Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel: A Guide to Outwitting Your Boss, Your Coworkers, and the Other Pants-Wearing Ferrets in Your Life FROM OUR EDITORS
The Barnes & Noble Review
In this scathingly funny satire of corporate life, Scott Adams, the cartoonist whose deadpan style and ruthless honesty have made him the spokesperson for cubicle dwellers everywhere, calls upon Dilbert, Dogbert, and their colleagues to expose that most pernicious of workplace scourges -- the weasel! What exactly, you may be wondering, is a weasel? Well, a weasel is someone who doesn't know how to do his job but is a master at covering it up. A weasel is also someone who continuously annoys her coworkers but is unfailingly promoted to management-level jobs. In fact, weasels are ubiquitous and all-powerful: If you want to succeed, start asking how you, too, can become one! Throughout the book, Adams uses both cartoons and text to expose the strategies by which weasels have gained power. For example, the weasel manager can "motivate" his or her employees by telling them how much their raises would have been in a better economy. A highlight of the book are real emails from office workers recounting weasel-like behavior at their companies -- like the tale of a "New Attitude" campaign in which a manager fined her employees a dollar each time she caught them not smiling. As a bonus, Adams gives you some very direct techniques for dealing with unwanted coworkers: If you're trapped by a weasely office mate who just won't leave, nothing says "I need some quiet time" like trying to gnaw off your own arm! Thanks to Scott Adams, office workers everywhere can save their sanity with this hilarious book. Amina Sharma
FROM THE PUBLISHER
In this national bestseller, Scott Adams looks into work, home, and everyday life, exposing the devious weasel-like ways of people around us -- bosses, coworkers, contractors, stockbrokers, politicians, and others -- and offers hilarious ways of triumphing over each and every one of them. With appearances from all of the regular comic strip characters, Adams and Dilbert are at the top of their game -- master satirists who expose the truth while making us laugh our heads off.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip and author of The Dilbert Principle and other huge sellers, now shares his sentiments on the office colleague everyone loves to hate: the weasel. This crafty character is the co-worker who stabs colleagues in the back and manages to get ahead without lifting a finger. As one cartoon illustrates, the weasel is the guy who tells poor Dilbert, "I'm Bucky, the project manager. Your assignment is painfully difficult and probably unnecessary. If you need me, I'll be complaining about you to your boss." Being a weasel isn't all bad, though; Adams observes that weasels often have successful careers without ever doing much work. There are several ways to accomplish this, one being, "For every task you plan to do, it's a good idea to have sixty tasks that you've promised to do later if you ever find the time. This gives everyone the impression that you are valiantly battling an avalanche of work and fighting against long odds to make the company successful. Or they might think you're a worthless, inefficient weasel. Either way, the pay is exactly the same and it cuts down on your workload." In short chapters, Adams discusses a variety of weasel behaviors, including leaving incorrect phone numbers to confuse callers, mastering the art of whining, and communicating effectively (which is "to say as much as possible without saying anything"). Sprinkled with Dilbert cartoons throughout, the book will strike a chord among the countless cubicle-dwellers to whom the weasel is all too familiar. 50 cartoons. (Nov.) Forecast: Given Adams's track record, along with a 25-city radio tour, a 15-city NPR campaign, a TV satellite tour and national advertising, this one is likely to take off quickly, especially among those disillusioned or just plain fed up with corporate America. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
AudioFile
Sometimes laugh-out-loud funny and always irreverent, this presentation deflates every ego in sight with a wry and goofy read by Dilbert's creator. The corporate world is his main target, but anyone—and everyone—is game. Self-deprecating and occasionally using material that becomes laughable only at the last moment, Adams is a tightrope-walking jester having a fine time with us and himself. True to his weasel roots, Dilbert never actually makes an appearance on the recording. But for a refreshingly original laugh-fest you'll want to share with anyone possessing a job or a pulse, listen and learn The Way Of The Weasel. D.J.B. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine
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