For anyone who reads Dilbert:

I'm worried about the pointy-haired boss. I'm also taken by surprise that Scott Adams has wielded this story line. While it's happening to a bad guy in the comic, it's still very serious. It's just a little like the episode of King of the Hill when Peggy falls to the ground because her skydiving chute won't open, and the show ends without your knowing if she is alive or dead.

The Dilbert problem starts with the strip about a week ago -- dilbert.com

The moment the boss considers Asok's suggestion (Feb. 5th strip) is when I start to like the boss.
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The comic reminds me of a children's story in which an evil man dies, is cremated and his ashes put on the fireplace mantel in his house. The also-evil cleaning lady (who is still working there after his death) knocks over the urn when she's dusting. The man's ashes fall into the fireplace, where there is already the soot and ashes from the cooking the day or so before. A pork roast had been cooked that day and the bones lay in the ashes.

So the evil cleaning lady sweeps what she can back into the urn, and puts it back on the mantel.

Meanwhile, down in Hell, the evil man is waking up in his bed. He notices it is very much like his room on Earth, but not exactly. But at the foot of his bed is a large hog, gazing at him with love in his eyes. The man yells at it to go away, but it won't. It sticks with him all day, leaning against him fondly. Never leaves him alone. It sleeps at the foot of his bed. Same thing next day, and every day after. The man is very sick of the hog, so he goes to the head demon to ask what to do.

The demon says, this isn't any punishment we're doing on OUR end -- it's connected with something on Earth. He tells the evil man what happened, that the ashes of the pig got mixed in with his own ashes and that is why they are now together in Hell. The only way to fix it, he tells the man, is to go back and separate the ashes. They send a messenger demon to do this.

So, Voila! A demon appears in the old house. He looks into the fireplace and sees it has not been swept. He grumbles about the evil cleaning lady who has not even done this much. He takes the urn, pours it out and begins the infernally tedious job of separating, crumb by crumb, every ash that does not belong to the evil man's remains. It takes years.

During those years, the evil man is suffering the clinging proximity of the pig. It revolts him. But after a while, he notices the pig is not looking at him quite so fondly. Later, the pig is still accompanying him but not leaning against him. And it looks bored, not loving. Finally, finally, one morning the evil man wakes and the pig is gone. The ashes have been entirely separated.

The messenger demon visits him in Hell and hands him the urn. Here, he says, you can keep your ashes yourself. So the man puts the urn on his mantelpiece in his room in Hell.

Then the evil cleaning lady dies and goes to Hell too. She has exactly the same job as before -- cleaning up. One day she is cleaning the evil man's room -- and she knocks over the urn into the Hellish fireplace again.

The evil man wakes up and the pig is back, gazing fondly at him.