Office Space Bobs The Building No One Ever Talks About Is A Genius

Written by Robert Scucci | Published 31 seconds ago

Mike Judge’s Office Location is one of those cult films that has staying power because it satirizes corporate culture. Anyone who’s ever had to sit in gridlock and wear a shirt and tie (and well-tailored pants) just to sit in a windowless room full of cubicles doesn’t have to suspend much disbelief when Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) becomes a printer at Initech. so he can blow a permanent smoke in the middle of an empty stadium with his co-workers after finding out they’re getting laid off. But one Office Location A point I’ve never heard anyone make concerns “The Bobs,” and that Peter’s first meeting with them was not just to air a bunch of petty grievances while justifying his non-involvement as an employee, but rather an accurate representation of how. companies like Initech really work.

What’s more, The Bobs – so deceptively smart they look stupid – are 100 percent correct in their assessment that Peter Gibbons is “a straight shooter written down by top management.”

Bob’s

Office Space introduces us to Bob Slydell (John C. McGinley) and Bob Porter (Paul Willson), better known to Peter as “The Bobs,” as several consultants brought in by Initech to help run Initech’s day-to-day operations. it worked a lot. efficiently while increasing profits (read: pitch people). It doesn’t take long for Tom Smykowski (Richard Riehle) to “come 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) in trouble because they’re hard workers willing to put their heads down and do the grunt work. such as programmers for fear of losing their jobs.

After working in middle management as an auditor for a company processing TPS (which stands for Transaction Processing Summary, sort of) reports, I developed a new appreciation for The Bobs in Office Location after living through the worst five years of my professional life. Consultants like The Bobs are not a fantasy job, and they contract with real companies for the sole purpose of reducing operations to reduce costs and make their shareholders happy.

Peter’s Mental State

Peter’s character arc in Office Location It’s simple: you have a session with an occupational therapist named Dr. Swanson (Michael McShane), who makes him lose his mind about his job. Dr. Swanson has a heart attack and dies while Peter is in a state of complete bliss, meaning this is the version of Peter meeting The Bobs and setting up the rest Office Space’s the plot moves.

No longer afraid of losing his job, Peter hits the ground running, and comes back when he needs to get his things from his closet, not knowing how hard he will attach himself to the man.

We went with Normal Day

When Peter first met The Bobs in Office LocationMichael and Samir are certain that he will be terminated immediately for negligence, and there is no good reason to believe otherwise. When the Bobs ask Peter to walk them through a typical day at Initech, Peter’s whining, coming from a place of indifference with no real motive other than being a jerk, actually points to all the dysfunction the two professionals are looking for. to do their jobs.

Apparently, Peter is just having fun making fun of the counselors, and in his mind that’s all he’s doing. However, his day-in-the-life series tells the Bobs so much that they jump up on the table to shake his hand and give him a promotion when he’s done. If you go through each point that Peter makes Office Locationit’s no wonder why the Bobs love Peter’s attitude, since he can seem so carefree.

Peter is 15 minutes late every day, and he goes in through the side door so no one calls him. He gets away with it, telling The Bobs that managers like Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole), ignore their employees, and sacrifice themselves.

Peter “gets out of his desk” and does “about 15 minutes of real, real work,” which is also not recognized by upper management; he continues to earn and has job security. Peter may be exaggerating how little he works to get out of The Bobs, but he’s actually indirectly telling them that his entire department is irrelevant to Initech’s day-to-day operations, leading to both Michael and Samir being fired.

Explaining that if he “fixes his ass and Initech ships a few more units he doesn’t see an extra dime,” Peter tells The Bobs in so many words that there’s no incentive system in place, like bonuses or commissions, to pay off hard. workers to travel long distances.

Redundancy of Salaries

At this point in Peter’s epic rant Office Locationhe hasn’t issued a death sentence, which comes in the form of telling The Bobs that he has eight different bosses. As soon as Peter drops the bombshell, Bob Slydell’s jaw drops, and he leans forward for more information. Once again, in Peter’s mind, he’s just complaining about why he hates working at Initech because he’s being controlled to an unimaginable level, but to The Bobs he’s just revealed a huge waste of salary.

Remember, the only reason Initech hired functional professionals was to properly downsize the company and get rid of non-essential employees. Although it was never explicitly stated, the consultants quickly put Bill Lumbergh on the hot seat and asked him how much time he spent each week reviewing TPS reports because they wanted to see if his work was needed even after sitting down with Peter.

In other words, Peter has no idea that he’s done all the work for The Bobs, which is why they’re eager to promote him and give him stock options even though everyone thinks he’s the next employee to get the ax. Even if Peter gets a big raise, it’s a win-win for Initech because they can lay off a number of high-level employees without missing out on what they bring to the table.

The Bobs know this, and their ingenuity is evident when they still milk their Initech consulting deal to the third peak, even after Peter gives them all the information they need to fix things and move on to their next gig.

The Hidden Genius of the Office Space

You don’t need to be an office drone to fully enjoy it Office Locationbut having inside knowledge of how Bobs works in real life in the corporate world will increase your enjoyment by a significant amount. On the surface, The Bobs can be enjoyed as useful idiots who want to promote some meat who hates his job, which is insulting to his co-workers and funny in nature. On the other hand, the Bobs are a lot smarter than they let on because they base every business decision they make throughout the movie on Peter’s precious brain that comes from a place of mild frustration.

From this writing, you can broadcast Office Location on Hulu.