The film's team tells The Hollywood Reporter about studio tension, favorite improvised lines, residual checks, typecasting and the surprising path to classic status: "I don't know that there's a right way to market this movie."
It’s really funny noticing once I got an office job, how much movies like this and the show the office applied to real life.
There’s an episode of the show where they have a new boss and he uses some phrase and a bunch of people use the same phrase to try and connect or what ever. Well we got a new corporate guy who visited our office, used a phrase and then like 5 other people use the same phrase when responding to his question. I thought it was hilarious
I used to have office jobs just like this; it's much worse today. The office jobs depicted in the movie are slower paced, just like office jobs used to be. In other words, despite the level of drudgery and manual toil, people generally had time to actually do their job. Not everything was optimized into oblivion, and that was a good thing. It gave people time to learn, gain mastery, investigate options, and be creative. It wasn't perfect by any means, but it was a better time.
Now, besides an "always on" demand that many companies expect, if you have to work on site (in order to prop up the company's real estate investment), forget about a cubicle. Cubicles got a bad rap, but they enabled each person to imbue their workspace with some of their own personality, and they provided a modicum of privacy. Now you only have an open floor plan with desks side by side, and more likely than not, the desks are hot (meaning you have to reserve them in advance). There are very few offices except for executives.
No one has time to do anything, and on a very much related note, many roles that used to be dedicated no longer exist. Instead, their job functions were piled on top of the job responsibilities of people who already had too much on their plates to begin with.
Frankly, in many ways Office Space is nostalgic for me these days. The only two things I have over it are that I work remotely (pros and cons) and I don't have to wear a pressed shirt and tie anymore.
My mom asked me if she could lend my copy of Office Space to someone at work. She worked in a telecommunications office. It got around to everyone on her floor before I got it back.
They had to do TPS reports so that movie hit really home for all of them.
I have never worked in an office like that and I hope I never do.
I had 4 different bosses and 1 thought-he-was-my-boss at a previous job and none of the bosses talked to each other so I'd constantly get asked why something wasn't done when it was actually done.
Unlikely? To the people who were living life and not skating by like many entitled dipshits, it was a breath of fresh air that someone could articulate the mess that was becoming America in such a succinct manner.