The Dilbert Principle: A Cubicle's-Eye View of Bosses, Meetings, Management Fads and Other Workplace Afflictions.

According to Scott Adams the "Peter Principle" (competent workers are promoted until they reach their level of incompetence) has been supplanted by the "Dilbert Principle" (the most ineffective workers are systematically moved to the place where they can do the least damage: management). In this book Adams, who spent nine years as a "necktie-wearing, corporate victim assigned to cubicle 4S700R at Pacific Bell," offers a humorous look at contemporary business.

The chapter discussing business meetings as performance art, with detailed descriptions of a cast of characters including the master of the obvious, the well-intentioned sadist, the whining martyr, and the sleeper, had me laughing out loud. I also enjoyed learning various secrets of management including: sweating your way to success; faking quality; business plans as fiction; humiliation as a management tool; selling bad products to stupid people; and more. The author uses his own business experiences, samples from his comic strip "Dilbert," letters and e-mail messages from readers of his six Dilbert books, and "totally fabricated statistics" to develop his ideas.

Adams believes that "If you've worked in the business world for more than ten minutes, you know it's an immense exercise in the absurd." That outlook, and the book, may give some solace to workers who feel stressed out from too many deadlines, demanding co-workers, and fears of downsizing.