@garthm9: That´s exactly it!! I do acknowledge that I with my limited horizon cannot completely evaluate what should matter in my company, but plllease let me do so in my field of expertise. Instead, my boss does not like some of the most typical tasks that our department should do and focuses only on those things that get him doggy goodies from his boss.
This is so goddamn true...When you assist someone from another project/division without the boss knowing it, he will ask you 'Who the heck told you to do that? Don't you have your own work to concentrate on?'.
But when someone higher up in the management approaches him with the assistance request, he will quietly allocate me to both the projects without asking a word and yet expect me to deliver in both the places!
In reality, when PHB says "but only do the things that matter" what he really means is "but only do the things that matter to me." Since PHB's bonuses, evaluations and objectives have nothing to do with the other division, the work that Dilbert can most safely ignore is the other division's project.