Work

“My Exercise Ball Experience as Dante’s Inferno“

September 14, 2017 By Professor Elizabeth Coggeshall

“Circle/Hour Five: Wrath

“I cross the river Styx with weakening legs, fusing vertebrae and congealing spinal fluid from this damn ball. I don’t know why I thought it would be easy. If I were really sullen about my experience, perhaps I would find myself horribly immersed under the black water of the Styx for all eternity. I guess I am not all that sullen. Instead, my wrathful side takes out my anger on my rundown. I’ll teach you to mess with me, Soundbite On A Boring Topic. You’ll pay for my pain.

“A total of ten people have now kicked the ball.” — Jeremy Markovich, “My Exercise Ball Experience as Dante’s Inferno: A Biblical Parable About a Non-Standard Option for Office Seating,” Comedy Corner on Medium.com (September 9, 2014)

Carl L. Harshman and Ryan D. Harshman, “Dante’s Cubicle: Paving the Road from Hell in Corporate America” (2015)

May 28, 2016 By Professor Arielle Saiber

“This is a business fiction, but . . . the stories are based on real life events. Michael, a young, enthusiastic engineer in his first full-time job, narrates life with this “worker bee” colleagues in the world of cubicles. The colleagues are a diverse group of individuals one is likely to find in such a setting. Early in the book a mysterious character appears to engage Michael in dialogues about what is going on in the Archangel Corporation. This mysterious individual provides perspective and occasional advice to Michael on what he is experiencing and how he might engage it going forward. Everyone who has worked in an American corporation can identify with Michael’s and the group’s experiences and gain some perspective on the alternatives during the journey.” —Amazon

Nine Levels of Work Hell

November 27, 2014 By Professor Elizabeth Coggeshall

“Mind-numbing meetings, overflowing inboxes and urgent projects that require you to drop everything–do ever feel like parts of your workday are a personalized form of hell? If you’re frustrated by ineffective work processes–and complaining to coworkers over drinks–you’re not alone … After surveying approximately 1,000 AtTask.com users, Nielson identified nine levels of “work hell,” those things that irritate people most. He shares the levels and offers solutions for eliminating the suffering.” — Stephanie Vozza, Fast Company, February 20, 2014

Read the full article here.

Nine Circles of Employee Engagement Hell

November 5, 2013 By Professor Elizabeth Coggeshall

“If you have spent any time traveling in the HR landscape, chances are at some point or another you’ve found yourself in what I would call ‘Employee Engagement Hell.’ With a nod to Dante, I thought it might be fun to map the challenges to engagement a la the 14^thcentury epic poem Divine Comedy… In Dante’s famous Inferno, the poet is led through the nine levels of the underworld by the Roman poet Virgil. The journey through each level (or circle) represents an allegorical journey of the human soul. My interpretation may be somewhat less allegorical—and definitely less epic!—but I do hope to offer some Virgil-like advice as to how to escape from each very real level of disengagement.” — Darcy Jacobsen, Globoforce, August 13, 2013

Read the full article here.

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