Local Man Injures Back While Sleeping: Full Match Report From the Decline
He went to bed healthy. He woke up unable to turn his head left. A full match report on middle age's most dangerous sport: sleeping.
MAKE THIS WORSE →THE MAGAZINE · ISSUE 44 · NOVEMBER 2026
THE MAGAZINE
Long-form disappointment about life, work, money, love and technology.
We Are Not a Family, Gary: The Lie Every Company Tells
Your CEO says the company is a family. Families don't usually make you redundant via a 9am calendar invite titled 'Update'. Gary does.
MAKE THIS WORSE →Daily Standup Phrasebook: What Your Team Actually Means
'Still working on it, no blockers.' Translation: I have not started. A brutal phrasebook for the fifteen-minute meeting that eats forty.
MAKE THIS WORSE →Office Cake Economy Enters Recession; Analysts Predict No Recovery
Birthday cake supply in the third-floor kitchen has collapsed. Economists, and a man called Keith, warn the worst is yet to come. It is.
MAKE THIS WORSE →Why Your Weekend Lasts 14 Minutes (And Your Life Is Mostly Weekdays)
You had 48 hours off. You remember 14 minutes. A forensic diary of the average weekend, and of how many you have left.
MAKE THIS WORSE →The Five Stages of a Quick Sync (A Grief Model for Your Calendar)
Someone asked for a quick sync. That was eleven weeks ago. A grief model for the meeting that will outlive the project, the team and you.
MAKE THIS WORSE →Anatomy of a Quick Call: A Post-Mortem
'Can we jump on a quick call?' Minute zero: hello. Minute 63: you have aged. A forensic post-mortem of the most dangerous phrase in agency life.
MAKE THIS WORSE →Your Annual Engagement Survey (Brutally Honest Edition)
It's anonymous. It's confidential. It came from your manager's personal email. The engagement survey, with the answers nobody dares tick.
MAKE THIS WORSE →A Field Guide to the Reply-All Ecosystem (Where Careers Go to Die)
One accidental email to 4,000 people. Forty minutes of chaos. How to identify every species that crawls out of the inbox, and which one is you.
MAKE THIS WORSE →Open-Plan Office: User Manual (No Walls, No Focus, No Escape)
Congratulations on your new open-plan workspace. Please read this manual carefully before attempting to concentrate, think or feel anything.
MAKE THIS WORSE →Will AI Replace Me? An FAQ for Developers Who Should Be Nervous
Will AI take my job? Yes. Does it attend standups? It doesn't need to. A frank FAQ for developers whose replacement is already in beta.
MAKE THIS WORSE →Diary of the Friend Who Plans Everything (Unpaid, Unthanked)
Day 1: suggested dinner. Day 6: still chasing deposits. A week inside the head of the friend who organises everything, for nobody, for free.
MAKE THIS WORSE →Newsletter / Issue No. 444
THE WEEKLY DISAPPOINTMENT
One email a week. Advice you didn't ask for, statistics about your decline, and observations that will quietly ruin your Sunday.
No spam. Just disappointment. Unsubscribe whenever you regain hope.