WoW! We're not going to hire you!

I met with a recruiter recently (online media industry) and in conversation I happened to mention I'd spent way too much time in the early 2000s playing online games, which I described as "the ones before World of Warcraft"....

He replied that employers specifically instruct him not to send them World of Warcraft players. He said there is a belief that WoW players cannot give 100% because their focus is elsewhere, their sleeping patterns are often not great, etc....

—f.13net forum

(Via BoingBoing)

Stella: How to Throw a Budget Holiday Party

"Can we recommend Ore-Ida frozen hash browns?"

Elevator research

The author's secret life?

Absolute beginners

The mighty poet Brenda Shaughnessy is reading PD:

Books of prose I recently finished that I keep thinking about are Ed Park's hilariously-and-sadly-perfect-for-our-times Personal Days. I also loved Kelly Link's Magic For Beginners....

Campfire tales

Samantha Hunt—wizardly author of the novels The Seas and The Invention of Everything Else—chooses Personal Days as one of the best books of 2008:

In "Personal Days," Ed Park's dark, dark humor captures the slow death-spiral of a company and the workers still living in its decay. As they are summoned by human resources, the still-employed huddle around their monitors like some post-apocalyptic campfires, writing screenplays, Googling themselves and generally acting far more clever than anyone in charge. Sadly, the book is timely.

—Louisville Courier-Journal

Blunderbuss

If you've ever worked as an office drone, Ed Park's Personal Days will make you both laugh and cringe with familiarity. Park perfectly captures the fear and loathing towards middle management, email blunders, and existential anguish of the New York cubicle grind. —Hyphen

Do the collapse

The book/office photos of Philip Toledano.



(Via the 26th Story.)*



















*One commenter links to Britt Salvesen's excellent piece on office photography in the latest Believer. (Subscribe!)