types burning the midnight oil for their organizations. Mainak raises the importance of a work-life balance and how it is important to also give time to your near and dear ones, and not forever be in pursuit of that next promotion or bonus.

While personal preferences may vary and some people may just be happy slogging away, this book does raise some pertinent points to put the rat race in perspective.

[Vaughn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, a short story about a man who is bound to his work and his cubical is a quick read with several simple, yet profound reminders for the busy professional. As this was a freebie from Amazon, I found the ROI to be quite high and have already implemented several of the principles suggested.

[Terry]

I learnt a lot, especially the use of the calender to organize and slot those activities that seem impossible to accomplish on weekdays. i now take time off to have lunch, read the newspaper and a book, am yet to start on the exercise part. Very insightful

[Ken Weinert]

False

[Khushboo Wadhwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read on how to maintain a balance between ur professional and personal life, how to outperform and think out of the box.

A must read for those who say 'they are too busy to do this n that'.

[Mohamed Marwan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good attempt but quite plain with no surprises. Characters names could have been more global so that the parable can have more relevance to all readers.