Dogbert is the creation of the famous cartoonist, Scott Adams.  He has consolidated his cartoons in quite a few books, one of them is this one titled “Dogbert’s Management Handbook – Top Secret.” 

The book is a satirical one that pokes fun at management and managers.  It offers sarcastic advice to managers on how to deal with different situations managers face at work.  The assumed author of the book is the character Dogbert; a dog who is a guru and a reference on the subject of management – tongue in cheek.  The book is hilarious and hardly a page would go by without a laugh.  It is amazing how well the author can make use of the most intricate details of the daily life at the office to poke fun at work, employees, and most of all management. 

The book is very light reading.  It consists of about a hundred “tips” for managers with each tip demonstrated in both words and also using cartoons to drive the point across in the most witty way imaginable.  The book covers lots of ground including motivating employees, communication, and strategy.  It also include two elaborate and really funny sections about “how to act like a manger” and “how to be a happy manager.” 

My favorite part of the book is the appendices.  Appendix A is only a half page long offering other resources for additional management knowledge.  The author’s list includes “the magic eight ball,” and “the voices in your head.” In Appendix B, the author describes the origin of management using a funny story that shows how the words manager and leader were first used in the stone age.  Leader, according to the author is short for “he’ll eat her,” which is what the stone age people used to say when they were not sure if something is eatable or not.  so, they made up the role of the leader, who was the dumbest person in the group, to use him as a guinea pig. 

As much as I enjoyed the book, I really was not too fond of the introduction.  I did not like how the writer talks to the reader saying that “if you were any good, you would not be reading this pathetic book.” I know this is humor, but maybe I am too uptight about putting people down, even if it was just a joke.

The business world, unfortunately is full of examples as satirical as the skeptical world of business Dogbert portrays.  I am not fond of these cartoons as most of the time I find them depressing rather than funny.  I can relate to him poking fun at these business situations.  However, the skepticism and pessimistic viewpoint that his satire represents puts me down, when it is offered without a possible solution to solve the problem it mocks.  But again, that is not Dogbert’s job.  However, as I read through the book, I felt there was a half story told in each section as it portrays the problem without any hint to a solution.  So, I found myself saying “so…” at the end of each section.

There are other books for Scott Adams similar to this one and as funny.  These include The Dilbert Principle, The Dilbert Future, and The Joy of Work. This book was first published in 1997 and was a New York Times best seller.  It is about a couple of hundred pages long, with about half of the pages or more being cartoons. 

Scott Adams sure knows and understands the workplace.  This comes from the fact that, not only is he a cartoonist but also someone who worked for so many years in “humiliating and low-paying jobs" as he puts it.  During this time, Adams found solace in drawing insulting cartoons for his bosses and employees.  This proved to be a great asset, when coupled with his creativity, in coming up with cartoons that really describe the business scene so accurately.