Scott Adams just jumped into the blogging world with his launch of Dilbert.blog. He just has a few (hilarious) posts up, but an amazing amount of comments! Each post brings hundreds of replies. It is quite humbling!
I remember clearly when Dilbert burst on the scene. I see it now as the beginning of the corporate wall of power crumbling, from the employee perspective. Until then, I don’t remember such ruthless ribbing of corporate politics, stupid management moves and absurd cubicle conversation. It became part of the daily routine to share the latest Dilbert cartoon and commiserate with co-workers about the horrible politics of your company.
Even though I may not get 274 comments like Scott Adams, could someone (at least one!) person share what you think about Dilbert and its impact on employee devotion to their jobs?
Dilbert is great — I think that all of us can identify with many of the issues raised by Scott in his cartoon! the comic does a great job of revealing, in an entertaining way, how corporate politics can hurt the success of both employees and companies.
Dilbert catches the frustration with large organizations perfectly! Each one of us has had an experience like Dilbert – either frustration with the Boss or the Consultant. Dilbert encapsulates what is wrong with large organizations when the “people” part of business is left out.
John:
What you didn’t mention in your post is that I was the “Ratbert the Consultant” character that you worked with. My favorite strip? Frame 1: the pointy-haired boss is sitting with Ratbert the Consultant in a hypnotized spell with his arms out in front of him. He says “I am under your consulting spell.” Frame 2: boss says “Your overly complicated matrices and diagrams have convinced me of your intellectual superiority.” Frame 3: Boss says “I am afraid to act without your approval.” Ratbert says “Did I say you could put your arms up like that?”
Dilbert fills the role the Jester played in the Royalty’s Court. He helps us recognize and laugh at the often bizarre behaviors that emerge with you put lots of people together.
It also illustrates very well the reality of the corporate would….even though you work with lots of folks, you are fundamentally on your own. “The Company” can pull the rug out from under you at anytime, making selfish optimisation a viable corporate survival strategy (it only took me 3 corporate jobs to figure that out).
Plus, I have worked with every single character in the strip.
I love Dilbert! I once inserted a Dilbert cartoon into a PPT that I was presenting to the CEO and Exec Team of my company. I was suggesting a restructure and expanded responsibility for the Training Department. I knew they would most likely discount my recommendations, so I decided to call it like I saw it with Dilberts help. Frame 1 – “You gave me a project that can’t get funded because it’s not in the strategic plan”. Frame 2 – “And you won’t let me make waves by asking for changes to the strategic plan… Frame 3 – So I’ll be in my cubicle creating Powerpoint slides, and praying for a reorganization.” And wouldn’t you know it… 2 weeks later we did have a major reorg!