Idiots at Work: Chronicles of Workplace Stupidity

by Leland Gregory

What's the strangest question employers have been asked during an interview? Among the

* What is it you people do at this company?

* Why aren't you in a more interesting business?

* Will the company move my rock collection from California to Maryland?

* Does you company have a policy regarding concealed weapons?

--from Idiots at Chronicles of Workplace Stupidity

Leland Gregory once thought crooks, politicians, and lawyers were the greatest nitwits out there, but it turns out that the working masses are packed with the dumb, dumber, and dumbest humans on the face of the planet. Gregory's look at nincompoops, Idiots at Chronicles of Workplace Stupidity, makes it crystal clear that the world's biggest jerks are on the job. Consider these

* The woman who sued Eastman Kodak to improve the lighting conditions on her job...in a darkroom?

* The Ontario Federation of Labor, which installed a bad boss hotline to get a handle on labor problems--only to have the system crash soon after startup because too many calls came in.

* The interviewee who wore a Walkman, explaining that she could listen to the interviewer and the music at the same time.

Gregory has made a career out of finding the imbeciles of the world and sharing their antics with the rest of us. His AMP humor compilations What's the Number for 911? , What's the Number for 911 Again? , The Stupid Crook Book, and Hey, Idiot! were all hilarious, but Idiots at Work takes the cake. The book is filled with hilarious tales of moronic managers, office idiots, stupid shareholders, daft decision-makers, poor planners, and other outstanding examples of cubical klutzes. 

Genres: Humor, Nonfiction, History

220 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2004

Reviews

[Jeannie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty mediocre writing here, found a few funny stories but then again we've all had the same experiences with co-workers or help desk operators (and they talk about us, the callers!) so none of this shocked me or made much of an impact on me. In fact, I kind of felt like an idiot myself for reading this book. There ya go!

[Mark]

By the author of What's the Number for 911? and What's the Number for 911 Again?, this is a compendium of the genius-level cognition too many of us deal with in the workplace every day. The author (or compiler, I suppose) has an unfortunate tendency to offer bad puns. Nonetheless, this book will cause you to laugh out loud.

[Sheila · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this would be more on a personal account of ones workplace. Sort of on the lines of Retail Hell or Waiter Rant. Its just a jumble of different work places like Microsoft or unnamed companies around the globe.

[Levi · Rating 2 out of 5]

same exact jokes over and over again. meh...
his color commentary was weaker than leno's.

[Audrey Moberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I have seen some of these people - at work - in the news - shopping - on facebook...they are everywhere. Very quick read - some good chuckles.

[Atqaan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was great, it left me with a lot of laughs and I loved it.

[Abbi · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF at around 45%. Unlike S is for stupid, which I enjoyed, this book seems to be filled with "anonymous" individuals with the weirdest things happening to them. There's a lot of "a man", "an employee", "a woman who wished to remain anonymous". If this guy wanted to release a book of jokes then that's fine but I was under the assumption that these stories were supposed to be somewhat believable and "true".

[literaryaura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had this book on my phone, and found it great to have on hand for when I couldn't whip out a book to read, or had a few minutes on hand while waiting for something.

It's a whole book filled with short bits about the silliness in the workplace. It's a fun read, and made my head shake a lot of times at the dumb people in our world.

[Karissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a bit of levity at the end of a hard week, this book was a quick and easy read.

Someone bought me six or eight of these little short, humorous-ish tales of...stupidity books. I enjoy some of the books more than others, but this particular one made me laugh out loud more than others I have read. To the point my pets were staring at me like I was a nut and my eyes teared.

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually, this is not a book about politicians even though the title would fit most of them. One really funny example is a person who complained that their computer had not worked for two years. Someone pointed out that the owner never bothered to plus it in. There's a lot of these cases that are really funny.

[Michael Duane Witt · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the type of mind numbing book you would read only in a waiting room , or the bathroom. Here and there a slightly amusing account came up, but for the most part, I found this to be a sophomoric collection of low level puns, many of which probably were contrived by the author. Very tedious.

[Michael Lunney · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most stupid is most certainly true

I did tech support for many years. I have been accused of flying 3,000 miles to and from the client's site just so that I would have him call me. And there's been much worse!

[Tommas Ethridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

not as funny as i thought it would be but did have some funny parts

[Syd Cosby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good and humerous stories

I got a kick out of all of the stories. Went down a couple of rabbit holes in search of more info on some of them.

[TED ADAMS · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Read

An hilarious funny book which we can all relate to. Happens more often than not, but really makes for drama in life.

[Richard A Lambing · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be honest, I didn’t really like this book. That is why I gave it only two stars. In its defense, there were a few stories that made me smile. Hence, the two stars, instead of one.

[Ursula Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Workplace Stupidity Indeed

Lots of truth is stranger than fiction. Workplace stupidity exists worldwide. Makes you think about a number of companies. Not as funny as expected.

[Janice Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh goodness!

This world is crazy! I have thoroughly enjoyed this read and look forward to more. Also, man my anxiety went up SO many times!!!!

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining and funny, but I could have done without the bad language