Introduction
As my career makes my hair more pointy haired(read management role), I
start to worship the pointy haired boss and hence my collection of Dilbert books increases. To get a pulse of what my fugitives int he cubicle feel like, I got my hands on Fugitive From The Cubicle Police.
The Contents
As the name suggests the book is all about the miserable life of the
engineering species that live in the cubicles. The book also defines
all the new managing paradigms which have emerged over the last couple
of decades including cost cutting, mass layoffs, outsourcing and
re-organizations.
Some of the series that can be found in this book are:
1) Dilbert finally finds a girlfriend to date: Yes, finally the engineers of the world can breathe easy. Scott Adams feels that even they can have girlfriends.
2) Dogbert’s rise from a normal employee to the President of the company:
Dogbert gives a roadmap to every ordinary employee how she/he can fast
track their way to becoming the president of the company!
3) Ratbert’s attempt to get admitted into the Dilbert household: Ratbert is getting desperate to become a part of the Dilbert household.
4) Team building activity: Pointy Haired boss implements new team building activities like walking on burning coals.
5) Re-organization Strategies: Dilbert’s organizations goes through various re-organization and layoffs.
Critic’s Viewpoint
I have always loved the everyday morning Dilbert strip, but when it comes to Dilbert
books I have always felt that a underlying story makes the book more
interesting rather than just an assorted collection of strips.
Fugitive from the Cubicle Police falls in the second category
i.e. it is just a collection of assorted strips relating to office
based topics. Each of these strips have the Scott Adams stamp of authentic humor. Some more so than others.
Amongst the characters, the most visible characters apart from Dilbert
are Dobgert, Pointy Haired Boss and Wally. Ratbert also gets a
substantial coverage in this book. Despite being all about Office
Politics, the near absence of Alice is surprising. Also, the fact that
there is no Catbert involved to crush the spirits of the employees is a
big let-down.
Having said so, the book is still enjoyable and all Dilbert
fans would love the strips and cherish the topics that are bashed. From
my point of view, I got some very valuable tips from the Pointy Haired
Boss in cost cutting and project management:). I could feel the my
hair getting a bit more pointy haired at the end of the book. So my
evolution has been benefited by this book.
Some Snippets from the book
Boss: My boss says we need some Eunuch Programmers.
Dilbert: I think he means Unix and not Eunuchs. And I already know Unix.
Boss: If the company nurse drops by tell her I said "Never Mind."
Boss: Take care of this immediately. It’s your TOP Priority.
Dilbert:TOP Priority? This is dated last month. It’s been on your desk for weeks and NOW it’s your top priority?
Boss: I said it’s YOUR top priority. I still don’t care about it.
Dilbert: Well. Okay then.
Summary
All in all another Dilbert book with good office humor. It is a collectible for those who prefer to read the book rather than a strip a day.
All in all I would rate this book a high 4 star rating.