The Joy of Work: Dilbert's Guide to Finding Happiness at the Expense of Your Co-Workers

by Scott Adams

Book Overview

"I cried because I did not have an office with a door, until I met a man who had no cubicle." -- Dilbert A message from Scott Adams: I think the next wave of office design will focus on eliminating... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0887308953
• ISBN13: 9780887308956
• Release Date: September 1999
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Superb Business Book

I do not read Dilbert books for the humor, that part is simply a plus. I read them because of the serious business strategies in them.I highly recommend this book for any low level office workers. Having personally done most of the things in this book, I can say the "tricks" are for real. If you are one of those employees who gets your work done in 2 hours when your boss allotted you 40, then what are you going to do with the other 38 hours?The book follows the flow of Serious, Joking, Serious. It starts with paradigm-shifting philosophy, then it morphs into humor and finally it ends with a nice section on "how humor works". Nicely Done.

Hilarious Book, Out Loud Laughter - From A New Dilbert Fan

This is one of the first Dilbert books I have read. I enjoyed the book and thought it was outright hilarious. It is a nice easy read to relax and you will be laughing out loud. I usually do not laugh out loud when I am reading books, but this book did it for me. There were two sections of the book that stood out to me. I especially liked the section on office pranks written in by readers of Dilbert to Scott Adams. Also particularly amusing is the instance where Adams pretends to be a consultant at Logitech. Read the book to see what happens. Not too surprising, but funny. Whether you are a longtime Dilbert fan or a newcomer to the Dilbert series, I would recommend this book for a quick and funny read. I have also read The Dilbert Principle, but I found this book much funnier.

Dilbert is the best in a line of business cynics

Dilbert follows an established line of business cynics. Parkinson wrote that "work expands to fill the time available". Peter wrote "Managers in an organization rise until they reach their level of incompetence". And Robert Townsend, ex CEO of Avis, wrote that "consultants borrow your watch to tell you the time".Adams is aware of this and in his book, The Dilbert Principle, he refers to the Peter Principle as "those Golden Years when you had a boss who was once good at something".If Dilbert is not the first, he is the best. Unlike the others, he has achieved mass circulation and adorns t-shirts, coffee mugs and cubicle walls. The key to success, says Adams, is segmentation. "If you can sell enough units to the Stupid Rich... then you can lower your prices and sell to the Stupid Poor, (which is) where the real volume is."The Dilbert principle states that people are idiots. We are just idiots about different things at different times. "No matter how smart you are, you spend much of your day being an idiot." Big corporations encourage idiocy to thrive. They reward the symptoms of competence, above competence itself. Scott Adams himself had a brief foray as the super consultant, Ray Mebert. He dressed up, put on a wig (never forget the emotional intelligence of good hair), and helped a group of executives at an international company create "the longest, most useless, buzzword-heavy mission statement on earth". It was when they were putting it to music (since "there is a wealth of evidence that people can remember words more easily if they are put to music"), that he finally came clean.With the advent of Mebert, we are looking at a new age in consulting. One day we will look back to the Golden Days when consultants borrowed your watch and at least told you the time. The new Mebert consultants will take your watch and at most will ask you to describe it.

Way Underrated

Thsis book was funny and true. Most of the people who criticized the second section probably didn't stop to think that Adams' humor formula actually works.

Two Words: Read It

This book is probably the funniest thing you will read in a long, long time. It is absolutely, incredibly, painfully funny, and it has some real tips thrown in for good measure. Any one who calls themselves a Dilbert Fan and/or has any sense of humor should get this book. As a DNRC member and a fan who has all Scott Adams' books, I can truly recommend this as one of his best to date.