Office Hell? Barrelhouse Wants You to Write About It

Always fresh, every time I visit the Barrelhouse website, I can’t help but laugh out loud. (With them, not at them – or at least I’d like to think so.) Their latest: “Barrelhouse Invitational: Office Life Edition.”

Dave Housley, “One Fifth of the Barrelhouse Editorial Squadronand” writes: “we’re looking for fiction, poetry, nonfiction, whatever, about that wonderful, soul-sucking, red stapler obsessing world of the office. No entry fee or anything, and winners will be published in the special Office Life section of Barrelhouse 8, which will come out in June.”

But for full entertainment effect, you have to visit the site and view the accompanying pdf memo, or my favorite,the PowerPoint presentation, with its effective use of bullets, arrows, and inclusion of a clear and concise mission statement, timeline, and measurable and desired outcomes. For anyone who has ever worked in an office environment or with admin hierarchies, you can’t help but cringe and laugh at the same time.