Working Wounded Site: Information and Humor

Looking for a job is right up there with going to the dentist for most people -- painful but necessary. Although the Working Wounded website doesn't take away the day-in, day-out grind necessary for discovering that perfect way to make a living, it is guaranteed to bring a smile to your face.

The website is a spin-off of the successful newspaper column and book of the same name by Bob Rosner. The column appears in the Sunday San Francisco Examiner.

How to Get Around on the Site

Clicking on the Working Wounded road sign, which is shot full of holes, takes you to the informative index, which is billed as a place that adds insight to injury. This interactive site keeps the viewer busy filling out interesting polls, surveys, and contributing to advice bulletin boards. The weekly Working Wounded column is one of the links and it, too, offers a chance for reader contribution. For example, one column featured an e-mail from an ex-convict having trouble finding a job. On the "Cool Stuff" link, there was a spot for readers to write what they thought about hiring ex-cons, with the best response winning a $100 gift certificate from Costco.

Most of this site is strictly for fun, though. Feel you can't find the perfect job because you don't have a degree? No worries. Click on "free degrees," type in your name, field of study and e-mail address, and there you have it, a downloadable degree from Working Wounded University.

Interested in seeing where other people work? Check out the photo page with pictures of everything from cows (what one copywriter sees from a window) to a jam-packed closet-size cubicle.

There's even a confessional for sins committed in the name of commerce. Whatever evil thing you've done -- playing poker at the boss's desk, stealing paper clips, or, in one case, firing a nine-months pregnant worker -- visit the virtual confession booth. Of course, readers have an opportunity to grant you either absolution or damnation

If you happen to be browsing through the site and your boss walks in, hit the red "boss is coming" button. It takes you to Program Mangler, complete with icons and a control panel, as well as a MacroHard Xcel sales graph.

On the surface, the Working Wounded columns seem to be the serious underpinnings here. However, tips and insights from the advice and even the confessional links offer unique ways of looking at and solving problems on the job. This site is simple to follow and easy to use. Graphics are plentiful but small, so it loads quickly. If you feel expressing your opinion in cyberspace is important, this is the site for you.

On my mouse clicks scale of one to five, I'd give it a 4 for humor and a 3 for content -- so a total of 3-1/2 for the Working Wounded website.