Pointy-haired manager (PHM) decides to hold a meeting as soon as possible to discuss with Dilbert and Wally the assignment of cubicles. He calls Dilbert and tells him that he needs to meet tomorrow, if possible. Dilbert checks his calendar and sees that he is free all afternoon after 1:30pm. However, he needs to run some errands at lunchtime and he doesn’t want to keep his boss waiting, so he tells him that he is free before 10am and after 2pm. PHM suggests that they meet at 2pm. He next calls Wally, who is not in. He leaves an e-mail message, which Wally responds to two hours later. PHM is out. PHM calls Wally first thing in the morning to schedule the meeting. Wally is free all morning, but has a series of meetings in the afternoon until 4pm. It’s too late to schedule the meeting for this morning. PHM has a round of golf at 6pm, but figures having to leave promptly will keep the meeting short. He schedules the meeting at 4pm and asks Wally to tell Dilbert that the time has changed. Since Wally shares a cubicle with Dilbert, this is not difficult. Dilbert is still free at 4pm and the meeting is scheduled for then. PHM goes to the meeting room round the corner from his room, scores out the appointment for 4pm already scheduled there and enters his name with the word "important" next to it.

Pointy-haired manager (PHM) decides to hold a meeting as soon as possible to discuss with Dilbert and Wally the assignment of cubicles. He enters a meeting request into the Meeting-Aware Message System (MAMS), stating the purpose of the meeting and that he wants to hold it by end of business tomorrow and that Dilbert, Wally and he need to be there. PHM also enters a list of times he can’t meet (11:30-1:30 for lunch) and those times he would prefer (11-11:30 and 4-5). MAMS composes a boilerplate e-mail message concerning the requested meeting, which it sends to Dilbert and Wally. The message requests the recipients to reply with their impossible and preferred times for the meeting. Dilbert receives the message immediately and responds 30-minutes later. His impossible times are from 10am to 2pm tomorrow. He would prefer to meet from 3 to 4 (actually, he’d prefer not to meet at all, but that’s not in the spirit of the scenario). Wally doesn’t get the message until later. He replies that it’s impossible to meet between 12 and 4pm, but he would prefer to meet 9-10. MAMS takes all the impossible times and discovers that the only times left are 9-10 and 4-5. Because 4-5 was one of PHM’s preferred times, MAMS chooses that time. MAMS composes another boilerplate email message with the scheduled time on it. MAMS also sends another message to PHMs administrative assistant requesting that he book a room at the scheduled time for the meeting.

Pointy-haired manager (PHM) decides to hold a meeting as soon as possible to discuss with Dilbert and Wally the assignment of cubicles. He enters a meeting request into the Decide-it-Yourself (DIY) scheduler, stating the purpose of the meeting and that he wants to hold it by end of business tomorrow and that Dilbert, Wally and he need to be there. DIY queries all three online calendars and finds free times 9-10am and 4-5pm. It presents that list to PHM, who picks 4-5pm. DIY queries the online calendars of rooms convenient for PHM, and finds two that are free at that time. PHM picks the one with the view of the dumpsters. DIY then composes a boilerplate e-mail message to Dilbert and Wally about the requested meeting, and reminds them to update their calendars accordingly.

Pointy-haired manager (PHM) decides to hold a meeting as soon as possible to discuss with Dilbert and Wally the assignment of cubicles. He enters a meeting request into the invisible meeting scheduler (IMS), stating the purpose of the meeting and that he wants to hold it by end of business tomorrow and that Dilbert, Wally and he need to be there. IMS queries all three online calendars and finds a free time 4-5pm. It reserves that time on each calendar, queries the online calendars of rooms convenient for PHM, and reserves the one that is free at that time. It then composes a boilerplate e-mail message concerning the requested meeting, which it sends to all three attendees.