Comic Book Reads: Build a Better Life by Stealing Office Supplies by Scott Adams

It was in 1989 that Scott Adams brought into the comic strip world the American workplace everyman of the anti-gravity tie - Dilbert. Cubicle work stations, tyrannical managers, a sly human resource department, unfair sharing of company profits, the art of prolonging team meetings - are all part of the replicated landscape of the modern computer-infested office world, complete with black humour and wisecracks.

This book of the elongated title is not a comic strip collection, it is part of a separate series called Dogbert's Big Book of Business. For starters Dogbert evolved from been Dilbert's dog to the 'Evil Director of Human Resources', once the strip permanently moved from Dilbert's home setting to the workplace.

The jokes in this collection are seldom uproariously funny or reflective, but they do hold a mirror to  pretence, procrastination and theatricals that employees and employers engage in. Each strip of this 111-page book starts with Dogbert monologues, yet Adams always manages to pack something varied into each panel.

Sample some of Dogbert introductions here:

  

One sure way to the top is to invent scapegoats in the company and lead the charge against them. Ideally, the scapegoats should be powerless and funny looking.  

To be a successful manager, you must learn to be insensitive to the needs of your employees.

Big companies use most of their resources trying to keep people from getting mad at them. 

Mondays are not part of the productive work week. 

A good book for smiles and guffaws among the office crowd. If you are one of them, you are certain to convince yourself that stealing office supplies doesn't amount to thievery.  


(Article by Snehith Kumbla)