By Robert Scucci | Published
Mike Judge Office space is one of those cult films that endures because of the way it pokes fun at corporate culture through its satire. Anyone who has ever had to sit in a cul-de-sac and wear a shirt and tie (and properly creased pants) to sit in a windowless room full of cubicles doesn’t have to suspend much disbelief when Peter Gibbons ( Ron Livingston) steals a printer from Initech. so he can get rid of this eternal shit in the middle of an empty field with his work buddies after they find out they’re laid off. But the one Office space The plot point I’ve never heard anyone talk about involves “The Bobs”, and how Peter’s first meeting with them wasn’t just to air a bunch of petty grievances while justifying his lack of commitment as an employee, but rather an accurate representation of how Initech-level companies operate inefficiently.
Furthermore, the Bobs – who are deceptively smart to the point of coming across as complete idiots – are 100% correct in their assessment that Peter Gibbons is “a maverick with senior management written all over him.”
The Bobs
Office Space introduces us to Bob Slydell (John C. McGinley) and Bob Porter (Paul Willson), more affectionately known to Peter as “The Bobs”, as a couple of consultants that Initech has hired to help make the smoother daily operations of Initech. efficiently while maximizing profits (read: laying off a ton of people). It doesn’t take long for Tom Smykowski (Richard Riehle) to “jump to the conclusion” that he’s going to lose his job, which puts Michael Bolton (David Herman, not the pop singer) and Samir Nagheenanajar (Ajay Naidu) on edge because that they are hard workers who are willing to put their heads down and do the grunt work of programmers, for fear of losing their jobs as well.
Having worked in middle management as an auditor for a company that actually processes TPS reports (which stands for Transaction Processing Summary, by the way), I developed a new appreciation for The Bobs in Office space after experiencing five of the worst years of my professional life. Consultants like The Bobs are not a work of fiction, and they are outsourced by real companies for the sole purpose of scaling back operations to reduce costs and appease their shareholders.
Peter’s mental state
Peter’s character arc in Office space is simple: he has a session with a professional hypnotherapist named Dr. Swanson (Michael McShane), who puts him in a trance that prevents him from worrying about his work. Dr. Swanson has a heart attack and dies while Peter is in a state of total happiness, meaning that this is the version of Peter who meets the Bobs and defines the rest of the story. Office spaces moving plot.
No longer afraid of losing his job, Peter takes time off from work, only to return when he needs to retrieve personal items from his office, without yet realizing to what extent he will unconsciously stick them to the man.
Walk us through a typical day
When Peter meets the Bobs for the first time Office spaceMichael and Samir are sure he will be immediately fired for slacking, and there is no compelling reason to believe otherwise. When the Bobs ask Peter to explain to them a typical day at Initech, Peter’s speech, which comes from a completely reckless place and with no real motive other than being a jerk, actually highlights every inefficiency that the two consultants are looking for in order to do their own work.
On the surface, Peter is just having fun making fun of the consultants, and in his mind, that’s all he does. However, the unfolding of his life is so telling to the Bobs that they practically jump across the table to shake his hand and give him a promotion when he’s done. If you go through every point Peter made Office spaceIt’s no wonder the Bobs like Peter’s attitude, as disengaged as he may seem.
Peter arrives 15 minutes late every day and enters through the side door so no one will call him. He gets away with it, which tells the Bobs that managers like Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole) don’t keep tabs on their employees and slack off.
Peter “spaces out at his desk” and does “about 15 minutes of real, real work,” which also goes unnoticed by upper management; he is still on the payroll and has job security. Peter may be exaggerating how little he works to advance the Bobs, but he actually unintentionally tells them that his entire department is not essential to Initech’s day-to-day operations, resulting in Michael’s firing and Samir.
Explaining that if he “works hard and Initech ships a few more units, he won’t see an extra penny,” Peter tells The Bobs in such explicit terms that there is no program Incentives in place, such as bonuses or commissions, to reward hard. workers for going the extra mile.
Salary dismissal
At this point in Peter’s epic rant in Office spacehe still hasn’t delivered the killing blow, which involves telling the Bobs that he has eight different bosses. As soon as Peter drops this bombshell, Bob Slydell gapes and leans forward to get more information. Once again, in Peter’s mind he’s just complaining about why he hates working at Initech because it’s micromanaged to unthinkable levels, but at the Bobs he’s just reported a massive layoff.
Remember, the only reason Initech hired efficiency experts was so it could properly downsize the company and get rid of non-essential workers. Although it is never explicitly stated, the consultants immediately put Bill Lumbergh on the spot and asked him how much time he spends each week reviewing TPS reports, because they want to see if his work is even necessary after sitting with Peter.
In other words, Peter is completely unaware that he did all of the Bobs’ work for them, which is why they are so eager to promote him and give him stock options, even though all the Everyone thinks he’s the next employee to get the axe. Even if Peter gets a substantial promotion, it represents a net gain for Initech, as they can potentially lay off a number of highly paid management employees without even losing what they bring to the table.
The Bobs know this, and their intelligence becomes clear when they still exploit their consulting contract with Initech well into the third act, even after Peter has given them all the information they could possibly need to wrap up and move on to their next gig .
The subtle genius of office spaces
You don’t have to be an office drone to take full advantage of it Office spacebut having in-depth knowledge of how Bobs actually work in the corporate world will greatly increase your enjoyment. On the surface, Bobs can be seen as useful idiots who want to promote an idiot who hates his job, which is insulting to his co-workers and inherently funny. On the other hand, the Bobs are much smarter than they let on, as they base every business decision they make for the rest of the film on Peter’s invaluable information that comes from a place of petty frustration .
As of this writing, you can stream Office space It’s Hulu.
