TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER The Bookworm Sez Advertisement

So the other day you stopped for your newspaper, a doughnut, chips for lunch and coffee on your way to work. You were in a good mood -- until you went to pay for your purchase.

The clerk was surly and your change was practically thrown at you. What the heck ever happened to customer service?

Author Alex Frankel knows. He spent a few months working in the front lines of several top businesses, and in his new book, "Punching In," he talks about interviewing, working and what he learned as an employee.

From the time he started holding a job, Alex Frankel was always curious about how people make their livings.

With wanderlust in his heart, Frankel decided to mesh travel and work by applying for front-line positions at well-known businesses with good reputations.

This book is about his experiences as a (brief) employee for corporations that are instantly familiar to most North Americans.

Starting with UPS, Frankel helped deliver packages one Christmas season. He couldn't have chosen a better first job for his experiment: He loved it so much, he coveted UPS logo clothing that longer-term employees wore.

Although he considered staying after the holiday season ended, he moved on.

He applied for jobs at Whole Foods and the Container Store, but online applications weeded him out. He interviewed the maker of such tests, to find out why.

A two-week training period at Enterprise Rent-a-Car launched Frankel's management career there, but he wasn't tempted to stay. Long hours, pushy sales practices and unwillingness to "buy in" to corporate tenets made him happy to go.

But not as happy as he was to flee employment at the Gap. His main job there seemed to be folding clothes, and he was admittedly bored to death. Frankel had a stint at Starbucks and at an Apple Store, both of which he liked well enough.

And then he went back to his first love -- writing -- to use his surreptitiously-kept notes for this fun book.

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to work for or own a huge company whose PR department gushes but whose employees might have a different opinion?

Author Alex Frankel tells you in this part-expose, part-psychology, part-Gen-X story.

I liked Frankel's honesty when he examines his experiences vis-á-vis what the corporations would like him to think. Some intriguing things, it seems, can be learned when one really gets "in the trenches," including things the CEOs might be horrified to hear.

I didn't like that Frankel seemed to have his mind made up about some companies before he even applied for work. He admits to a positive feeling toward UPS from the get-go, but I got the impression that he applied at the Gap because he felt he needed to check out a major clothing store.

Would his experiences have been different at, say, Macy's or TJMaxx?

Still, if you wonder whether the grass is greener on the other side of the cubicle, this is a good book to read. "Punching In" is definitely worth (pay)checking out.

"Punching In: The Unauthorized Adventures of a Front-Line Employee," by Alex Frankel, Collins, $24.95, 222 pages, includes index.