Dirty work: film, books, games and more to help with the daily grind

From Office Space to the Rakes' 22 Grand Job, Guardian critics suggest culture to cope with the pressure, politics and crushing ennui of earning a living

Fashions in workplace design have changed since Office Space. When Mike Judge released his cult comedy of unhappy software programmers in 1999 - two years before Ricky Gervais launched The Office - his characters were still penned up in cubicles. The film flopped, but it would be nice to think that on some subliminal level it hastened the end of that particular era. Of course, what followed - hot-desks and the open-plan - was just as dreadful. But that much was in keeping with what Judge told us all along. A wilful printer can be destroyed. The rest of it? The pass-agg line manager? The presenteeism and paranoia? The hatefully chipper co-worker diagnosing a case of the Mondays"? All that is eternal. You can't change the office, Office Space said. You can only leave it. Danny Leigh