My #ScottAdams Story
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My #ScottAdams Story
In the 1990s, I worked as an office temp. I logged a lot of hours in a lot of different offices, and I had an instant and accurate way to sense how dysfunctional and toxic a workplace was as soon as I walked in.
I took note of how many #Dilbert comics were pinned up, and where.
If I saw one or two #Dilbert comics scattered around, I knew people had their gripes and complaints about their co-workers, but it was nothing too serious.
1/9
If virtually every cubicle had more than one #Dilbert comic pinned up, I knew everyone working there disliked each other. The atmosphere probably wasn’t going to be too terrible for me as a temp, but I wouldn’t want to work there permanently.
2/9
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If virtually every cubicle had more than one #Dilbert comic pinned up, I knew everyone working there disliked each other. The atmosphere probably wasn’t going to be too terrible for me as a temp, but I wouldn’t want to work there permanently.
2/9
Whenever I saw a disproportionate number of #Dilbert comics in one cubicle, I knew to avoid that person. They were clearly the asshole in the office, and they were usually on a hair trigger. I once saw a cubicle that was practically wallpapered with Dilbert comics, including several where he had labeled the characters with co-workers’ names, and then pinned them on the OUTSIDE of his cube. Yikes! Steer clear of that dude!
3/9
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Whenever I saw a disproportionate number of #Dilbert comics in one cubicle, I knew to avoid that person. They were clearly the asshole in the office, and they were usually on a hair trigger. I once saw a cubicle that was practically wallpapered with Dilbert comics, including several where he had labeled the characters with co-workers’ names, and then pinned them on the OUTSIDE of his cube. Yikes! Steer clear of that dude!
3/9
If there was even one #Dilbert comic pinned up to a communal bulletin board, watch out! The hatred went from workers up AND management down.
God forbid someone had used the photocopier to enlarge it; that meant they wanted everyone to see how much they hated everyone.
In this last situation, I would usually call my agency at the end of the day and ask if they had any other assignments.
If I saw Dilbert plush toys, I’d just tell my agency I couldn’t continue the assignment.
4/9
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If there was even one #Dilbert comic pinned up to a communal bulletin board, watch out! The hatred went from workers up AND management down.
God forbid someone had used the photocopier to enlarge it; that meant they wanted everyone to see how much they hated everyone.
In this last situation, I would usually call my agency at the end of the day and ask if they had any other assignments.
If I saw Dilbert plush toys, I’d just tell my agency I couldn’t continue the assignment.
4/9
The #Dilbert gauge never failed me. The more Dilbert comic strips I saw, the nastier the place was.
I worked at a one place where Dilbert was banned. Specifically, just Dilbert. Sounds extreme, but the bosses knew exactly what #ScottAdams was peddling, and they didn’t want any.
That office ran smoothly and was among the nicest.
5/9
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The #Dilbert gauge never failed me. The more Dilbert comic strips I saw, the nastier the place was.
I worked at a one place where Dilbert was banned. Specifically, just Dilbert. Sounds extreme, but the bosses knew exactly what #ScottAdams was peddling, and they didn’t want any.
That office ran smoothly and was among the nicest.
5/9
So #Dilbert was my canary in the coal mine. I can’t think of another comic strip that functioned like this. Cathy was drawn almost exactly as badly as Dilbert, but the only thing I learned from seeing that strip in an office was the person pinning it up had body image issues. Peanuts meant the person had self-esteem problems. (Or, contrarywise, they identified with Snoopy.)
6/9
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So #Dilbert was my canary in the coal mine. I can’t think of another comic strip that functioned like this. Cathy was drawn almost exactly as badly as Dilbert, but the only thing I learned from seeing that strip in an office was the person pinning it up had body image issues. Peanuts meant the person had self-esteem problems. (Or, contrarywise, they identified with Snoopy.)
6/9
So I guess the moral here is: #ScottAdams was a thin-skinned, egotistical monster who wrote and badly drew a hateful comic strip called #Dilbert, and all his “humor” punched down, and he used sock puppet accounts to brag about his own genius, and was a racist, and he thought Donald Trump was great...
7/9
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So I guess the moral here is: #ScottAdams was a thin-skinned, egotistical monster who wrote and badly drew a hateful comic strip called #Dilbert, and all his “humor” punched down, and he used sock puppet accounts to brag about his own genius, and was a racist, and he thought Donald Trump was great...
7/9
...but for all that, if I were forced – I donno, at gunpoint, maybe -- to utter one nice word about #ScottAdams, I guess I’d say that for a few years, he was...
USEFUL.
8/9
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...but for all that, if I were forced – I donno, at gunpoint, maybe -- to utter one nice word about #ScottAdams, I guess I’d say that for a few years, he was...
USEFUL.
8/9
Further reading: “The trouble with #Dilbert : how corporate culture gets the last laugh”
by Norman Solomon
https://archive.org/details/troublewithdilbe00solo_0/mode/2up9/9
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Further reading: “The trouble with #Dilbert : how corporate culture gets the last laugh”
by Norman Solomon
https://archive.org/details/troublewithdilbe00solo_0/mode/2up9/9
(OOPS: I wrote this on LibreOffice, and missed a paragraph when cutting/pasting to Mastodon... here it is...)
If anyone had ever pinned up a Mutts strip or Zippy the Pinhead or Nancy, I would have wanted to hang out with them in the lunchroom. Even Tumbleweeds might have been a welcome change. Sadly, it was almost always fuckin’ #Dilbert, all the way down.
10/9
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My #ScottAdams Story
In the 1990s, I worked as an office temp. I logged a lot of hours in a lot of different offices, and I had an instant and accurate way to sense how dysfunctional and toxic a workplace was as soon as I walked in.
I took note of how many #Dilbert comics were pinned up, and where.
If I saw one or two #Dilbert comics scattered around, I knew people had their gripes and complaints about their co-workers, but it was nothing too serious.
1/9
@ridetheory This actually does make sense 😹 I will remember this and use this wisdom whenever /where-ever I go work with people!😹
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(OOPS: I wrote this on LibreOffice, and missed a paragraph when cutting/pasting to Mastodon... here it is...)
If anyone had ever pinned up a Mutts strip or Zippy the Pinhead or Nancy, I would have wanted to hang out with them in the lunchroom. Even Tumbleweeds might have been a welcome change. Sadly, it was almost always fuckin’ #Dilbert, all the way down.
10/9
BTW: I wrote this months ago, and it's a total coincidence that the last word of #ScottAdams's last public statement was also "useful."
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