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.
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