In 1999, Twentieth-Century Fox released Mike Judge's debut live-action movie, Office Space. The studio did little to promote the movie, and it performed dismally in theaters, only to be a surprising success in the DVD market (Waxman). One possible reason for Fox's reluctance to promote the movie is that Judge satirizes the workplace in corporate America in ways that the studio found uncomfortable, considering Fox's relationship to conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch. The movie’s DVD success, however, indicates that the story’s ideas about the corporate work environment have struck a chord with audiences who identify with characters in the movie. Office Space shows an environment in which employees do their jobs under the oppressive eye of managers who show a lack of interest in doing their jobs out of fear of confrontation with their employees. Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) works as a software engineer at Initech with fellow engineers Michael Bolton (David Herman) and Samir Nainanajad (Ajay Naidu), while Peter’s girlfriend Joanna (Jennifer Aniston) works as a waitress at a restaurant named Chotchkie's that resembles corporate chain restaurants like Chili's and Applebee's. All four characters work under the supervision of bosses who, rather than help them do their jobs more efficiently, make life miserable for them. In the characters Lumbergh (Gary Cole), the Bobs (John C. McGinley and Paul Wilson), and Stan (Mike Judge, credited as "William King"), Mike Judge presents three examples of managers who display passive-aggressive behavior, obsess over irrelevant details while ignoring the quality of employees' work, and are rarely—if ever—seen doing any actual work themselves.
The managers in Office Space all display passive-aggressive behavior to some degree in an effort to avoid confrontations with their employees. Lumbergh talks to his employees in a slow, soft-spoken manner, repeating phrases like "Mmmmm…yeah…" and "If you could go ahead and.…" His unwillingness to add variety to his conversations suggests an unwillingness to interact with his employees on any deep, meaningful level. Such variety would require more effort than Lumbergh apparently believes his employees are worth. The Bobs also display similar behaviors while they conduct interviews to determine which employees are dispensable. They engage the employees in small talk about the singer Michael Bolton, and they state explicitly that they like to "avoid confrontation." Avoiding a discussion of their actual job, they hide behind euphemisms like "efficiency experts" and "doing a little housecleaning" (one of them even wags his fingers to represent quotation marks when he says "housecleaning"). They even avoid dismissing employees till the end of the week, and rather than admitting that they do this because they are afraid of confrontation, they offer the excuse that "studies have statistically shown" that firing people on Friday offers a minimal chance of any confrontation. Not only are they afraid to do what they are paid to do, they are unwilling to admit that fear, hiding behind a vague reference to studies that probably do not even exist. Stan, the manager of Chotchkie's, displays a fear of telling Joanna that he wants her to wear more flair (buttons on her suspenders) by saying that "if you want to wear the bare minimum, that's fine, but some people choose to wear more, and we encourage that." He does not have the courage to ask Joanna to wear more flair directly, apparently because he is afraid of how she will react to such a direct request. All of the managers in Office Space, through the demonstration of passive-aggressive behavior, reveal a fear of actually doing the jobs they are paid to do, rather than demonstrating the courage to interact directly with employees in the way that managers should be expected to.
Not only do these managers display passive aggressive behavior, they also seem to obsess on irrelevant details while ignoring the quality of work that their employees actually do. Lumbergh shows no concern for Peter's work other than the fact that Peter had forgotten to put a new cover sheet on a TPS report. Bill never discusses the content of those TPS reports, and he never mentions Peter's job—as he relates to Joanna—to update bank software for the 2000 switch. The Bobs needle the employees of Initech on increasingly minute details of their work until they can identify a justification for terminating each employee, such as asking Tom to explain his job in detail until they can determine that "He's useless. Gone!" Bob and Bob appear amicable with Michael Bolton while they are talking about the singer with the same name, but the smiles leave their faces when Michael tells them that "you can just call me Mike." The audience is left wondering if that is, in fact, the moment at which the Bobs decide that Michael is dispensable. Joanna's boss Stan does not interact with her for any reason other than to discuss her flair; more specifically, the fact that she wears only the minimum fifteen pieces while another employee wears thirty-seven. He never discusses the quality of service that she gives to her customers; in fact, he tells her that "people can get a cheeseburger anywhere. They come to Chotchkie's for the atmosphere and the attitude." By saying this, he suggests that food, the primary product that restaurants offer, comes secondary in importance—if at all—to the wait staff's external appearance. Like the display of passive-aggressive behavior, the obsession with minor, even trivial, details suggests that the managers in Office Space are unconcerned with the quality of work that their employees do. They seem to believe that focusing on unimportant aspects of the job excuses an unwillingness to discuss important matters more relevant to their employees' jobs, as if they are afraid to interact on a deeper level out of fear of conflict.
In addition to displaying passive-aggressive behavior and focusing on ultimately unimportant details, Mike Judge carefully portrays the managers in Office Space so that they are not seen doing any actual work. Lumbergh is never seen in his office, and he is never seen with as much as a pen in hand. Instead, he spends his work day wandering around the office, coffee mug in hand, interacting with his employees on nothing more than a surface level. Even the meetings that take place at Initech show Lumbergh talking slowly and discussing insignificant matters like "Hawaiian Shirt Day" at the office. Peter, Michael, and Samir are seen in their cubicles, working at their computers or struggling with a malfunctioning printer, while Lumbergh never does anything that even remotely suggests what kind of business Initech does. Bob and Bob are hired to downsize Initech by laying off staff that they judge inessential, and yet they are never seen doing that at all. By hiding behind euphemisms and fictional studies to justify their avoidance of doing their jobs, they demonstrate a fear of doing the work that they are hired to do. By wanting to "avoid confrontation," they reveal a fear of doing a job that, of necessity, involves confrontation. Stan also never appears on screen doing any work related to managing a restaurant. He only materializes long enough to admonish Joanna about her flair, "or lack of flair," without even admonishing her directly. All of these managers hide behind activities that each workplace can do without, avoiding doing anything that would actually contribute to an efficient environment.
Judge sets the action of Office Space in the context of a downsizing program at Initech, where consultants identify and then terminate employees whom they determine to be inessential to the efficient operation of the workplace so that profits can increase. Ironically, the least essential employees in Office Space are the very managers who seek to terminate employees on the basis of details ultimately irrelevant to the quality of work that each employee does. By showing managers who display passive-aggressive behaviors, obsess over unimportant details, and even avoid doing the jobs that they are paid to do, Judge suggests to his audience that managers are less important to a business's operations than the employees that they treat as unimportant. Without managers like Lumbergh, the Bobs, and Stan, work environments like Initech and Chotchkie's would, in fact, run much more smoothly than with them around to distract their employees with counter-productive behaviors. The DVD case and movie posters for Office Space display the tag line "Work sucks," and the movie suggests to its audiences that work would suck much less without these managers.
Works Cited
Office Space. Dir. Mike Judge. Perf. Ron Livingstone, Stephen Root, Gary Cole,
Jennifer Aniston. Twentieth-Century Fox. 1999.
Waxman, Sharon. “Studios Rush to Cash In on DVD Boom; Swelling Demand for Disks
Alters Hollywood’s Arithmetic.” 20 April, 2004. The New York Times on the
Web. The New York Times Company. 26 June 2008.
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