Working For The Man Book
The Grudge Report - The Record, June 4, 2000
"The Write Stuff", New York Post - June 26, 2000
A. Magazine - August/September 2000
Who Da Man?
Ever been terrorized by an insufferably mean boss? Instead of shopping for a shotgun, pick up a copy of Working For The Man - Stories From Behind The Cubicle Wall and commiserate with other disgruntled workers of the world. With deadpan humor and uncanny insight, the self-published book, authored by Jeffrey Yamaguchi, chronicles the horrors of office life from the annoying co-worker who is always hogging the copy machine to the boss who always asks you to get her a cup of coffee and then never pays you back. "'The Man' is not necessarily a boss," says Yamaguchi. "It is the whole work experience, all the absurdities and crazy things that go on in the workplace."
The book, for sale at Amazon.com, is an outgrowth of Yamaguchi's print zine and website. On April 21, the Working For The Man website was a Yahoo! Pick of the Day, an honor that immediately garnered more than 8,000 hits. The site features a "Sick Day Calendar" listing all the three day weekends throughout the year. "The idea there is to use your sick days on the tail ends of those weekends, thereby making them four-day weekends," says Yamaguchi. Since quitting his job last fall to write full time, Yamaguchi is no longer subject to the abominations of the 9-to-5 life. Freelancing has its own perils, however. "Sometimes you can be your own worst boss," he says. -- Dina Gan
The Web: Coming to a Bookstore Near You by Dan Richardson at the Online Journalism Review (OJR.org).
The Working For The Man book gets an Honorable Mention in the New York Post's CAREERS PLUS book round-up - June 12, 2000.
Skirt Magazine - November 2000
"Dealing with a bad boss or a dead end job? About to enter the world of corporate slavery? Are you anyone who has ever worked anywhere? Lighten up a little with Working For The Man, a humorous antidote to workplace hell. Over 50 hilarious stories from the front lines of the workplace, where bad bosses roam free, the fax machine is always out of order, and the chick in the next office clears her throat every two minutes before her saccharine-cheery 'Good Morning!'" - Kelly Love Johnson
Review of Working For The Man in Suite 101's Zine Community.
Press on workingfortheman.com
100 Best Websites for 2003 -- Shift Magazine
UsedWigs.com Time Waster
CoolSiteoftheDay.com - Sept. 10, 2001
Advice for the Working Stiff - Newsbytes.com (Sept. 10, 2001)
Goofball.com Cool Link
Weird Side E-zine, Vol. 3, No. 74 - TheWeirdSite.com
"Sliced, diced and ready to digest - these essays on life in the office are the next best thing to a day off. (If you'd rather have the day off, be sure to read Jeffrey Yamaguchi's "Summer Days are Here Again" for his tips about taking the day.)" - The Cincinnati Post (8/14/02)
"The office slacker's guide to the Internet, the greatest time-wasting scam civilization has come up with yet" - Global Technolgoy (April 29, 2000)
Utne Web Watch Daily - Below The Fold (March 20, 2000)
Yahoo Pick of the Day (April 21, 2000)
Site of the Night on Merge 93.3 in Dallas, TX (April 27, 2000)
Featured Link at RedRobot.com (April 2000)
Time Out New York (May 18-25, 2000)
"We've all been assigned pointless tasks one's boss considers more vital than oxygen (excluding myself, of course; I love my job as the Time Out New York receptionist). Others less content, however, vow that someday, somewhere, a real rain will come.
"Until then, those folks can log onto this site [www.workingfortheman.com], a spot targeted to other disgruntled, underpaid, overworked, desk-jockey cogs who hate their jobs and have the stories to back it up.
"In one tale, A Sick Day Gone Awry, a slacker employee listens in horror - Dilbert-style - as his answering machine piles up message after message from his irate boss. He could have used the site's sick-day planning calendar, which hips you to which days are best for calling in (for instance, getting the flu on Friday, May 26, or Tuesday, May 30, would make the Memorial Day weekend a four-day holiday - plan ahead).
"You can contribute your own work horror stories to the site, and they might eventually be published in the next Working For The Man book (the first volume is just available through the site). As Jeffrey Yamaguchi, the man behind workingfortheman, advises: Compose your story while you're on the clock. Which, of course, I did not do, and you can't prove I did." -- Michael Phillips
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution - June 4, 2000
Working for the Man: What better way to get back at the boss than by wasting the company's time reading drivel from the "Un-career Network." The one caveat at this site: "Enter only if you're on the clock." We particularly liked the Sick Day Planning Calendar.
Yahoo Internet Life - August 2000
New, Notable & Fun - Workingfortheman.com: If you find that you can readily identify with articles such as "The Adventures of a Department Store Display Designer" or "Scenes From My Recent Performance Reviews," maybe you should consider updating that resume. This humorous forum for office drones is now available in print, but there are always fresh updates on the site. - Lisa Ko
Top 10 hit list: All aboard the career track - Florida Today.
Alley Cat News - Sept. 2000
Cool Pick Site of the Day on September 11, 2000 at Coolpick.com.
TipWorld.com's Cool Web Site of the Day - October 9, 2000:
"You've been to all the career sites, how about an un-career site.
Start with Working For The Man RULE #758: If people in your office are
really annoying you, burn some popcorn in the office microwave. Read
some amusing two-week notice stories, or if you're feeling brave,
submit your own story. Peruse the Sick Day Planning Calendar. Purchase
the Working for the Man book. Check out an interview, or look through
the interview archives. Study the many different biological
classifications for bosses. Remember, enter only if you're on the
clock."
ClickOregon.com's Click of the Day - October, 16 2000:
"If you're a square peg in a pointy-haired boss world, this site is for you."
Hot Sites - The Vancouver Sun:
"In the new economy (whenever that happens) all the jobs will be challenging, creative and interesting. In the meantime, here's a look at some that aren't from the people who do them - www.workingfortheman.com
Zine Pool, Balitmore City Paper (12/21/98)
Press on 52 Projects
USA Today, Hot Site, 9/18/03
A breathtakingly simple site (remember all-text, anyone?) has 52 ideas on ways you might spend your time. It's that simple, except each project includes whatever levels of contemplation and observation you bring to them. (It's one thing to ride a train to the end of the line and take pictures; it's another to do it with the knowledge that you are in the process of A Project.) And Jeffrey Yamaguchi, the proprietor, has a fifty-third project in mind - something larger, but just as charming and reflective as the first 52.
Guardian Unlimited, 10/9/03
Mini projects
Jeffrey Yamaguchi does projects, and one of his little projects has been to make a list of 52 little projects that you could do, say, one per week. Or perhaps you could think of a new one to add to his list. The website is even simpler: it's a plain text list. It is not pretty but is much less boring than waiting three minutes for a pointless bit of Flash to download. If you have a more serious project - a website, book, record or whatever - Yamaguchi also has a list of "25 simple things you can do to get the word out". -- Jack Schofield
Houston Chronicle, 10/7/03
SIMPLE THINGS -- When it comes right down to it, the simple things in life, when added together, are your life experience. When you're buzzing around in your car, on your cell phone, laptop and all of the other techno-time savers, it's easy to overlook something simple. 52 Projects, at www.52projects.com, is a very simple site that has lots of suggestions for projects that might amaze and amuse you. A lot of them have to do with memories and old friends. Examples would be to write about the best nights of your life or find photographs of every place you've ever lived or write down an incident that you're lucky to have survived. Each of the projects involves some effort on your part, and that is the beauty of them. -- Cay Dickson
Clamor Magazine, Jan/Feb 2004
Jeffrey Yamaguchi, prolific media maker, has made another contribution to the world. You may know him from things such as his booklet, "Get The Word Out,"or his zine Stroboscope, or his site Bookmouth.com… You get the picture. Jeffrey has started
52projects.com as, he says, a reminder to get moving on what's kicking around in your head. Promoting creativity is a good thing. What I've found with this site is that it's kind of a cross between Martha Stewart for cool people and "do something nice for a friend" day -- both of which are good things. My favorite of the former is Project #37: Track down a picture of every place you have ever lived. "Not the geographical location, but the physical structure that you called your home. From the house or apartment you grew up in, to your dorm room freshman year, to all the apartments in various cities and countries you've lived in over the years (for which you may or may not have actually been on the lease), all the way up to the place you live now.
Some of the pictures will be from parties that you threw. One will be a picture of the family in front of the house. Another will be an image of the cat sleeping on the bed. One will be of you, standing near the door and dressed to the nines, holding a beer. There may be one of a person you can't even recall knowing sitting in a chair in your living room. There will be one place for which you won't be able to find a single photographic record. One will be a picture of the hallway, probably taken just to use up the last picture on the roll. One will be of you and an ex, just hanging out on a lazy Sunday afternoon, taking pictures of each other because you're still in the phase of being in awe of your mutual attraction for each other. And one will be just of the place, because you are so happy with how it looks and proud to call it yours."
The make-your-friend's-day type projects are just as great -- send an envelope to one of your down-and-out friends containing a pair of chopsticks, $25, and a chinese take out menu -- anonymously. Print out all the emails you've saved to and from a friend for a year and bind them in a book as a present.
Doing projects is good to "get the creative juices flowing," but it's important and inspiring to remember the little things in life and to make friends happy. I found a lot of these projects were about remembering which is a good thing. Add your own project at www.52projects.com. -- Jen Angel
Get The Word Out Book
Babel Magazine reviews GET THE WORD OUT (4/27/03)
"Get The Word Out is a really useful guidebook, and it's very recommended."—Sean Carswell, Razorcake
"If you do any sort of independent project (zines, music, film, photography), you need to read this. It's a great guide to cheap DIY promotion. From '25 simple things you can do to get the word out about your project' (how many have you done?) to '25 ways to save money' to the numerous interviews with a range of indie media creators from zine editors (Jen Angel) to musicians (DJ Gordon Hurd) to comic artists (Mike Tolento) and many more. This is a great guide for indie media people who are beyond the 'just starting out' phase, have established their projects, and are ready to promote their work."
—A.J. Michel, Low Hug
Small Press "Featured Title" at Powell's Books
Selected for inclusion on The Bookmobile's 2002 Tour
Interviews
A Quick Interview with Jeffrey Yamaguchi, author and indie magnate -- Facsimilation.com, April 2004
An Indie Publisher Interview: Jeffrey Yamaguchi of Stroboscope Productions -- Razorcake Magazine, Sept. 27, 2002
Radio
Guest on AJ's Playhouse on Channel 93.3, San Diego, CA, Feb. 18, 2004.
Guest on the On The Job syndicated radio show hosted by Stephen Viscusi - July 16, 2000.
Guest on the Ron and Fez Dot Com Radio Show on August 8, 2000.
Guest on Canadian Radio Station News Talk 570 on November 6, 2000.
Press on Bookmouth.com
HoltUncensored.com column #263 - "Jeffrey Yamaguchi: The Experience, The Essay, The Con-iUniverse Stance" (Sept. 11, 2001)
Utne Web Watch Daily - Shutting The Eye (May 30, 2000)
Publishers Lunch - September 5, 2000
"Longtime Lunch readers have a special fondness for Kera Bolonik's article for Salon.com entitled 'Martin the Moribund - Why is the New York Times' publishing columnist so lame?', which continues to be linked on our home page. Bookmouth.com recently posted an interview with Bolonik. In brief, Bolonik reiterates, 'Arnold's reporting is lazy. His writing is careless. His subject matter, or what he believes is interesting to him, is either belabored to death, dated, or insignificant within the context of the industry. The worst thing about the column is that it is completely unsupervised, unedited, and the culture editor feels that the publishing industry only merits this kind of below-average coverage.'"
Press on Stroboscope.com
Soft Skull Press (Website reviews)
"What Jeffrey Yamaguchi does, he does rather well. This page is homebase to his production company, which has created such great DiY works as Working for the Man, (which in my opinion, is at least equal to Temp Slave), the WFTM book (which I bought at Quimby's in Chicago -- funny as hell), as well as all the other great projects and plans the Yamaguchi man has up his sleeve. He's most likely working hard at something new (which would explain the site's infrequent updates), but when you have the time, swing by!"
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