You loved the comic strip; now read the business advice. 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.

From Library Journal
Adams worked in a cubicle at Pacific Bell for nine years. From there he went on to pen the wildly popular cartoon Dilbert, which appears in over 700 newspapers. He is also the author of six Dilbert books (e.g., Bring Me the Head of Willy the Mailboy, Andrews & McMeel, 1995) and an electronic Dilbert newsletter, has a Web site on the Internet, and is a frequent speaker at business gatherings. His latest book of humorous essays and observations elaborates on the corporate scenarios depicted in his cartoons. The "Dilbert Principle" asserts that the most ineffective workers are systematically moved to the place where they can do the least damage: management. Chapters include such titles as "Machiavellian Methods," "Pretending To Work," and "Engineers, Scientists, Programmers, and Other Odd People." The book is replete with such advice as "Never walk down the hall without a document in your hand" and "The worth of any project is how it will sound on your resume." He stresses the importance of using the word paradigm as often as possible, discusses the value of computers in pretending to be busy, and recommends that workers awaiting performance reviews openly display copies of Soldier of Fortune magazine on their desks. This cynical, satirical, all-too-familiar glimpse of corporate life is unabashed management bashing and is very funny. Recommended for all humor and business collections.?Alan Farber, Northern Illinois Univ., DeKalbCopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Publisher
Ever since Machiavelli set out the principles of princehood, the public has been hoodwinked into believing that with the right advice on swimming with the sharks, managing in one minute, and searching for excellence, accompanied by the application of reason and logic, success would be theirs. In The Dilbert Principle: A Cubicle's-Eye View of Bosses, Meetings, Management Fads, and Other Workplace Afflictions, Scott Adams finally puts things in perspective, fearlessly acknowledging an eternal truth: "If you've worked in the business world for more than ten minutes, you know it's an immense exercise in the absurd." Unlike other business books, Adams actually illustrates the truth in action: examples of his hilarious comic strip, Dilbert, are packed into these pages, a "vision" statement par excellence. Totally fabricated statistics, free-wheeling research (mostly letters and e-mail messages from his devoted readers), and highly subjective first-hand reports of his own experiences in "the cubicle" provide Adams with compelling evidence that the "Peter Principle" (competent workers are promoted until they reached their level of incompetence) has been supplanted by the "Dilbert Principle": the most ineffective workers are systematically moved to the place where they can do the least damage: management." Ripping aside the flimsy corporate curtain, Adams exposes the impact of The Dilbert Principle on the day-to-day doings at the workplace and reveals in graphic terms: The hidden symbolism of office furniture, for example, why a secretary's chair never has arm rests, and of dress codes, wherein a necktie equals a leash, panty hose equal leg irons, and high heels are the undeniable mark of a masochist.

The skills, know-how, and blatant self-deception required to create a business plan entirely free of the constraints of reality. The fine art of business communications: how to convey one's worthiness for promotion without accidentally transferring any useful information. The low-down on gaining wealth and personal power at the expense of people who are studying how to be team players. A definitive analysis of the meeting as performance art, including detailed descriptions of such common characters as the master of the obvious, the well-intentioned sadist, the whining martyr, the rambling man, and the sleeper. An invaluable lexicon of trends and trendy terms, featuring plain English definitions of empowerment, market segmentation, performance review, management consulting (with an eye-opening dissection of "alternate scenarios"), and team-building exercises. Scott Adams has his finger on the pulse of American business practices today, from no-fail employee strategies for success in such vital areas as organizing a workspace to assure interruption-free naps, making sure meetings go your way (and go quickly), and padding the budget, to the most accurate list ever published of the ten great lies of management and an in-depth examination of how they are camouflaged in such optimistically proclaimed "programs" as employee recognition, change management, (the once-ubiquitous) Total Quality Management, and (the now-ubiquitous) reengineering. And, as it tickles readers to the point of uncontrollable laughter and awakens a chorus of "Hey, that sounds just like my office," it smartly points the way to a saner and a more productive work environment for employees and managers alike.

About the Author: Scott Adams, formerly a mid-level manager assigned to cubicle 4S700R at the Pacific Bell headquarters, began recording his impressions of corporate life in a corporate cubicle in the comic strip Dilbert in 1989. His six Dilbert books include Dogbert's Clues for the Clueless, Always Postpone Meetings with Time-Wasting Morons, Build a Better Life By Stealing Office Supplies, Shave the Whales, Bring me the Head of Willy the Mail Boy, and It's Obvious You Won't Succeed By Your Wits Alone. He lives in California.

From AudioFile
The Dilbert books have topped the bestseller list because author Adams hits the "hot button," as well as the funny bone, of anyone who's ever worked for a corporation. This book presents the everyday foibles in the world of work with a view from the cubicle. Adams's voice sounds like the guy in the cubicle next to yours, who has learned to deal with the corporate bureaucracy while poking fun at it. With just the right touch of sarcasm in his reading, Adams will have you laughing while you're shouting, "He's right!" Adam's wins the Management Guru award hands down. S.I.R. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Dilbert, Scott Adams' cartoon character, has become the workplace hero for the 1990s. Surely there is not a cubicle-occupying, meeting-attending, team-building-exercise-participating employee today who has not put one of Adams' cartoons on the office bulletin board or staff-room refrigerator door. In America's fastest-growing comic strip (700 newspapers and counting), Adams regularly and delightfully lampoons and lambastes incompetent bosses--and the subject matter of just about every business book reviewed in these pages during the last several years. Sometimes too true to be funny, Adams' observations strike a chord with anyone "just trying to do his or her job." More than a compilation of past strips--though over 100 do appear--this book includes new essays on all aspects of corporate life and culture, and each one is on target and deliciously sardonic! David Rouse

Book Description
The creator of Dilbert, the fastest-growing comic strip in the nation (syndicated in nearly 1000 newspapers), takes a look at corporate America in all its glorious lunacy. Lavishly illustrated with Dilbert strips, these hilarious essays on incompetent bosses, management fads, bewildering technological changes and so much more, will make anyone who has ever worked in an office laugh out loud in recognition. The Dilbert Principle: The most ineffective workers will be systematically moved to the place where they can do the least damage — management. Since 1989, Scott Adams has been illustrating this principle each day, lampooning the corporate world through Dilbert, his enormously popular comic strip. In Dilbert, the potato-shaped, abuse-absorbing hero of the strip, Adams has given voice to the millions of Americans buffeted by the many adversities of the workplace. Now he takes the next step, attacking corporate culture head-on in this lighthearted series of essays. Packed with more than 100 hilarious cartoons, these 25 chapters explore the zeitgeist of ever-changing management trends, overbearing egos, management incompetence, bottomless bureaucracies, petrifying performance reviews, three-hour meetings, the confusion of the information superhighway and more. With sharp eyes, and an even sharper wit, Adams exposes -- and skewers -- the bizarre absurdities of everyday corporate life. Readers will be convinced that he must be spying on their bosses, The Dilbert Principle rings so true!

About the Author
Scott Adams is the creator of Dilbert, the comic strip that now appears in 1,550 newspapers worldwide. His first two hardcover business books, The Dilbert Principle and Dogbert's Top Secret Management Handbook, have sold more than two million copies and have appeared on the New York Times bestseller list for a combined total of sixty weeks.

FROM OUR EDITORS

In a world of TQM, re-engineering, and empowered secretaries, Scott Adams's Dilbert is the poster boy of corporate America. Centered in the workplace, the syndicated comic strip has struck a chord with working stiffs all over the country. Indeed, Adams himself seems somewhat stunned by the popularity of his cubicle-dwelling creation. It seems no matter what bizarre, preposterous elements he incorporates into Dilbert's workday life, he can't stay ahead of what his readers are experiencing in their own offices! Now Adams & Dilbert share their views on bosses, faking quality, meetings, market research, the performance review, more. B&W illus.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In a world of TQM, reengineering, and empowered secretaries. Dilbert has become the poster boy of corporate America. Millions of office dwellers tack Scott Adams's comic strip to their walls when murdering the boss is not an acceptable option. After seventeen years of working in a cubicle and reading thousands of e-mail messages from readers who've been "downsized," "rightsized," "flattened," and put in charge of "quality teams," Scott Adams can no longer restrict himself to a single artistic medium. Now, in an unabashed attempt to cash in on the lucrative business book market, Scott brings us The Dilbert Principle. In twenty-six provocative, illustrated chapters, Scott Adams reveals the secrets of management in every company, including swearing your way to success, faking quality, business plans: world's greatest fiction, trolls in the accounting department, humiliation as a management tool, selling bad products to stupid people, and more!

SYNOPSIS

In a world of TQM, re-engineering, and empowered secretaries, Scott Adams's Dilbert is the poster boy of corporate America. Centered in the workplace, the syndicated comic strip has struck a chord with working stiffs all over the country. Indeed, Adams himself seems somewhat stunned by the popularity of his cubicle-dwelling creation. It seems no matter what bizarre, preposterous elements he incorporates into Dilbert's workday life, he can't stay ahead of what his readers are experiencing in their own offices! Now Adams and Dilbert share their views on bosses, faking quality, meetings, market research, the performance review, more. Black and white illus. 336 pp.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

Adams worked in a cubicle at Pacific Bell for nine years. From there he went on to pen the wildly popular cartoon Dilbert, which appears in over 700 newspapers. He is also the author of six Dilbert books (e.g., Bring Me the Head of Willy the Mailboy, Andrews & McMeel, 1995) and an electronic Dilbert newsletter, has a Web site on the Internet, and is a frequent speaker at business gatherings. His latest book of humorous essays and observations elaborates on the corporate scenarios depicted in his cartoons. The "Dilbert Principle" asserts that the most ineffective workers are systematically moved to the place where they can do the least damage: management. Chapters include such titles as "Machiavellian Methods," "Pretending To Work," and "Engineers, Scientists, Programmers, and Other Odd People." The book is replete with such advice as "Never walk down the hall without a document in your hand" and "The worth of any project is how it will sound on your rsum." He stresses the importance of using the word paradigm as often as possible, discusses the value of computers in pretending to be busy, and recommends that workers awaiting performance reviews openly display copies of Soldier of Fortune magazine on their desks. This cynical, satirical, all-too-familiar glimpse of corporate life is unabashed management bashing and is very funny. Recommended for all humor and business collections.Alan Farber, Northern Illinois Univ., DeKalb

AudioFile - Steven I. Ramm