Burnt out NYC consultant turns office politics into board game

A Queens man tired of getting sneaky and office-political quit his job as a technical consultant and created a board game — about sneaky and office-politics.

Sysifus Corp. reflects “death by 1,000 paper cuts” Wonmin Lee, 30, said he felt while working for software company Citrix.

“You can only write so many stupid corporate emails before it really gets to your heart and you’re like, ‘Why am I doing this?'” the Astoria native told the Post.

The objective of the four-player game is for each player to visit three executives in their corner offices, curry favor with them, and then make it back to a last-corner performance review. Along the way, players draw cards like “Spread a Rumor” or “Blame the Blame” that slow enemies down.

For anyone fed up with toxic office culture, Sysifus Corp is “the best thing you can do to legally stab your co-workers in the back 😈” according to its website.

The panel looks like a normal office – sterile and grey, full of cubicles, artificial ficus plants and workers at keyboards. Areas that dictate where players are going resemble post-it-laden computer screens displaying jargon-laden emails with messages like “Consider CYA before EOD if you’re OOO on PTO or WFH.”

“It’s jargon that doesn’t make sense, but everyone still agrees to use it,” Lee said.

The game, which has sold 500 copies and is available online and at Gamestoria in Queens for $40, was released in September, a month in which 4.4 million Americans quit their jobs in the ongoing trend, economists The Great called resignation.

“I could ride the wave of it. A lot of people resonate with that, quitting their jobs and trying to do their own thing,” said Lee, who quit his job in 2016 and has made game design his full-time job. “In that sense, I’m something of a hipster. I did it before the pandemic.”