From: glevy-AT-acnet.pratt.edu
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 1996 13:07:24 -0500 (EST)
Subject: [62] DISGRUNTLED: ONE OF WEB'S MOST UNUSUAL MAGAZINES (fwd)


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Curtis Price <cansv-AT-igc.apc.org>
Subject: (Fwd) [62] DISGRUNTLED: ONE OF WEB'S MOST UNUSUAL MAGAZINES

Haven't visited this site yet myself, the notice just came in my mailbox this 
morning. Web site is at: http://disgruntled.com/ - Curtis Price


------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date:          Wed, 21 Feb 1996 03:15:18 -0500
From:          NewsHound-AT-sjmercury.com (NewsHound)
To:            cansv-AT-igc.apc.org
Subject:       [62] DISGRUNTLED: ONE OF WEB'S MOST UNUSUAL MAGAZINES

Selected by your NewsHound profile entitled "WORKPLACE VIOLENCE". The 
selectivity score was 62 out of 100.

Disgruntled: one of Web's most unusual magazines
BY TODD COPILEVITZ

Dallas Morning News

Had a really bad day at work? You know, the kind that spurs fantasies of 
throttling the boss or quitting in such a blaze that you don't just burn the 
bridge, but nuke it?

If so, you're just the person for Disgruntled (http://www.disgruntled.com/), one
 of the Web's newest and most unusual electronic magazines. Unlike many of the 
publications on line, this one has nothing to do with computers or defining 
what's digitally hip. Disgruntled instead has a simple slogan: ``The business 
magazine for people who work for a living.''

Where else can frustrated workers of all types find ways to make their bosses' 
lives hell? The first four monthly issues have featured stories about turning in
 your company for using illegally copied software, pranks to get even in the 
workplace and filing a discrimination complaint with the federal government.

The publication even carries a unique disclaimer. ``Warning, Disgruntled may 
seem impolite to some readers. These pages contain language that may be deemed 
inappropriate for young children and employers.''

``There's a sense that traditional business writers write stories for the 
shareholders and CEOs of the world,'' says Daniel Levine, the 34-year-old 
founder and editor. ``We're reporting from a worker's perspective.''

Ironically, Levine is a traditional business writer, by day, for several 
publications in the San Francisco area. It's at night when he becomes champion 
of the rank and file.

``It seems everyone is griping about work. It's becoming a national pastime,'' 
he says. The magazine claims inspiration from such authors as Studs Terkel and 
Paul Krasner.

But Levine is quick to note that Disgruntled isn't just for the masses on the 
assembly line, in the mail room or in the secretarial pool.

The magazine's first Disgruntled Employee of the Year was Mark Whitacer, the 
former president of Archer-Daniels-Midland's bioproducts division. Last year he 
quit the company after becoming an informant for the FBI, accusing his bosses of
 a worldwide price-fixing scheme.

Disgruntled was supposed to be a traditional publication, once a month, on 
paper, distributed by mail. But finances curtailed those plans, and the Web 
version was born, Levine says. It immediately found an audience.

More than 1,000 people signed up for a mailing list that notifies them of each 
new issue. Thousands more have stumbled in while surfing the Net, and stayed to 
sample the fare.

One guy even signed up to write a piece for the magazine, his fantasy of getting
 even at work. Called ``Scrooged Again,'' it was the story of a postal worker 
who shoots his boss, then kills himself. The 15-page story dwells on the 
damnation his comatose boss endures as a result of his misdeeds at work.

Unfortunately for the author, his bosses didn't find the piece very amusing. He 
was fired a few days later for ``unacceptable and disrespectful conduct.''

``I wish we could say they read the story on our Web site,'' Levine says. ``But 
it turns out the guy made copies and was handing them out at work.''

Disgruntled's readers are nothing if not true to their cause. Within a day or 
two of his firing, other readers sent the author more than 100 job leads and 
plenty of encouragement.

``That's been the real surprise of having a Web magazine, the instant dialogue 
between readers,'' Levine says. There's a discussion group at the site, and each
 issue has a regular column called Getting Gruntled, a sampling of the 
discussions.

Other departments include Quitting Time, personal tales of how people quit in 
style; the Complaint Department, where workers learn how to get even, legally; 
Tales of Corporate Horror, a serial from the novel of the same name; and the 
Morning Briefing, a roundup of news items about disgruntled workers around the 
world.

There's one other option, the boss button. At the bottom of every page is a 
small icon. Click it and a spread sheet pops up so your boss won't know that 
you're surfing instead of working. The title of the bogus report: ``Our Mission 
Is to Increase Shareholder Value.''

``Our content might be a little dark, but we never lose our sense of humor,'' 
Levine says.

X X X

Todd Copilevitz can be sent electronic mail at toddcop(at)onramp.net or U.S. 
mail at P.O. Box 655237, Dallas, Texas 75265.

X X X

(c) 1996, Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Information 
Services.

AP-NY-02-20-96 0621EST


This material is copyrighted and may not be republished without permission of 
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