Casual Day Has Gone Too Far [Paperback]

Scott Adams (Author)

Book Description

Series: Dilbert Books (Paperback Andrews McMeel) | Publication Date: March 1, 1997

A collection of black-and-white Dilbert strips follows the hapless, cynical engineer as he navigates the perils of corporate life with his not-so-trusty companions, Dogbert and Ratbert. Original. 400,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Casual days are more than confusing for Dilbert and office workers in the '90s. "Studies have shown that Fridays are the only safe day to dress casually," Dogbert declares. "Any other day would cause a stock plunge." Casual Day Has Gone Too Far captures the issues that confront cubicle dwellers everywhere and is sure to continue the Dilbert-mania of worker bees and managers alike.

Review

Just as the business-oriented 'Dilbert' comic has moved from conventional comic pages to the business section of newspapers, so this title is reviewed here, and recommended for any who work in office settings or for major corporations. Corporate life is winningly portrayed in the context of a cartoon which pokes fun at workers, co-workers, and management inconsistencies. -- Midwest Book Review

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing; Original edition (March 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0836228995
• ISBN-13: 978-0836228991
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #675,421 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

What started as a doodle has turned Scott Adams into a superstar of the cartoon world. Dilbert debuted on the comics page in 1989 while Adams was in the tech department at Pacific Bell. Adams continued to work at Pacific Bell until he was voluntarily downsized in 1995. He has lived in the San Francisco Bay area since 1979.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Twice as true and half as funny..., July 22, 2003

By 

FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Casual Day Has Gone Too Far (Paperback)

When I worked at my old college, our dean decided one day that the modern corporate culture idea of having a casual Friday would be a good innovation. A few months later, he looked about in consternation, and remarked that he thought casual day had gone too far (I have my own opinions on this, considering most people had not in fact become very casual at all, and charity requires me to refrain from commenting upon what I think was really at issue). Shortly after this exchange, one of my book clubs offered 'Casual Day Has Gone Too Far', a collection of Dilbert cartoons, which had become the object of break-room bulletin boards and interoffice memo attachments around the country.

The book has a brief introduction (Scott Adams recounts in it that he felt cheated once upon buying a buying guide which had no introduction, hence, he felt required to include one), which includes email instructions for subscribing to the online Dilbert newsletter, which is published 'whenever I feel like it', according to Adams.

Then, of course, we jump immediately into 'the good stuff', the columns.

The sociology, psychology, and even the sex appeal of Dilbert -- all of these have been variously explained and lauded or decried in other places, so I shall not go into detail here, save to say that there is something very true about the representations found in this small column that resonates with anyone in any way familiar with corporate America. Of one political satire in Britain, a columnist once commented that with regard to its reflection of reality, that 'reality is twice as true but half as funny' -- this dictum can likewise be applied to Dilbert.

The first column starts out with Dogbert explaining leadership.

(Fair warning -- how does one adequately describe a cartoon column in words, without pictures? Forgive me if this analysis becomes something less than the actual columns.)

Dogbert explains that leaders start their careers as morons, drawn to meetings like moths to porchlights, with a high bladder-to-brain ratio (which makes enduring meetings easier on both counts), and they succeed because, being untempted by logic or coffee, they continue along the path of promotion until the reach their true skill level (often, that of recognising others, underlings all, with true ability) -- and Dogbert's conclusion is that leadership is the way of removing morons from the productive flow.

Adams' wit is scathing, unmerciful, and has no 'sacred cows'. He parodies all levels of the production chain, from the lowest to the highest, often showing the inverse relation of skill to responsibility, authority to intelligence, productivity to reward. He demonstrates the imperviousness of all levels of the corporation to logic. He likes to invent corporate-based 'lingo' which, if it appeared in an actual memo (and some of this actually does appear in the real world) it would most likely be taken seriously.

With regard to casual days, this has been seen as the evil plot of HR Director Catbert. Alice determines that 'it's just another sadistic human resources plot to make people quit.' Others decided that they loved casual Friday, because 'it combines unattractive with unprofessional while diminishing neither.'

Finally, Dilbert shows the golden road to visibility in the large anonymous corporate structure.

Dilbert: I significantly increased my visibility at work today, Dogbert. Yesterday I was invisible to my management. But today I am known by all.
Dogbert: You screwed up, huh?
Dilbert: Ooh yeah. Big time.

And so it goes. Perhaps it is not only casual day that has gone too far.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marvelous Catbert Intro, September 18, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Casual Day Has Gone Too Far (Paperback)

In this book, Catbert makes his first appearance as HR director of Dilbert's company. His casual day policy is insane, and so, casual day will always be a strange day. Dilbert knows the feeling of going to work on a casual day, and wondering "Has it gone too far?" Besides the histerical Catbert jokes, there's jokes on company takeovers, futile projects, team building excersises, and much more! So join corporate America's truly relatable office crew in these insane misadventures of white collar workplace life.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good collection of Dilbert comic strips, March 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Casual Day Has Gone Too Far (Paperback)

How would Dogbert review "Casual Day Has Gone Too Far", the ninth Dilbert collection? By making up a bunch of stuff and attributing it to other people. Dilbert fans (like you) will want to own a copy to complete their collections. Dilbert haters - like Norman Solomon (look him up in the Amazon search engine) - should buy several copies of this book just to burn them. And Scott Adams should pay *me* for writing this review.

"Casual Day Has Gone Too Far" starts out with Dogbert's explanation of Leadership (immunity to logic and coffee). His handy reference guide to types of bosses follows a few pages later. This book also introduces a new character - Tina the brittle technical writer. It includes one of my personal favorites - the public apology for selling a keyboard missing the letter 'Q'. Finally, while the last comic in the book may not seem obvious, you'll get it in the end.