I've used "The Secretary's Portable Answer Book" by Peggy J. Grillot and Lynda R. Abegg, printed by Prentice Hall.  (ISBN 0-13-042466-8)

It's in a question and answer format and I've found it to be quite useful. It's several years old and I'm not sure if it's still available.  

I hope this helps, and best wishes to your wife in her new situation.

In my office, the guideline is skirts should be no shorter than 2 inches above the midpoint of the knee.  There's no guideline for low-cut tops, but I think there should be absolutely no cleavage showing.  Our policy allows for walking shorts but nothing sleeveless.  I should also add that this policy is not strictly enforced; it's pretty much at the discretion of the department director.    

You can find info here:

http://www.officedynamicsltd.com/forum_overview.html

Are any of you planning to attend the Office Dynamics forum in San Jose in October?  

Mine pale by comparison to caring for someone's dog and bailing someone out of jail, but here they are:

I once worked for a very "intense" professor.  His office was on the third floor of a building and some construction workers were using noisy machinery on the ground. I had to go tell the workers to not make any noise while he was in his office.  They just rolled their eyes and kept on working.

Another boss was wearing a new pair of pants and discovered that the back pockets were still sewn shut.  I had to cut the pockets open while he was wearing the pants.  I wasn't crazy about having my hands that near his rear, and was afraid I cut his brand new, expensive pants in the process.  It worked out OK--I still work for him six years later.  

One of my biggest distractions and annoyances is people who supposedly finish a meeting in a conference room, but then continue to discuss issues (loudly, of course!) in the hallway when they leave the conference room.  They will also start a meeting without shutting the door to the conference room.  My colleague and I are constantly shutting the door to the conference room.  

I use blue for almost everything.  I like the fact that you can tell an original signature when it's in blue.  Ironically, my boss hates blue and always signs in black.  I can't convince him that it's easier to tell an original document when it's signed in blue.

I also use a fpurple or green pen when I'm proofreading or taking persona notes.

To clarify my viewpoint:

I wasn't offended at all by the vocabulary discussion, but I was offended by the first paragraph.  

misslynn,  I agree with you.  I didn't think this was very funny either, and thought I was the only one who felt that way.  Thanks for speaking up!

I've put this off all week, but now I'll confess that after 11 years in this office I recently cried--and the worst part was that it was in front of my boss.  He has a sarcastic manner, but always says he's just kidding.  He left me a scathing voicemail in a very serious (not kidding!) tone of voice.  Later when he saw me he asked me if I'd gotten the voicemail, and I broke down and cried (and it was not just a few tears--it was full-blown sobs--not a pretty sight!).  I've been very frustrated and hurt before because of his sarcasm, but I'd never cried in front of him and what upset me most was not what he said, but that he saw me cry!  He ended up apologizing and insisting that he was kidding.  I think my crying was a culmination of putting up with his cutting sarcasm for so many years.  

Is there a rule about adding or not adding a file path at the end of correspondence?  We're having a minor disagreement in our office about this...some of us feel it is useful and others think it is inappropriate to add.

This was driving me nuts--I figured there had to be a name for those things, so I checked out a symbols Website.  They're called braces.  This is what the site says:  

This is the well-known modern ideogram used in typography and writing, the braces, indicating that braced elements belong together and used for grouping elements and relating them to some other entity.

I believe it means "by proxy."

I use shorthand almost every day in my job.  One of my bosses dictates correspondence frequently and I use it all the time for taking meeting minutes.  It's either that or a tape recorder and I find shorthand to be much easier to transcribe.  The secret is practice-practice-practice.  I highly recommend it, although most people think I'm a relic for using it!