The secret of office survival (The Dilbert Principle - Scott Adams)

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Product:	The Dilbert Principle - Scott Adams
Date:	03/04/05 (125 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very Funny

Disadvantages: American references

This is a very scary book for anyone who has worked for a big company or in an office. If David Brent managed to show the cringe worthiness of office life Scott Adams through his cartoon character Dilbert manages to show the absurd and ridiculous action of companies, managers and employees.

Who is Dilbert?

Dilbert is the comic strip creation of Scott Adams. Dilbert is an engineer and spends his days working in his cubicle. Hardly a role model employee Dilbert is always drawn wearing a short-sleeved shirt and a tie that turns up at the ends.

Adams draws the inspiration for his cartoons from the nine years that he worked for Pacific Bell and also from the huge number of real life experiences that people post to him.

The Content

Adams has put together a book that begins with the theory that we are all idiots. He includes himself in this category highlighting his inability to change the batteries in his pager. He also justifies it with the example o when Kodak bought out a camera called the Weekender. Customers then called the support line to check that it is ok to use it in the week.

He then uses this premise to highlight the absurdity of business over the next 24 chapters. However it is not all-pointless fun making because in Chapter 25 he actually presents his New Company Model OA5 with the warning that following his recommendations may not actually benefit you but at least they are unlikely to do you much harm.

Each chapter takes a topic and examines it thoroughly. Throughout, both his cartoons and actual true-life examples punctuate the text. No area of business life is spared his observation and everyone will be able to identify with some parts of his work.

Chapters include his observations on
Great Lies of Management
Performance Reviews
Marketing and Communications
Management Consultants
Meetings
These are a few of my favourites mainly because they related most to my own workplace.


My Opinion

I loved this book and found it very funny indeed. Also because of the way that it is written you can read the chapters in any order you like and it is the sort of book that you can drop in on at any time. I have read it twice now as well as a few random sections and each time I find something different to bring a smile to my face.

It immediately struck a chord when Adams described how all companies will say that they employ the best people (my company) however the company will also have a policy of paying wages at the industry average (again my company) so why would the best people work for the average salary?

The only real criticism I would have is that obviously this book is written based upon the American workplace. In this country with the tendency for open plan workspaces the concept of the cubicle is not one we are familiar with. There are also a couple of chapters on very American topics and therefore some of the references lacked clarity however this is a minor inconvenience and does not detract from the satire and humour.

The real life examples are by far the funniest and especially when they are used to confirm the observations made by Adams.

If you want to check out the humour in Dilbert cartoons go to ww.dilbert.com. The rrp for this book is £4.99 although Amazon has it for £4.79 and from £0.50 used. I have even used some of the examples quoted in my own presentations at work and in training sessions so it has been money well spent.

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