Fyi: Bean Counters Have Sexy Ideas Too Paperback - 2006

From the publisher

"FYI: Bean Counters Have Sexy Ideas Too -- histories and mysteries of words used in the office" is a light-hearted exploration of interesting words and phrases used in the office such as: 800-pound gorilla, ASAP, bells and whistles, blue chip, boilerplate, re-boot, breadwinner, can of worms, cash cow, caveat, cursor, CYA, devil's advocate, downsize, empowerment, FYI, glass ceiling, glitch, grain of salt, hatchet man, head honcho, headhunter, headquarters, jump through hoops, metrics, outside the box, paradigm, per diem, Post-it, pro forma, push the envelope, rat race, red ink, rule of thumb, SKU, skunkworks, SNAFU, snake oil, spam, status quo, and synergy. The book includes chapters on people, locations, airlines, analogies, animals, the body, brand names, common errors, computers, corporate speak, customer service, foreign words and phrases, formalization and sophistication, gestures, and intimacy. Each exploration of a word typically contains a definition, a light-hearted made-up quote using the word, the word's history, interesting quotes from real people using the word, and the author's commentary. The book is designed for fun browsing and light reference. The author's (or narrator's) personality comes out clearly in humorous references to his career. Introductions to chapters include fun vignettes about the author's first day on the job, a family of cat's discussing their day in metaphors that make the reader think about humans' use of metaphors, a history of brand names, a discussion of acronyms vs. initalisms, the difference between a preposition and a proposition, a conversation between an employee and an angry manager -- conducted completely in gesture, and the story of alonely business man trying to interest a European beauty at a business conference. Thirty charming, delightful drawings accompany the text. They include a cat pulling on his pajamas, Archimedes running naked down the street yelling "Eureka!," the cover drawing of a bean counter sweating at his abacus, Johnnie Cochran using foreign terms to describe an office conflict, the lonely business man, looking like Mickey Spillane, speaking with the European beauty, who looks like Sophia Loren -- and many others.