Though I never worked in a large corporation, Dilbert has always been one of my favorite comic strips.
Maybe that's because, just as all politics is local, all businesses are the same at some fundamental level. No matter how much we like our colleagues, sometimes they drive us nuts (not that they ever think that about us). And no matter how much we may dislike a colleague, wishing they will be assigned to Elbonia simply won't get rid of them. Treachery and deceit may, however, speed up the process.
So: Dilbert captures the essence of the workplace. Any workplace. In Scott Adams's pared-down style, we see the often frustrating struggles for one's daily bread and java. I start my day with Dilbert online, over my toast and coffee, because like Wally I am too lazy to go to the end of the driveway to get the newspaper. Besides, the coffee would get cold.
Adams very recently redesigned his Web site, giving the whole a more techy cast such as displaying the day's strip in a console. The redesign greatly enhances the opportunity for reader interaction and adds features such as animated strips and a mashup feature that lets readers write their own dialogue for Adams' strips. A quick sample shows that we should all keep our day jobs ...
I've worked with a few Wallys - as well as rage-consumed Alices, overly qualified intern Asoks, a bunch of Teds (usually the empty-headed marketing guy).
The animal characters in Dilbert remind me of some other folks in my work history (notice how cleverly I avoided a specific verb tense here). Dilbert's ineptitude with women pings my inability to make small talk in social situations and reminds me of many a failed evening.
Oddly, I've never had a pointy-haired boss—if you don't count the guy who hired me at a print shop out of college and then proceeded to bounce my payroll checks. I have seen my share of buzzword toters, though.
In short, reading Dilbert before heading into work every day is like putting on clean underwear and using Dial soap - it gives me the illusion of being ready for whatever greets me at the door. As the fan spins merrily around me, I can snort and think to myself, "Well, at least this isn't as bad as Dilbert was today." Adams's monthly newsletter outs in narrative form the weasels and "In-duh-viduals" that populate cubicle farms and machine shops alike.
Having said all this - if you are still reading this, I guess I am still employed here. Dilbert and continued employment don't always go together. While untold millions of copies of and links to Dilbert strips have flown around workplaces for years, there was one that landed a guy in deep Elbonian doo-doo a while back.
Posting the famous drunken lemur strip at his workplace - a failing casino - got Iowan David Steward fired. He sued and the company let it go to court, instead settling it in a more civilized way such as jello-wrestling in the town square.
The judge, who had a better sense of humor than a drunken lemur apparently does, ruled for the guy who got fired. Then Adams twisted the stapler deeper in a series of strips in which Wally is fired for posting that same offensive cartoon.
Revenge is sweet. Mockery is even better. Dilbert is tiramisu drenched in expresso ice cream.
