Reading about working is not a break.

But it can help.

One of the books I picked up to handle issues at work is The No Asshole Rule by Robert I. Sutton. I saw myself in the pages when he described people-who-appear-to-be-assholes. He says to work with the seemingly cold, aloof person that you might have tagged as an asshole; it may turn out that they're not so bad once you get to know them. And I say hear-hear. We're not all social butterflies or Oscar Wilde around the water cooler, and why would we all need to be?

He also spoke of someone who told a recruiter (I'm paraphrasing), "I don't want to be friends with these people; I came here to work." Though this was tagged as a non-team player attitude, it resonated with me as well.

I find my workplace easier to tolerate if I imagine that it's a David Mamet play and I'm just another character in it.