Essential Estrogen

A Burlington casino worker who lost his job after posting a "Dilbert" comic strip at work has now had the incident immortalized in the very same strip.

A series of comic strips by "Dilbert" creator Scott Adams set to begin syndication this week outline the case of Dave Steward, a 50-year-old Fort Madison resident, whose security supervisor employment at Catfish Bend Casino ended after he posted one of Adams' comic strips. In the strip Steward posted, Dilbert compares his bosses to a bunch of "drunken lemurs."

While the latest series does not mention Steward or the casino by name, the correlations cannot be denied.

"I know good comic fodder when I see it, and any chance to mock the humorless is worth the effort," Adams told the Associated Press.

Steward, who had been an employee of the casino for over seven years, posted the cartoon on an office bulletin board shortly after management announced that the business would be closing and 170 employees would be laid off. Management used security cameras to determine who had posted the comic strip. During a subsequent trial to sort out unemployment benefits that made national headlines, Steward testified that he posted the cartoon because he believe it "would cheer some people up."

Human resources director Steve Morley disagreed and testified that Steward "was accusing the decision-makers of being drunken lemurs," something that management considered "misconduct."

Administrative Law Judge Lynette Donner ruled in favor of Steward, calling his action a "good-faith error in judgment."

Artist Adams said at the time of trial that the case involved the first confirmed instance of a Dilbert-related firing.