The Dilbert Principle: A Cubicle'S-Eye View of Bosses, Meetings, Management Fads & Other Workplace Afflictions

Or should that be anti-business advice? Scott Adams provides the hapless victim of re-engineering, rightsizing and Total Quality Management some strategies for fighting back, er, coping. Forced to work long hours, with no hope of a raise? Adams offers tips on maintaining parity in compensation. Along the way, Adams explains what ISO 9000 really is and assesses the irresistibility of female engineers.

The breath-taking cynicism of the strip should prepare readers for the author's no-holds-barred attack on management fads, large organizations, pointless bureaucracy and sadistic rule-makers who glory in control of office supplies. Readers of the on-line Dilbert Newsletter are familiar with the kind of e-mail Adams receives from his readers -- and may even have sent a few of those missives themselves. Along with illustrative strips, e-mail messages provide excruciating examples of corporate behavior which compel the reader to agree with Adams when he insists that "People are idiots".

The final chapter offers a model for would-be successful businesses to follow: the OA5 model. It's introduced with little fanfare, no outrageous promises and just the right amount of self-deprecation.

I have been trying to justify the Peter Principle and could not make it fit but after reading this book all things became clear. It is impossible to keep a straight face in meetings with out seeing the different types of personalities doing their thing. I can even anticipate what they are going to say and the reactions.

Usually as most books and movies you recognize everyone but yourself. The most obnoxious person will laugh at his stereotype or just not get the point when it comes to movies and books. However this book is scary in the fact that I could see myself when Scott was describing engineers. And it took a little while to realize what he was talking about the ringing device that knows when to break your concentration.

I am going to leave a copy on QA's desk.

MY next must read is "Dogbert's Top Secret Management Handbook"