Wally, the Dilbert character, was inspired by an engineer trying to get laid off. > Wally was inspired by a coworker of creator Scott Adams at Pacific Bell. In

Wally, the Dilbert character, was inspired by an engineer trying to get laid off. > Wally was inspired by a coworker of creator Scott Adams at Pacific Bell. In Seven Years of Highly Defective People and What Would Wally Do, Adams explained that his co-worker at Pacific Bell had made a bad judgment call, so management froze him at his position and pay scale rather than fire him. Then Pacific Bell started offering a generous severance package for the lowest ten-percent of workers, so the coworker, knowing management had hinted that he should leave the company and knowing it was better to leave with money than without, had an incentive to become a low performing worker. Adams was inspired by this co-worker's serious dedication toward this goal, and the concept of a completely shameless employee with no sense of loyalty became Wally. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wally_(Dilbert) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wally_(Dilbert)