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By Robert Scucci
| Published
Mike Judge Office Space is one of those cult films that has lasting power because of how scathingly it undermines corporate culture through its satire. Anyone who has ever had to sit in traffic and wear a shirt and tie (and very wrinkled pants) only 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 beat the ever-present crap out of him in the middle of an empty field with his work mates after they find out they’re being made redundant. But the same Office Space a plot point that I don’t hear anyone talking about involves “The Bobs,” and how Peter’s initial meeting with them was not just to air a bunch of petty grievances while justifying his lack of engagement as an employee, but rather an accurate representation of how inefficiently corporations at the level of Initech actually operate.
What’s more, The Bobs – who are deceptively smart to the point of looking like complete idiots – are 100 per cent correct in their assessment that Peter Gibbons is “a straight shooter with superior control 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 brought in to help make Initech’s daily operations run more smoothly. efficient at maximizing profits (read: laying off tons of people). It doesn’t take long for Tom Smykowski (Richard Riehle) to “jump to conclusions” that he’s going to lose his job, which gives Michael Bolton (David Herman, not the pop singer) and Samir Nagheenanajar (Ajay Naidu) ahead because they are hard workers who are willing to put their heads down and do the grunt work as programmers for fear of losing their jobs too.
After working 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 having lived through five of the worst years of my professional life. Consultants like The Bobs are not fiction, and are contracted out by real corporations for the sole purpose of reducing operations to cut costs and appease their shareholders.
Peter’s Mental State
Peter’s character arc Office Space is a simple one: he has a session with an occupational hypnotherapist called Dr. Swanson (Michael McShane), who puts him in a trance that makes him stop worrying about his job. Dr. Swanson has a heart attack and dies while Peter is in a state of complete bliss, meaning that this is the version of Peter who meets the Bobs and sets the rest of Office Spaces plot in action.
No longer afraid of losing his job, Peter quits his job, only to return when he needs to retrieve personal items from his cubicle, not yet aware of how hard he is going to attach it subconsciously to the man.
Walk Us Through A Typical Day
When Peter meets The Bobs for the first time in Office SpaceMichael and Samir are certain that he will be terminated immediately for slacking off, and there is no compelling reason to believe otherwise. When The Bobs ask Peter to walk them through a typical day at Initech, Peter’s ranting, which comes from a completely uncaring place with no real motive other than being bored, actually highlights every inefficiency that the two consultant looking for it. in order to do their own jobs.
On the surface, Peter is having fun making fun of the consultants, and in his mind that is all he is doing. However, The Bobs are so impressed by his day-in-the-life decline that they practically jump across the table to shake his hand and give him a promotion when he’s done. If you run through every point Peter makes it in Office Spaceit’s no wonder why The Bobs love Peter’s attitude, as disengaged as he seems.
Peter shows up 15 minutes late every day, and goes in through the side door so no one calls him out. He takes off with him, who tells The Bobs that managers like Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole), who do not keep track of their employees, and slack off themselves.
Peter “spaces at his desk” and does “about 15 minutes of real work,” which also goes unnoticed by senior management; he is still on the payroll and has job security. Peter may be exaggerating how little he works to get a raise out of The Bobs, but he’s actually unknowingly telling them that his entire department isn’t essential to Initech’s daily operations, which leads to Michael and Samir are dismissed.
Explaining that if he “works his ass off and Initech ships a few extra units he doesn’t see an extra dime,” Peter tells The Bobs in so many words that there is no incentive program in place, such as bonuses or commissions, to reward hard. employees want to go the extra mile.
The Wages Redundancy
At this point in Peter’s epic rant Office Spacehe still hasn’t delivered the death blow, which comes in the form of telling The Bobs he has eight different bosses. As soon as Peter drops this bombshell, Bob Slydell’s jaw drops, and he presses on for more information. Again, in Peter’s mind, he complains about why he hates working at Initech because it’s micromanaged at unimaginable levels, but to The Bobs it’s just pointing out a huge pay cut.
Remember, the only reason Initech hired efficiency experts was so they could properly downsize the company and get rid of non-essential employees. Although he has never said it specifically, the consultants immediately put Bill Lumbergh in the hot seat and asked him how much time he spends each week reviewing the TPS reports because they wanted to see if his job even necessary after sitting down with Peter.
In other words, Peter is completely unaware that he has done all of The Bobs’ work for them, which is why they are so keen to promote him and give him stock options even though everyone else thinks he is the next employee to get the an ax Even if Peter gets a significant promotion, it’s a net gain for Initech because they can potentially lay off several highly paid executive level employees without even losing what they contribute.
The Bobs know this, and their intelligence becomes clear when they are still milking their consultancy contract with Initech well into the third act, even after Peter has given all the information they could that they need her to wrap things up and move on to their next gig.
Subtle Genius Office Space
You don’t need to be an office drone to really enjoy it Office Spacebut getting the inside scoop on how real-life Bobs work in the corporate world will increase your enjoyment considerably. On the surface, The Bobs can be enjoyed as useful idiots who want to promote some meathead who hates his job, is insulting to his co-workers and is inherently funny. On the other hand, The Bobs are much smarter than they let on because they base every business decision they make for the rest of the movie on Peter’s invaluable intelligence that came from a place of slight frustration.
As of this writing, you can stream Office Space is Hulu.
