This is the Part Where You Pretend to Add Value

Dilbert #31

by Scott Adams

"Ninety percent of ethics is picking the right ethicist." --Dilbert

Scott Adams offers up his this Dilbert collection exploring themes of sloth and corporate indifference. The arbitrary, unspoken rules of interoffice emailing, the random policy generator, and the knowledge that management has indeed given up ever trying to win an award for best place to work all combine to make life in the Dilbert workplace as demoralizing as real life.

Dilbert navigates through the same corporate 9 to 5 existence in which his readers physically dwell. Dilbert, Dogbert, the boss, Wally, Alice, and Catbert tackle corporate indolence, avarice, and pretense one strip at a time, from the neighboring cubicle whistler to the project naysayer to the guy who's always just too busy to lend a hand.

Genres: Humor, Comics, Comic Strips, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Graphic Novels, Fiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2008

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Scott Adams was a defining voice of the American white-collar experience who transitioned from a prominent cartoonist into a polarizing political commentator. After earning an MBA from UC Berkeley and spending years in management at Pacific Bell, Adams launched the comic strip Dilbert in 1989. The strip’s sharp satire of corporate bureaucracy and the "Dilbert Principle"—the idea that incompetent employees are promoted to management to minimize their damage—resonated globally, eventually appearing in 2,000 newspapers and winning the prestigious Reuben Award. Beyond the funny pages, Adams explored philosophy and persuasion in works like God's Debris and Win Bigly, the latter of which analyzed Donald Trump’s rhetorical strategies during the 2016 election. His career took a dramatic turn during the mid-2010s as he shifted focus to his daily "Real Coffee" livestream, where he combined his background in hypnosis and corporate strategy to comment on the "culture wars." This period of independent commentary culminated in 2023 when he reacted to a poll regarding racial tensions with a series of inflammatory remarks. Labeling Black Americans a "hate group" and advocating for racial segregation, Adams faced immediate and widespread repercussions; hundreds of newspapers dropped his strip, and his publisher canceled his upcoming projects. Undeterred, he moved his work to the subscription-based platform Locals, rebranding his comic as Dilbert Reborn. In his final years, he faced severe health challenges, including stage IV prostate cancer and vocal cord issues, yet he remained a prolific presence on social media. He eventually announced the end of his hand-drawn work due to focal dystonia but continued to direct the strip's vision. Adams’s legacy remains a complex study in the power of branding, the evolution of digital influence, and the volatile intersection of creative genius and political provocation in the modern era.

Reviews

[Gary Sundell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Both the daily and Sunday strips are in color. I noticed a bit of overlap with the prior book. More fun with everyone's favorite cubicle dweller.

[Robin Reynolds · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes after a long day at work with an aggravating idiotic micro managing boss, a little Dilbert is the perfect tonic.

[Neha Gupta · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thinkI have always liked Dilbert comics - they are humorous and at the same time shows the dark side of office politics & cut throught world.. I can identify so much with so many of the incidents mentioned - thought not the same dialogue exchange but the theme, the results & the wastage of time in big corporate world where somewhere we loose the real purpose amongst big KRAs, objectives, targets, Vision, etc etc etc. One can become a Star for any reason. There is nothing like competnce based even though all industries talk about all processes & achievements on basis of competence. We try to convince ourselves its momentary, lets look at long term, we look at injustics & unfair world calling it ways of corporate world.. we question and then learn not to question but just accept as it is.

The Dilbert Characters are also something u could find in ur office - neuoretic, weird, useless, incompetent, noise makers, boot lickers, unreasonable bosses, evil supervisors, meddling people who are only there to create issues & increase ur work, quiet workers, no work but great people's people, HR policy makers, totaly cluless amnagement, faffying MBAs, techie engineers, etc etc..

so they say it - u hate it but u cant live without - after all who will give u a monthly pay for doing nothing.. but the corporate world.. just keep pretending to add value..

[Doc Opp · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like Dilbert books in general, but this one had me laughing out loud more than any others I've read in recent memory. It's nothing short of amazing that Adams can continue to put out fresh and funny material after having done this for so many years.

[Jess Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Management at its best

For those of us who remember what it was like before COVID with everyone in office and how management would pretend to be competent. Or hiding this incompetence. This comic depicts what life was like during those times and it’s fun to look back at those days grateful they’re nearing their end. Honestly, since everyone began working from home unproductive managers are getting cleared out or finding better ways to hide.

[Odysseus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did you know that there is a doodle for every case or situation you have met during your career in a (organization) company? Well there is and there are hilarious stories about it. Scott Adam's Dilbert doodle series shall be on the coffee table of every company and everyone should read this. Especially managers.

[SKP · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m reading my way through most of the Dilbert collections available on Kindle, and enjoying every minute. Dilbert, Dogbert, Catbert, Wally, Alice, and everyone else are a hilarious bunch. I think most people who have worked in any sort of office setting with co-workers and a boss can relate to them. I often think maybe Scott Adams was spying on former workplaces of mine…

[Ian McHugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dilbert is funny. Most are amusing. Some of these cartoons made me LOL.

[Ian Higgs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intelligent humour

More intelligent humor from Scott Adams to rescue us from the stupid, pointless, crazy, real world as it is at the moment.

[Tavia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the end -- the last time I gave Scott Adams my money. I'd learned too much.

[DOUGLAS J BERRY · Rating 5 out of 5]

Go away cancellers

Good color artwork in sequential form. These are all in color and feature a Scott Adams self representation. Only mindless idiots hate these.

[Jeff J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve retired and can now see the humor in the workplace.

[Martha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh it was fine

Same old jokes, same themes. Nothing new under the sun. I didn't laugh out loud once. Maybe he's out of jokes?

[George Polansky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for stress release.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used to joke that you could tell a lot about the morale in an office by how many Dilbert strips were stuck up on the walls. As physical newspapers have dwindled in popularity, it doesn't work as well.

Nevertheless, Scott Adams' look into office politics, incompetent bosses and crazy co-workers can still provide a great combination of laughter (cynical or otherwise) and "Hey, I work with someone just like that."

I came home to find a signed copy (complete with hand drawing of Dogbert) of this book as a gift and finished it over the course of the evening. Great fun.

[Weaam]

you have to read this of you are going to work in any kind of corporates,or if you are already work there!
can't stop laughing! actually i think am more like Alice>>"we think she wasn't hugged enough"! :D :D

[Little Timmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

We all might have started out like Calvin with a great view of life. But after hitting the workforce we all somewhat become Dilbert. Everyone knows someone like one of the characters in the strips. Highly recommended

[Rachel Redhead · Rating 4 out of 5]

You pretty much know what you're going to get in a Dilbert book, witty and sometimes biting sarcasm about office work, some of them are so achingly spot on it hurts and others make you laugh at the absurdity, and yet wonder if its based on a flight of fancy or a real anecdote.

[Tresuiri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes eerily insightful to various aspects of our modern serfdom drudgery.

[CRM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny....still relevant in the work place.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I laughed out loud multiple times.

[Lui Vega · Rating 4 out of 5]

Way funnier than I expected.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another solid collection of Dilbert strips, this time from late 2007. Still ridiculous how relatable so many of these strips are to actual office life.

Most of the jokes this time are really managerial related.

"Morale dollars" made me laugh: