Oh, the meetings youll go to! A dark, new Dr. Seuss parody takes on the modern office

Oh, the meetings youll go to A dark, new Dr. Seuss parody takes on the modern officeOh, the meetings youll go to A dark, new Dr. Seuss parody takes on the modern officeFor decades, the Dr. Seuss childrens book Oh, The Places Youll Go has been used to inspire young graduates and anyone going through a transition in his or her life. But a newly released book, Oh the Meetings Youll Go To, is briningthat starry-eyed enthusiasm downto Earth in aparody of American startups, modern careers, and ambition squandered by bureaucratic bottom-lines.AuthorDr. Suits - also known as Eric Nelson- is offeringsome harsher corporate truths to millennials, in rhyme.Youll meet the worlds brightest, youll hang with the best /And now that youve met them, youll work with the restWith Zohar Lazars illustrations, the parodys protagonist is depicted as a young, suited man navigating a world ofSeuss-like animal characters set in boardrooms and cubicles. Hes a tiny David among furry Goliaths.In Dr. Suits darker fairy tale on bootstrapping success, the goal is treating your parents to dinner and making partner by thirty.If you succeed, KID, YOUll BUILD EMPIRESBut to get there, youll need tosurf through piles of work - literally, in the case of the protagonist. Under Dr. Suits retelling, millennials are smart striverswith plenty of ambition but no bosses to hear them. As our millennial protagonist wonders what to mentionin meetings, if mentioning mobile help break up the tension? no one is paying attention to him. Instead of innovating or listening to ideas, these officesareWaiting for Facebook to show somethingfun, waiting for colleagues to get their work done, waiting for growth, so the firms number one for new standing desks to make their feet numb, for surging to end so their Ubers can come. Waiting, just waiting.The book warns us that wedont want to become like those co-workers in stasis, always looking down at whats in their hands instead of at the world around them. Referringto the markers of U.S. millennial identity- Uber, Tinder, Taylor Swift- the book is specifically a parodyof the American white-collar workforce, illustrating the sweat underneath the cheery narratives of Silicon Valley startups promising the world.With dark circles under the protagonists eyes, the book capturesthe stresses and pressures placed on young workers Youll feel overworked. / (Can you die young from stress?) / Try leid to melt down- / youre such a hot mess.One arresting image of the book is the protagonist running away from downward graph arrows falling from the sky as our narrator demands Youll have to press on. / Gotta pay back investors. / Youll have to press on. / Please the board of directors.In Oh, The Places Youll Go, Dr. Seuss noted that failure was a part of the pitfalls of life. And when youre in a Slump, youre not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done, he warned. Dr. Suits protagonist is also in a slump. At one low point, hedoubts his career choices in a lonely cubicle long after everyone else has left the building.But he perseveres, he achieves Inbox Zero, and his reward, for better or worse, is more meetings. The parody is an absurd fable, but it also recognizes the absurdity within the bureaucracy of corporate offices.Soremember, graduates, dream big, youre off to great meetings.And as with every generation,the trick is to balance the work with the play. / Have fun- but invest in your 401 (k).