Wally (Dilbert) - Inspiration

Inspiration

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.

Another co-worker of Adams provided the inspiration for the "Wally Report" (see below).

In early strips, there were characters who resembled Wally in appearance and had bit parts, not unlike Ted the Generic Guy. Some of the more memorable ones include Bud, a cynical engineer who broke the spirit of a newcomer; Les, a short-tempered, short man who clashed with Dilbert and other co-workers; Johnson, who failed a drug test by testing positive for Diet Pepsi and Cheetos; and Norman, who was "snorted" by a woman with a huge nose. This was referenced in a comic where the company's biggest customer was killed, and the Pointy Haired Boss announced a plan to have one of the employees impersonate him, when the Boss held up a picture of him, he was revealed to be identical to Wally, who recognized and identified him as "Willy from the club of people who look exactly like me." The true Wally did not appear until October 21, 1991, when Adams wrote in the co-worker's story of attempting to get fired. At the time, the character was called "Bruce".