A brilliant debunking of all the incentive plans, double-dealing, and fear-based cultures that unproductive corporations mistake for productivity.
The fix is to hire back some of those naughty "middle managers" that you downsized. Their role is to shepherd a precious resource called "slack" through an organization, to make sure that everyone's schedule is free to respond quickly to their inputs.
Those who need this book most, as usual, will "get it" least.
-- PhlIp
"Slack", of course, being the Holy Quotient of TheChurchOfTheSubGenius.
A comment from the Amazon reviews:
I really have only one quibble with "Slack". DeMarco has no business criticizing Dilbert and his fellow engineers for "giving up" on their pointy-haired bosses. Sure, employees have a responsibility to make allowances and go the extra mile - but the PHBs systematically abuse every extra bit of slack that anyone cuts them. That's part of the joke, of course.
-- T. D. Welsh
The tension here is between the DilBert petri dish and the RealWorld. Of course, we know what happens to Dilbert's good ideas and attempts to gain Slack. In the RealWorld, Tom knows we will choose our battles carefully. His admonition is against a real-world Dilbert completely giving up with a RealWorld PointyHairedBoss.
Been there, done that. -- PhlIp