Comment by cainxinth
11 hours ago
From a recent NYTimes article about his passing:
> “Dilbert” was a war cry against the management class — the system of deluded jerks you work for who think they know better. Workers posted it on their cubicles like resistance fighters chalking V’s on walls in occupied Paris. But their bosses posted “Dilbert” in their offices too, since they also had a boss who was an idiot.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/16/opinion/dilbert-scott-ada...
I used to say seeing Dilbert strips in the office is a warning sign. People shouldn’t identify with Dilbert.
When in the 1990s-00s people posted Dilbert strips, it wasn't, IME, because they identified with the character Dilbert.
They did it because they saw in their work environment echoes of the environment portrayed in the comic, of which Dilbert was as much a part as the PHB.
For what it's worth, the only company where I posted Dilbert art (two animation cels that my wife bought for me from eBay) was nothing like the Dilbert world. It's just that I loved Dilbert and I thought it was a funny decoration.
But if there are no Dilbert cartoons on the wall, it might be because the PHB has banned them.
Yeah that. Some ethics and management training programmes leveraged it because they thought it was popular. I still have a dilbert ethics training certificate somewhere as a reminder of how fucked up corp culture is.
American corp in Europe for ref. Defence. Absolute top tier stereotype asshats.
There is a Dilbert takeaway i use at work today: the only thing an employee really wants is more money for the same work/pain, or less work/pain for the same money. I dont do trinkets and titles. My people get as much time off as i can provide, and i will sign most anything that means they get paid a little more.
Very true, Wally is my spirit animal.
https://archive.is/9JVkU
And while we don't have cubicles and TPS reports anymore, people have different grievances and ways of expressing their cynicism.
History does not repeat but it rhymes indeed
We don’t even have cubicles anymore, it’s all everyone shoved onto the same table now.
Indeed it’s telling how bad things haven gotten that many would yearn for the cubicle now
5 replies →
With clean desk policies in some organizations, you would be lucky to have a seat. Initial 5-10 minutes are spent on finding a place to sit.
even worse lol
it's like "I hear you hate cubicles, so we can solve the cubicle problem and save money at the same time"