Adults Acting Like Children

This is not a real book. It’s actually a functional notebook/journal with a ridiculous fake book cover. Or, as we call it, a Phantom Book. Because why have a boring journal when that space could be used diabolically? Carry it into a meeting. Leave it on your desk at work. Gift it to a friend with absolutely no explanation.

Adults Acting Like Children: Passive-Aggression, Escalations, and Emotional Maturity in the Modern Corporate Workplace is disguised as a serious workplace psychology book examining the possibility that corporate life is basically recess for grown-ups—complete with strategic tattling, passive-aggressive emails, unnecessary escalations, carefully constructed alliances, and coworkers who would rather copy three levels of management than simply have a conversation.

Perfect for coworker gifts, office gag gifts, White Elephant gift exchanges, Secret Santa, boss gifts, employee gifts, retirement gifts, office parties, and anyone who has spent enough time in corporate America to recognize every person in this book. It’s especially suited to managers, HR professionals, remote workers, Slack survivors, meeting veterans, and people who appreciate dry workplace humor, passive-aggressive office jokes, absurd gifts, and books that look alarmingly legitimate sitting on a desk.

Unlike most gag gifts, this one is actually useful: once your coworkers have finished quietly deciding which chapters are about each other, you’ve still got a real notebook for meeting notes, to-do lists, ideas, or documenting something “just for visibility.”

The cover is the joke. The pages are yours.