‘Dilbert’ taught white-collar workers how to talk about hating work

Scott Adams, the creator of the uber-popular and satirical comic strip Dilbert, has died. He passed away on January 13, after announcing his diagnosis of metastatic prostate cancer last spring. He was 68. 

On Tuesday morning, the cartoonist’s former wife, Shelly Miles, shared the news of his death during a livestream on X. Miles read from a statement that Adams had prepared himself for the occasion. 

“I had an amazing life,” the statement said. “I gave it everything I had. If you got any benefits from my work, I’m asking you to pay it forward as best you can. That is the legacy I want. Be useful. And please know I loved you all to the very end.”

Dilbert was first created in 1989, and it broke new ground, as the comic offered a refreshing and pointed critique of white-collar work life. It became known for its ever-relatable digs about the drudgery of office culture and insufferable bosses, long preceding relatable movies and TV shows like Office Space and The Office, which offered similar dismal (and hilarious) views of work culture years later.

In its heyday, the comic strip appeared in over 2,000 newspapers worldwide, with an estimated readership of more than 150 million. Adams’s strip amassed such popularity that he was named the 1997 recipient of the National Cartoonist Society’s Reuben Award. In the same year, Dilbert (the character) became the first fictional person to make Time magazine’s list of the most influential Americans.

However, while Dilbert became one of the most popular cartoons of all time, Adams battled deep controversy in his later years. In 2023, hundreds of newspapers dropped the classic comic after Adams made racist comments on his podcast, saying that it no longer “makes any sense as a white citizen of America to try to help Black citizens anymore.” He also described Black people as a “hate group.”

Adams said his statements were taken out of context. Still, the incident, and its aftermath, effectively ended Dilbert‘s wide syndication in newspapers. Other comics weighed in, too. “He’s not being canceled. He’s experiencing the consequences of expressing his views,” Bill Holbrook, creator of the strip On the Fastrack, told The Associated Press at the time. “I am in full support of him saying anything he wants to, but then he has to own the consequences of saying them.”

Regardless of Adams’s troubling personal views and complicated legacy, Dilbert has played a large role in the conversation around work life. Experts say that his cartoons’ outspoken critiques of bosses and work life, which were perhaps ahead of their time, can’t be rolled back.

Phil Lohmeyer, a cartoonist, animator, and middle school design teacher from Connecticut, tells Fast Company that he’s confident the kind of office critiques made popular by Dilbert will live on because they are so universal. “Dilbert wasn’t as much about the characters, even though the characters themselves became famous. It was more about the annoyance of ‘middle management,’” he notes. 

Lohmeyer says that the idea truly resonated with office workers, who posted the comics in their cubicles in the ’90s, or emailed them to coworkers. While younger generations might not be well-versed in Dilbert, the teacher still sees the ideas show up in his middle school classroom. The kids “make fun of the rules, schedules,” and more, he says. “They use comic strip humor to question the system, kind of how Adams was doing years ago.”

While so much has changed in offices and classrooms alike, Lohmeyer says that feeling seen in your role will forever be relevant. “Adams turned work issues into cartoon gags, making the previously invisible finally visible.”

View the full article