THE REAL OFFICIAL EXECUTIVE SURVIVAL BOOK: How to Stay in Office Politics

Slick, slippery advice to the organization man who suspects he may be on his way up and out. How to detect ""the ugly truth"" behind the jovial mask and the proffered martini. Lund notes that the road to the Exec. V.P.'s chair is usually boobytrapped with back-climbers and back-stabbers lurking behind the water-cooler. The advice, which often boils down to platitudes or common sense (""A maverick can go just so far in a conservative outfit""; ""one executive usually backs up another""), is tendered via a series of office morality plays in which some poor hardworking bastard finds himself fired, transferred, demoted or squeezed out for reasons ranging all the way from a company merger to dancing once too often with the boss' wife at the office Christmas Party. In these rough economic times, Lund seems to be saying, you've got to be fast and tricky. It's the sort of book that could inspire you to think about growing your own vegetables on a commune in Vermont.