It was the late 1980s, and corporate America had seized on another management fad. Executives had decided that less was better, and it was open season on workers. Welcome to the era of downsizing.

Thousands of workers were sacked as corporate titans decided to trim their staffs and their bottom lines, making companies leaner, meaner and more appealing to Wall Street.

Workers felt as if corporate dress codes now included a big bulls-eye, and they were overwhelmed with uncertainty, waiting to see if they would be the target of the next round of redundancies.

A leaner, meaner Wall street

But, an unlikely hero stepped into the breach, a figure who voiced the prevailing thought among workers that their managers were all pointy-headed idiots who had been promoted because management was the place in the corporate hierarchy where they could do the least damage.

This hero was Dilbert, the cartoon creation of Scott Adams who at the time was hoping that he wouldn't be the next casualty of downsizing.

Understanding employment

After 17 years of "working for large oppressive companies," first at a large bank in San Francisco and then Pacific Bell, Mr Adams understood employment ennui. "If you are spending 10 hours a day in a little box managed by an idiot, it can't help but scar you," he said.

Instead of sitting back and waiting to be sacked, Mr Adams translated employment insecurity into action. He penned the Dilbert Principle, and the cartoon flowed from that. The Principle simply states that in a modern corporation: "The best use of resources is to promote the dumbest employee to where he can do the least damage. That is in management."

The corollary to the Dilbert Principle is that when regular employees are promoted to management, they experience a sudden and inexplicable conversion. As normal employees, they had no misconceptions about the utter uselessness of misguided motivational tactics. But the promotion to management must necessarily involve some tactical transplant.

"When they become a manager, they suddenly think it works. They think that if they give an employee a cup of coffee instead of a raise, their morale will soar," Mr Adams said.

Putting workers into little boxes

Somehow, he managed to avoid joining the ranks of management. He had an MBA, usually a ticket straight into the head office, but he was spared. How? "By not being promoted. That was my secret."

Mr Adams said he stood no chance of being promoted. "I'm short and I have bad hair."

He is quick to point out the American workplace is full of ironies in addition to the Dilbert Principle, including the origin of the cubicle. The nearly ubiquitous feature of American offices turned 30 this year.

The close-knit cubicle

Three decades ago, office furniture companies approached corporate America with an idea. They had developed a modular system that would allow companies to customise the workspace for each specific employee. This was the original idea behind the cubicle.

Managers immediately seized upon the idea, but not because they liked the adaptability, but rather they saw an opportunity for uniformity. They thought they could save a bundle of money. "It started off to make the office fit the employee, but the employees aren't the ones who spend the money. Their vote didn't count."

He said that although cubicles don't seem to be as popular in Europe he thinks it's just a matter of time. "I think, at least in all of the Western countries, any time someone has a bad idea, it travels."

A worldwide phenomenon

Possibly in a response to the ubiquitous nature of poorly conceived management ideas, Dilbert has become a worldwide phenomenon. The cartoon strip is distributed in 1,700 newspapers in 51 countries.

It all started in the mid-1980s as Mr Adams doodled in his cubicle, creating an amalgam of his co-workers that became Dilbert. The other characters chart the familiar personalities in a typical office, which is part of its success.

"I've noticed that everyone seems to be able to map themselves into one of the characters, Engineers look at Dilbert. People who get by with doing as little as possible look at Wally." People even write to Mr Adams admitting that they are the pointy-headed boss.

As for Dogbert, the plucky puppy with designs on world domination. It does not take a Freudian expert to see that Dogbert is unbridled id.

"He is the voice in my head that I don't let speak out loud, or I would be killed. (Dogbert is) raw ego," said Mr Adams, adding that there is a part of him who would "very much like to conquer the world and make everyone my servants."

Tables are turning

But times are changing. Power is swinging back from the Dogberts and pointy-headed managers in the world in favour of the workers, Mr Adams said. In the era of downsizing, employees came to the demoralising conclusion that they were expendable. Now the tables have turned in Mr Adams' view. The employment situation in the United States now favours the worker.

In his most recent book, The Joy of Work, Mr Adams explores the power of the employee, and more importantly how workers can use their colleagues, their bosses and their stockholders, in particular, for their own amusement.

In one section, Mr Adams describes how to manage one's boss. Psychological profiles have become increasingly popular with managers, and Mr Adams recommends that workers turn the tables on their bosses.

"You grade them on two axes, their degree of evilness and incompetence. If a boss is very evil and very competent, that's the worst of all bosses," he said.

With such a boss, "you use a strategy similar to when you are running away from a monster. You trip your co-workers so the monster eats them first," Mr Adams said.

He also has ways to manage your boss' time. In any meeting, it is important to deflect work to your boss by saying that he is an expert in any given area. "When called, the boss will never decline. He knows damn well he's an expert in whatever it is."

A few harmless pranks

As for managing co-workers, Mr Adams has several pranks to render co-workers powerless against you while providing hours of amusement.

Key to success: keeping co-workers at bay

He suggests buying denture cleaning tablets that turn blue in water. Send one, along with an official memo to a co-worker explaining that the tablet is used to detect asbestos. If the tablet turns blue when dropped into a glass a water, instruct the co-worker to leave the area.

He also knows of someone who installed a piece of software on a co-workers computer. The software allowed the person to send messages to the co-worker's computer that would appear in pop-up windows. The person had the co-worker convinced that he was receiving messages from God via his computer.

Now that the era of downsizing has ended, Mr Adams is preparing to take Dilbert into the 21st Century. Looking into his crystal ball of corporate trends, Mr Adams predicts that the UK will follow the rest of the world. "We will be run by engineers. They will inherit the earth."