The film “Office Space” is 20 years old: how it changed our jobs

In 1999, the film masterfully parodyed both the routine and the ridiculous office life. What has changed since then?

" Office Space " has become a characteristic film that makes fun of corporate commonplace. In February, he turned 20, and if you revise it today, you can see how much the office culture has changed - and how much has remained the same.

The film , written and directed by Mike Judge , tells the story of Peter Gibbons, a young programmer from a firm with the generic name Initech. He has a small salary, he feels broken and considers his work pointless, and disappointment in his work ultimately inspires him to rebel against his bosses and corporate America.

The culmination of rebellion is a catharsis, expressed through the destruction by all of the hated office printer in a clean field with colleagues. After that, they try to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from the company, breaking its corporate accounts with the help of a virus.

The idea of ​​the film, formulated by Peter’s girlfriend, Joanna, who also hates her waitress work, is simple: “Peter, most people don’t like their work. But you go there and find something that makes you happy. ”

Since this film was released in 1999, we are increasingly thinking about the absurd and terrible aspects of office life. But how successfully do we get rid of these aspects? Do I need to thank the film for this?


The film helped formulate on screen the joyless, tyrannical corporate culture of “company first”, which dominated the white-collar workers in the 1990s.

What has changed in the world of work?

In the past few decades, parodies of the white-collar office have grown into their own subgenre as part of pop culture.

Dilbert comics by Scott Adams were launched in 1989, and in 2001 the BBC began showing the original version of the television comedy Office. Both works ridiculed elements of a modern workplace: incompetent managers, stupid bureaucracy, forced holidays, endless useless work and jargon-filled office notes that no one reads.

“Office space” condemned such work - proclaiming the superiority of conformism and monotonous both physically and mentally. In this context, one can see how many companies answered these challenges with the help of standing tables, meditation rooms and yoga , orspecial days when you can bring your dog to work.

The most striking example of a working culture that we are trying to avoid is Peter’s forever drinking coffee, Bill Lamberg. Wearing gold-framed glasses and a colorful tie, Lamberg is like a legacy of company directors from the 80s, the era of " greed is good ." He is engaged in micromanagement and does not pay attention to the well-being and care of his subordinates. In one episode, he left 17 messages on Peter’s answering machine Saturday morning reminding him to go to work on a weekend.

This leads Peter to his breakdown and revelation at the time of his visit to a hypnotherapist. He decides to completely stop worrying [more precisely, he is given such a setting / approx. transl.]. Enough with him. He begins to be late, refuses a tie and trousers in favor of T-shirts and sandals, openly plays at Tetris at work and dismantles his booth with a screwdriver.

Unexpectedly, this approach attracts the attention of two third-party consultants, Bob and Bob, who were invited to eliminate the extra people from Initech. They kicked out many of Peter’s colleagues, but to Bob, the behavior of Peter’s life-saturated life seems like a breath of fresh air, and they call him “suitable material to turn into a top manager.”


Peter rebels against his toxic boss by eating Chitos and playing Tetris in his workplace in casual wear.

In this sense, the film was unexpectedly prophetic. Today, many directors behave in the image of Peter. I recall startups of Silicon Valley in the late 2000s and early 2010s, whose leaders abandoned their costumes and proclaimed freedom and creativity in the workplace. Instead of leveling booths, organizations switched to open office spaces with bean bags and ping-pong tables . Business luminaries like Mark Zuckerberg deliberately abandoned shirts and ties in favor of hoodies and jeans, much like Peter does in the movie.

But it's not just about clothes. Zuckerberg and the like represent a distraction and emergency exit from the monotonous office work that the characters are actively seeking. Many years later, this contempt for corporate life and the emergence of new technologies paved the way for the economy of part-time jobs and opened up more opportunities to become your own boss .

But the situation has its drawbacks. Although the new working methods freed many from the dominance of booths, they also created a " culture of fuss " that forced entrepreneurs and independent workers to burn at work, instead of having the omnipresent boss like Lamberg do it for them.

In this sense, many of the problems highlighted in the film still exist today, just in a different form.

What hasn't changed at all?

Many of the film’s comments are still relevant, suggesting there are perpetual problems that trap office workers.

Some of the “solutions” designed to get rid of office boredom seem artificial - like pinball or table football machines , which have become symbols of stereotypical startups. Currently, they look as empty of a binding as the frivolous frivolity of the “Friday Hawaiian Shirts” mentioned in the film. Unless the HR department and managers apply real flexibility promotion policies, these gestures remain meaningless.

And regardless of the casual code of the dress code or the number of game rooms, many of today's firms are still victims of the “company first” directive ridiculed in the film.

Recent research suggests that Facebook employees consider its culture “a kind of cult,” despite its historically anti-corporate values. Elon Musk, the director of Tesla, was criticized last year, saying that no one changed the world working only 40 hours a week - apparently armed with a higher purpose that is absent from the work environment shown in the film and using it to force recycling.


The overwhelming boss and suffocating work culture depicted in the film reflected the reality that existed in the real working environment of white-collar workers

There are other management problems that are reflected in the film and still exist. For example, one of Bob tells a group of white managers that he wants to fire Peter’s colleague, Samir Naginanajar. He constantly stumbles on Samir’s surname, and as a result calls him as “here-more-not-working”, under the grin of his colleague. Today, although large and small companies are trying to diversify their workforce, micro-aggressive everyday racism has not gone away.

Beans later said that they were not going to inform the dismissed workers who were recognized as superfluous about this personally: "We would like to avoid confrontation whenever possible." Avoiding unpleasant personal discussions today, thanks to technology, is easier than ever - over the years since the release of the film, firms are criticized for notifying them of their dismissal by emailor via voice message, SMS or Twitter .

The anger towards corporations that motivates Peter and his friends exists today. At the culmination of the film, Peter and his friends are conducting a hacker attack designed to pump money from Initech bank accounts so that "they never have to sit in booths again." They are ready to break the law in order to destroy a company that seems to them spoiled and unfair. Similar scenarios unfold in today's realities - not in the form of comedies, but in the form of a sincere denunciation of capitalism and 1%, for example, in the popular television series Mr. Robot.

Movie legacy

Although the fees for the Office Space turned out to be disappointing, in twenty years it has become a cult hit. A lot has happened during these 20 years, including the global financial crisis, against which boring work in the film seems like a luxury that white-collar workers take for granted.

Watching the film in 2019, it is easy to notice what moments we reacted to and tried to change them, even if some changes were artificial. Nevertheless, the main theme of the film raises the question: is it really possible to find a job that you like? This issue gives rise to important discussions about the balance of work and personal life, as well as a decent career, continuing today. These discussions are likely to continue as long as jobs exist.

At the end of the film, after the closure of Initech due to arson, Peter takes a job as a builder. Raking the ashes of his old company, he says that his new job "is not so bad: you earn money, exercise, work in the fresh air." Luckily for him, his attempt to commit a crime ended in nothing, and he learned an important lesson at the same time that Initech suffered a deserved punishment.

But as a commentary on poor management and ineffective work, the film remains relevant to this day. The “office space” reminds us that although there is no perfect work, you should always pay attention to the shortcomings.