Anon reflects on Office Space

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cdurgin@reddit

Back in the 90's, this was considered a miserable and depressing life. Just working 9-5, no real problems, just having to get to work at 5 and getting dinner and hanging out with friends by 6.

This was poor. This was a bad work environment.

It's important for everyone to remember what we had.

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And he left his computer at work — no late night emails, no slack messages pinging on the weekend, no joining a conference call from vacation, no working at the airport or from seat 33E on a business trip

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sly_cooper25@reddit

Well here is the main issue, you and the guy you're replying to haven't watched the movie. On top of having awful middle managers up his ass constantly and no real work to do beyond some basic emails or spreadsheets or whatever, he's also frequently asked to work weekends.

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Deltaforce1-17@reddit

He's not knocking off at 5 in this movie. Lumburg asks him to work Saturday, turns round to walk away and then asks him to come in on Sunday as well.

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wizaarrd_IRL@reddit

It is worse than that, the firm is laying people off while trying to get their remaining employees (who are almost certainly salaried) to work unpaid overtime. Lumburg doesn't even do a good job lying about why the people who they "lost" left. Lumburg knows Peter knows Lumburg is lying, and Lumburg doesn't care because Lumburg has all the power.

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SiriusBlacksGodson@reddit

This is well put, I’d just like to add that I think the abstract nature of office work plays a big role in Peter’s dissatisfaction. The work itself is a meaningless nothing and the impact of the work is essentially invisible to the worker. If you’re someone that cares about having an impact on the world, the Sisyphean nature of office work is unbearable.

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transhuman4lyfe@reddit

I have to applaud these takes. This is why I come to this subreddit lol

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shangumdee@reddit

I don't know why but watching someone answer emails at an airport is so frustrating.

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TheMauveHand@reddit

Sounds like a you problem.

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syncdiedfornothing@reddit

No messages on the weekend? It's a plot point that he has to work on weekends in person in the office. Are you pretending you watched the movie?

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snrup1@reddit

Peter was supposed to be poor? Just seemed a white collar single dude. Also, Gen X bitches about everything no matter what.

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shangumdee@reddit

A boring 9-5 is awesome if it actually allows you to afford a decent place with savings leftover.

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WilliamSaintAndre@reddit

Gen X thought this was hell on earth so they decided to fuck it all up for every following generation.

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NEURALINK_ME_ITCHING@reddit

If you think it's Gen X that's fucking you over you may need a fucking clue to be drop shipped to your zoomer/late stage millennial arse, still living with your parents right?

Gen X just wanted to eat ribs and drink domestic beer, sneak in ciggie here and there, and occasionally do a little heroin that wasn't too adulterated, while listening to Eddie Vedder yodel, they're not the sith or the apprentices.

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Neither-Bison-6701@reddit

Did you even watch the movie?
His whole complaint is that hes staying later than 5 all the time for no reason, and being called in to work weekend with literally no work to do.

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BrocoliAssassin@reddit

It's the office life. It's a bit different in some places since they are focusing more on environments but the 90s were just horrible bright lighting in cubicles and the focus on materialism.

People learned their lesson but it's too late now.

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BigCaregiver2381@reddit

Zoomer translation: We be on that precipitous decline pack on god no cap fr fr

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DoctorPerverto@reddit

The only epiphany he really reached was that office jobs were not for him. He'd rather break his back in the open in construction, despite it being it a grind as well. It's not that deep.

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shangumdee@reddit

Imagine starting construction as general labor in your 30s. Also, you think your cringe passive aggressive coworkers are annoying, try having to deal with addicts and excons all day.

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raccoon54267@reddit

Truth. Construction workers are the most hostile fucks second only to tow truck drivers.

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shangumdee@reddit

What would happen if we took a group of 80iq Highschool dropouts, boomers on their third divorce and 4 child support payments, Mexicans who speak zero English, excons, addicts, and unrelenting alcoholics.. to all show up and cooperate at 7AM. Yes it will be a shitshow.

Believe me the average white collar American from a good family can't fathom the disgusting underbelly that keeps America running

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newrimmmer93@reddit

I remember reading there was a deleted scene or original ending where his boss at the construction site starts using some of the same language that Lumberg used at the start

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NachoNutritious@reddit

Yeah you can see a bit of it in the actual ending right before it fades to Mexico, the foreman comes up to him and talks just like Lumburg.

Apparently it was scripted (possibly not filmed) that Peter actually had a meltdown after that, complaining that all jobs are the same and there's no escape - Lawrence looks at him and says "maybe the problem is you, man".

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ouroborically@reddit

This shit happened to me irl

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DoctorPerverto@reddit

Cool. Also horrifyingly grim haha.

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DM_ME_KAIJUS@reddit

Yeah, but it's also true. Management is really the issue in most companies. The job can suck, but if your management is chill they can transform the experience.

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Yamaganto_Iori@reddit

I've always heard the phrase: "People don't quit jobs, they quit bosses," and that's been true for most of my jobs and the jobs of most people I know.

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alarumba@reddit

My Dad would always say "a shit job with good people is better than a good job with shit people."

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Scottish_Whiskey@reddit

I’m finding this to be very true in my current job. My first job was enjoyable for a while but started to lose its spark and my manager being an ass and also having to constantly remind him to pay me soured the whole thing.

The job after that had the most useless manager ever conceived. I didn’t even last year there

My current one is going well. I’m enjoying the work, the benefits and all my managers (barring one) are fairly laid back

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Mama_Mega@reddit

The problem with having one good manager is that you learn what loyalty is, and then you can see why your other managers (and the company itself) don't deserve your loyalty.

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DM_ME_KAIJUS@reddit

Yeah, that can really bite you in the ass. Being able to differentiate and stand up for yourself as an employee is painful and not at the benefit of the employee normally.

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Wll25@reddit

So we're uh.. A bit behind on foundation schedule. So yeah. We're going to need the contractors to go ahead and come in on uh.. Saturday.

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GeekPunk00@reddit

Exactly. "Most people don't like their jobs, Peter. But you go out there and find something that makes you happy."

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boderch@reddit

I got the impression he wasn't that happy, the pitch about how cool is working construction comes from his friend who got him the job, but he looks like he's thinking what OP is thinking

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DoctorPerverto@reddit

I dunno. To me he seemed content, not dissatisfied.

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shangumdee@reddit

Didn't Mike Judge say that wasn't supposed to be the original ending

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bimm3r36@reddit

From a comment above: “I remember reading there was a deleted scene or original ending where his boss at the construction site starts using some of the same language that Lumberg used at the start”

They were probably setting up for a sequel and chose not to include it. IMO the movie works well as it was published but this is likely what he was talking about

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NEURALINK_ME_ITCHING@reddit

Didn't he start hallucinating and accidentally start a domestic terrorist organisation with the goal of freeing others from their corporate and capitalism centric lives though? He took it a bit far.

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SpiritBamb@reddit

Your thinking of the wrong movie

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NEURALINK_ME_ITCHING@reddit

Nah this is the one with two chicks at the same time and the fish being gutted at the desk.

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what-kind-of-fuckery@reddit

what show is this yo

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DoctorPerverto@reddit

It's the movie Office Space. A modern cult classic.

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flinxsl@reddit

In the movie's own words

Fuckin' A

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abundanceofb@reddit

I don’t think a lot of younger people realise how boring office jobs were before readily accessible internet and smartphones, it was hellish

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TheMauveHand@reddit

FWIW it's not like the only way to amuse yourself in existence is the internet or a phone.

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abundanceofb@reddit

I’m aware, I’ve worked when these things were not available, but when it’s just you in a cubicle while the bosses are always keeping an eye it gets really fucking boring.

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KillerofGodz@reddit

I remember working hard labor and saying I'd love to work a "boring job", rather than my entire body hurting too much to be bored.

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abundanceofb@reddit

I’ve done warehousing and office work, in a way I preferred the warehousing because at least my mind was sharp at the end of the day, though that could have just been youth as well.

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352397@reddit

Also, his work was quite literally the most boring mundane software work imaginable. He was going around changing the size of the date variables in someone else's software. Somehow this required 8 managers to be all over his ass.

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NEURALINK_ME_ITCHING@reddit

No his job was to deploy the change, someone else made it. He was literally just a commit button with paperwork to do.

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Sufficient-Ad2016@reddit

Was this really a thing in the past? Why didn’t the engineers just push their changes?

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NEURALINK_ME_ITCHING@reddit

It was a combination of separation of duties, and the fact they were deploying to client on prem instances.

His role was actually kind of like sales meets PM, to liaise with the customer in order to schedule and apply the update. He had a burn down list of customers to get updated before the end of 99 and needed to fill out forms with the outcome of those activities.

The reality is that other than customer IT/Finance people being fucking useless and obstinate if they could push the patch down the wire he wouldn't really be required.

Also engineers can fuck off, think they know they know fuck everything really know fuck all.

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Sufficient-Ad2016@reddit

Interesting, I remember him saying he actually changed the dates. If he really just did that, I would hate my job too

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NEURALINK_ME_ITCHING@reddit

The other two guys were the coders, he was the person who could deploy. That's why they all needed to be in on the heist.

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Sufficient-Ad2016@reddit

Ah gotcha, that makes sense

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Curious-Divide-6263@reddit

this

The cubicles were to make talking to other people harder and to increase productivity.

Don't even need cubicles anymore since everyone has instant communication in their pocket at all times.

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raccoon54267@reddit

There’s a lot of movies from the late 90’s that are just Gen X-ers bitching about how good they have it.

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mr_former@reddit

Perhaps he was lamenting the fact that a third of his waking life gets spent lining some loser's pockets.

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fatjoe19982006@reddit

When I pay taxes I do the same fucking thing, even if I work for myself. Watch any daytime court show and witness the endless parade of "disabled" but not disabled people collecting social security and scamming the system. Losers. Lazy ass fuckwits trying to game the system, and succeeding. I couldn't give a fuck if I'm lining a millionaire's pockets or a million scumbag packets. All the same to me. When the impetus to work hard in a society disappears, the society decays. It is not sustainable to have ever growing numbers rely on the government to survive, being that the government doesn't make money, it takes money from taxing and redistributes. If the tax base shrinks, because people don't want to work, or "line a millionaire's pockets", then guess what? There is less and less to redistribute, meaning everyone gets less, has greater dissatisfaction with life, and it snowballs to societal collapse. How To Destroy A Country From Within 101.

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likeupdogg@reddit

Looool fuck the system man I'm not working hard ever. I hope to God this society decays.

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Magsec5@reddit

You know that there isn’t one job to one person right not everyone can have a job and not everyone is capable of having a job.

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SlowTortoise69@reddit

You know that people play the game and they use impediments they could possibly work with as a reason why they can't even be criticized? Like if you are actually disabled fine, that's why we have social safety nets, but I have several stories about people that could work milking unemployment forever and other benefits.

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Yamaganto_Iori@reddit

I have a cousin who has "anxiety" as her reason for not getting a job. Most of the family has repeatedly found her potential jobs she could easily do, but she has flat-out admitted that she would rather not work and be on welfare her whole life.

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SlowTortoise69@reddit

Yeah, I'm going to get some hate for being "ableist" or whatever but let's not distort the issue, this is exactly what we are talking about. I'm not talking about veterans who had a combat injury and cannot work, or people born into a shit situation they can do nothing about, I am talking about people like this who have checked out of society by still expect the benefits. Why should our taxes be diverted to your cousin instead of things that could actually benefit us? I guarantee you if she burnt through the good will of your family and had no way to scam money she would actually get off her ass and work.

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Kitahara_Kazusa1@reddit

Because unfortunately people can lie so it isn't possible to magically separate the liars from the truthers.

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Navy_Pheonix@reddit

It's still not worth throwing the baby out with the bathwater just because of anecdotal and mythical welfare queens.

If we removed every nicety we had because of the existence of bad actors or even the potential for them, shit would turn orwellian or worse very quickly.

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mr_former@reddit

Working for yourself is still more meaningful, though. You have more agency. Unfortunately taxes are a necessary evil, but they can just as easily be lamented. Our founding fathers certainly lamented them

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ResponsibleNote8012@reddit

Unfortunately giving unlimited money to Israel is a necessary evil, an unavoidable fact of life like the sun rising from the west.

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gman8686@reddit

Taxes may be a "necessary evil" but high as fuck federal taxes sure aren't

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Mottis86@reddit

I mean yeah that's called a job.

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zuppa_de_tortellini@reddit

So basically every job that has ever existed then

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mr_former@reddit

Yeah, I mean, that's kinda the point

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Bobocannon@reddit

Typical Gen-X angst. Didn't know how bad things were going to get.

I'd give anything for a cubicle instead of this open plan office bullshit.

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Acharyn@reddit

That's a lot to have now in 2025, but it wasn't much back then.

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mexicanlefty@reddit

Zoomers to young to know that office jobs have become shittier with every decade.

Compared to the 80s and 70s his job was worse, he was underappreciated even tho he was a programmer and lived in a shitty apartment, his dad was able to afford a brand new house with a less stressful job.

Of course if you compare that with an office job in 2025 yeah he is living in heaven.

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Sharky-Li@reddit

This movie wouldn't work today because Peter would just work remotely from home with a mouse jiggler.

From the movie: "Yeah, I just stare at my desk, but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch too, I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work."

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WWWYZZERDDDD@reddit

Office Space 2025:

“We are needfully relocating your job to India, thank you kindly Saar.”

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fitnesswill@reddit

He didn't have the girlfriend until the incident

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ahamel13@reddit

He explains in detail why he's not happy in the movie.

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zuppa_de_tortellini@reddit

Didn’t he say something about not feeling challenged? Truly a comedy indeed.

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ahamel13@reddit

Most of the complaint was about how braindead and mundane the work was, coupled with the fact that if he did it right nothing would happen but at the tiniest mistake a bunch of middle managers would be on his ass all day about it.

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Magsec5@reddit

I have 8 bosses bob!

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Iamkillboy@reddit

8?

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BigBoodles@reddit

My only real motivation is not to be hassled. And you know what Bob, that'll make someone work just hard enough not to get fired.

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TheExile83@reddit

It'd make someone work hard enough to not get fired.

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LemonPartyW0rldTour@reddit

It’s so true and I hate it.

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xalaux@reddit

Sounds like my job?

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sly_cooper25@reddit

None of the people in this thread agreeing with the regarded post have watched it.

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nikoll-toma@reddit

all of those are highly regarded

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P41N90D@reddit

Directed by the creator of Bevis & Butthead and co-creator of King of the Hill with Greg Daniels.

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TheIronGnat@reddit

PC LOAD LETTER

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ChrisusaurusRex@reddit

They used to have it way better back then, now the bullshit he went through is a blessing compared to the wageslaving that’s going on now. Add in inflation?

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Positive_Feedback_82@reddit

The worst offender is Bruce almighty.

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MichaelCeraGoneWild@reddit

Lack of agency. If you don’t get that, then you never had it.

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Dimatrix@reddit

“Steady income” The entire movie takes place during layoff interviews where everyone is having to justify keeping their job

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Orangenbluefish@reddit

Nowadays if you have a slow day at work or some downtime you can sit on your phone for a bit or dick around on the internet, back then smartphones weren’t a thing, and the internet was much more limited, so really all you had to do all day was either work (which for many jobs can be mind numbing to do 8 hours straight) or just sit there

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nClarkbar@reddit

You know something? He had eight different bosses right then, OP. Eight.

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BBQavenger@reddit

It was a different time.

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jaminbob@reddit

We had no idea how good we had it.

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Pitiful_Special_8745@reddit

Today he would make minimal wage renting with a roommate eating Ramen noodles no holiday no rear just slavery.

He is living like someone making fun 100K in a low cost area

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