Author Stanley Bing really hates hard work and outrageously makes no bones about in it in this riotously funny book.

Author Stanley Bing really hates hard work and outrageously makes no bones about in it in this riotously funny book.

In fact, he pours scorn on bosses for getting away with it daily while earning huge salaries.

Ironically he believes we can all follow the bosses' example by "relaxing without getting the axe".

For their part, the bosses are excellent delegators in business, according to the author.

All they have to do is to receive work, which they delegate. They assign work; monitor as necessary, evaluate and re-delegate; accept work with thanks; pass along work to original source; accept credit; and continue policing inattention."

The book abounds with tips on how to work less without being made to join the ranks of the unemployed - euphemism for being fired - and earn a salary.

Bing's description of this undetected, fussy space of inactivity at work is illuminating.

"Some middle ground between slavery and unemployment is called for," Bing says. "The good news is that this enviable status does exist. It's called executive life."

If the reader feels a tinge of guilt for being canvassed to engage in the world of remunerated loafing, Bing borrows from Soren Kierkecaard's famous quotation to deal with the moral dilemma: "Far from idleness being the root of all evil, it is rather the only true good."

To make sense of Bing's loony examples, one has to tread a thin line between the outrageous and reality. One must be cynical enough to make the distinction between career-limiting example and advice to doom.

Having read the book, one will develop enough cynicism to view one's "hard-working boss" differently, especially those who have mastered the drill of managing by walkabout.