Welcome to Sysifus Corp Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• What's included
• Office layout
• Setup for your first day at work
• How to win at this company
• Projects
• Tasks
• Company Influence
• Office Politics
• An Example Workday
• Certificates (Optional)
• Tips for Success

What's included

You will find all the necessary tools for you to succeed in this welcome package. Notify your manager at [email protected] if you have any questions or concerns.

Office Board

New Hire Orientation / Performance Review (1 double-sided card)

Boss Cards (3 double-sided)

Project Cards (25)

Office Politics Cards (100)

Certificates of Achievement Cards (12)

Employee Datasheets (4)

Employee Tokens (4)

Company Influence Trackers (4)

Workhour Tokens (20: 14 black, 2 red, 2 purple, 2 green)

Memo Tokens (5)

Office layout

Office layout diagram (as printed): Certificates of Achievement face up (Optional) are shown outside the four corner tiles of the Office Board, next to the Boss cards (the New Hire Orientation card occupies the fourth corner).

Office Politics Deck (pre-selected), x 40

Projects Deck, x 25

Each employee receives:

• Office Politics Cards, x 3
• Project Cards, x 2
• Employee Token, x 1
• Company Influence Tracker, x 1
• Workhour Tokens, x 3
• Memo Token, x 1

Setup for your first day at work

1. Set out materials according to the office layout on the previous page.

   • Make an Office Politics Deck (10 different cards, 4 copies of each). Set aside the remaining cards. See page 18 for a list of recommended cards.
   • Shuffle the Office Politics Deck and the Projects Deck separately. Leave some space for the discard piles.
   • Optional: Place Certificates of Achievement face up besides the Bosses.

2. Each employee receives...

   • 3 Office Politics Cards
   • 2 Project Cards
   • 1 Employee Datasheet
   • 1 Employee Token
   • 1 Company Influence Tracker
   • 3 Black Workhour Tokens
   • 1 Memo Token

3. Each employee places...

   • their Employee Token onto the New Hire Orientation Card.
   • onto their Employee Datasheets...
     • a Company Influence Tracker on 0 in the Company Influence section.
     • 3 Workhour Tokens in the Unused Workhour Tokens section.
     • 1 Memo Token in the Memo Task section.

4. Whoever has the least amount of unread emails in their personal or work inbox starts first. Employees then take turns clockwise.

How to win at this company

The first employee to visit all 3 Bosses before returning to the Performance Review will receive the coveted Promotion.

1. How do I visit the Bosses? You must work on various Projects and build your career path to the Bosses.

2. Where is the Performance Review held? The Performance Review is held at the same location as the New Hire Orientation. Flip the New Hire Orientation card over after everyone has left.

3. Is there a specific route I have to take? No, your career path is determined by you. You can visit the Bosses in any order you wish.

4. What if I don't want the promotion? Then please throw this package away as you are officially terminated from the company. We do not need underachievers like you.

Projects

Place Project Cards to build your career path to the Bosses and back.

1. What are Project Cards? Project Cards are required to move on the Office Board. Use them to build your career path to the Bosses and back to the Performance Review. When placed on the board, all cards can be used by all employees.

2. Where do I get these cards? All employees start with 2 cards. If you have less than 2 at the end of your workday, draw from the Projects Deck until you have 2 cards. There is no hand limit to these cards.

3. What does a card look like? The card diagram labels the following parts: Company Influence (currency gained, shown as a number in the top-left corner), Sticky Notes (indicates movement), and Flavor text (no purpose).

4. How do I move from card to card? All Project Cards have Sticky Notes that indicate where you can move.

   • There must be 2 connected Sticky Notes—an entrance and an exit.
   • Movement does not wrap around to the other side of the board.
   • Corner Sticky Notes can only be used for diagonal movement.

   The movement diagram shows which neighboring cards can move in both directions (matching connected Sticky Notes, or a Memo Token), and which cannot move in either direction.

5. What about the Boss / New Hire Orientation / Performance Review cards? These cards are covered in Sticky Notes and therefore can be entered from any neighboring card with a corresponding Sticky Note.

6. What if there are no Sticky Notes in the direction I want to go? You can place Memo Tokens which allows for movement without any Sticky Notes.

Tasks

Use Workhour Tokens to plan out your daily tasks and maximize your productivity.

1. How do I complete tasks? You can complete tasks by using Workhour Tokens.

   • You have 3 tokens per workday (workday = turn).
   • You may use all 3 tokens on the same task or various different tasks.
   • You do not have to use all 3 tokens in a single workday.
   • Use your Employee Datasheet to keep track of tasks completed. Move them back to the Unused Tokens section to signify the end of your workday.
   • Workhour Tokens are not used to pay for Office Politics Cards.

   The Tasks example diagram shows, on the first day of work, an employee who might: (1) Place a Project Card, (2) Move onto that Project Card, and (3) Conduct Research.

2. What are the tasks I can do?

   Place — Place a Project Card from your hand onto an empty neighboring tile.

   • They may be placed in any orientation.
   • They do not have to be connected by Sticky Notes.

   Move — Move onto a neighboring card that is connected by Sticky Notes or a Memo Token.

   • If the card is a Project Card, gain Company Influence as noted.
   • Optional: If the card is a Boss Card, select from the corresponding Certificates of Achievement and choose 1 to keep. Please refer to the "Certificates of Achievement" section (page 22) for more information.

Company Influence

Strategically use your Company Influence to manipulate the workplace.

1. What is Company Influence? Company Influence is the official currency used to pay for Office Politics Cards. Please refer to the next page for more information.

2. How do I gain Company Influence? Every time you move onto a Project Card, you earn Company Influence as noted on the top left corner of the card. Use your Company Influence Tracker to keep track of your current Influence.

   • You may leave and return to the same Project Card to gain Influence again.
   • You may not have more than 5 Influence at any time.

   The Company Influence diagram shows a Project Card with the value 2 and a tracker moving from 1 to 2 on a scale from 0 to 5 (Max).

Office Politics

In order to be promoted, you must strategically leverage your Office Politics Cards. This is the most important aspect of the culture at Sysifus Corp.

1. Where can I get these Office Politics Cards? All employees start with 3 cards. If you have fewer than 3 at the end of your workday, draw from the Office Politics Deck until you have 3 cards.

   • If you have 0 cards at the end of your workday, draw to 4 instead.
   • There is no limit to the number of cards you can have in your hand.
   • If you run out of cards to draw, shuffle the discard pile to recreate the deck.
   • Trading is not allowed. Nor is mentioning what cards you have to others.

2. How do I use these cards? You may use as many of these cards as you want at any point during your workday.

   • Place all used cards face up on the discard pile at the end of the workday.
   • Used cards are not considered to be discarded until the end the workday unless stated otherwise on the card.

3. What are the costs associated with these cards? All costs are listed on the left side of the card. You must pay using a combination of Company Influence and other Office Politics Cards.

   • You do not need to spend a Workhour Token to use these cards.

4. What do certain parts of the card stand for? The card diagram labels: Card type, Card name, Effect cost, Effect details, Addon cost, and Addon effects.

   Card type — the type of Office Politics Card.

An Example Workday

Here is an example of a productive first day of work at Sysifus Corp.

The red employee has the fewest amount of unread emails and therefore goes first.

1. They use their first Workhour Token by moving it from the Unused Hours section of their Employee Datasheet to the Place section under Tasks.

2. They take 1 Project Card worth 2 Company Influence from their hand and place it on the tile to the left of the New Hire Orientation card, aligning the Sticky Notes so they can move onto the card.

3. They use their second Workhour Token by placing it on the Move section. They move their Employee Token onto the Project Card they just placed, gaining 2 Company Influence. They move their Company Influence Tracker accordingly on their Datasheet.

4. To prevent other employees from following the path that was just created, they look at their hand of Office Politics Cards to see if there's anything they can do. They notice that they have a Spread a rumor card.

5. The Spread a rumor card lets them rotate a Project Card but which card they rotate depends on the cost they pay. Since there aren't any Project Cards that are 1 tile away, they cannot activate the main effect of the card.

   However, the second Addon ability of the card allows them to rotate the card that they are currently standing on instead. That sounds useful in this situation.

6. By paying 1 Company Influence and 1 extra Office Politics Card (chosen among the leftover 2 in their hand), they rotate the card they are standing on in such a way so that the others cannot follow.

7. They spend their last Workhour Token by placing it on the Research section. They draw 3 Office Politics Cards from the deck. Then they return any 2 from their hand to the top of the deck. They figure that having extra Office Politics Cards will be useful in the future for their career.

8. They finally end their workday by drawing back up to 3 Office Politics Cards and 2 Project Cards. In this case, they draw no Office Politics Cards since they already have 4, and draw 1 Project Card since they only have 1.

The employee sitting clockwise from the red employee now starts their workday. All employees continue to take turns. Once all employees have left the New Hire Orientation, flip the card over to the Performance Review side.

The first employee to visit all 3 Bosses before returning to the Performance Review card will receive the coveted Promotion and is the winner!

Certificates (Optional)

When meeting a Boss for the first time, you will receive a Certificate of Achievement.

1. What are Certificates of Achievement? Do I have to receive them? Certificates are optional bonuses given to exceptional employees. Decide with the other employees before the New Hire Orientation whether or not to include these Certificates.

2. How do I receive Certificates of Achievement? Choose a Certificate to receive from each Boss when you visit them. Therefore, being the first offers you the most options. You may not receive more than 1 Certificate per Boss.

3. What can I do with Certificates of Achievement? Certificates have different effects and may be used at any time during your workday. Either use them immediately or save them for a rainy day. Keep them face up in front of you.

4. What are the different types of Certificates? Red and Blue Certificates (Square and Circle) may only be used once. Green Certificates (Triangle) may be used once on each of your workdays. Flip them face down after use.

Tips for Success

1. Use as many Office Politics Cards as you can every workday.
2. Move as much as you can every workday, even if it's a bit out of the way.
3. Sabotage others and help yourself at the same time—2 birds, 1 stone.
4. Don't waste your Company Influence. Spend it before gaining more.

"The key to a successful career in the corporate world is knowing how to utilize office politics." —The 1%