Friday, September 07, 2007

How to be a Weasel at Work

I just started reading this book by Scott Adams, the Author of the comic strip Dilbert. It's not a Management theory book as much as it's a comedic guideline to how do deal with management. Personally, the joy of actually noticing those subtle feelings you get when you're with co-workers and other managers and supervisors, so accurately described in detail within this book, made me wish I had read it instead of all those other management & leadership books, which as as much use to me here in Kuwait as a pair of snow skis!

For example, in his other book, "The Dilbert Principle", he summarizes it as:
"A retarded chimpanzee can drink a case of beer and still perform most management functions"
The he justifies this theory by listing the management functions as:
  • Avoiding decisions
  • Attending meetings
  • Babbling
  • Demanding status reports
  • Not reading status reports
  • Handing out random rewards and punishments
  • Scowling at people who believe the Open Door Policy
In this new book I'm reading, and I'm only on the first chapter, Adams includes an email from one of his friends, in which it's stated:

Dear Mr. Adams, At one high-tech company the employees have been notified they will be laid off when they finish projects the company deems critical. How long do you think those projects will last?

The funny/sad thing is, this single email describes cases that happen almost everywhere in Kuwait.

More updates as I read them.....I'm loving this book already!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hate reading books you see but I managed to get a sneak at few of those management - leaders books- I find them useless too. I also attened seminars and courses on same subject & I found out- if you ain't got those in ya, it won't work... Thanks God it's natural to me :)

update us :)

Anonymous said...

Now i'll add that to my reading list,

Chikapappi... You can learn everything!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the hint. This is what you need to just laugh at Kuwait way of running business. I just left huge salary in telecom company for the sake of it, and now keep turning down offers from other private sectors. I just want short time job and focus later on my own work.

Much better and beneficial. Still though, I wanna read those books