| Office Space, an American comedy film that | | | | spawned dozens of fan sites, most notable of |
| satirizes the working life of a number of fed | | | | which was the website B*llSh*tJob.com, which |
| up individuals who work for a large software | | | | was not only an ode to the film, but a forum |
| company, flopped at the big screen. When it | | | | for those who had had enough of their own |
| was first released back in 1999, critics were | | | | dead end jobs, and by watching Office Space |
| largely unimpressed. The New York Times | | | | were motivated and inspired to quit and find |
| wrote: "It has the loose-jointed feel of a | | | | better employment. |
| bunch of sketches packed together into a | | | | |
| narrative that doesn't gather much momentum"; | | | | The cult following is also manifested in the |
| Entertainment Weekly deemed it "cramped and | | | | availability of non-official merchandise |
| under-imagined." | | | | related to various props in the film. For |
| | | | example, it's possible to purchase Initech |
| The story focused on Peter Gibbons, an | | | | mugs and mouse mats, but perhaps the most |
| employee of the software company Initech, who | | | | unlikely item to receive a cult following |
| spends his working days adjusting banking | | | | came from the stationary world. |
| software code to prepare for the Y2k disaster | | | | |
| - which at the end of the 90s was a much | | | | One of the central characters Milton, an |
| talked about "threat". Peter is bored, | | | | overweight paper pusher who is constantly |
| tired, fed up and hates his job and | | | | bullied by upper management who relocate his |
| everything about the company he works for, | | | | desk whenever they feel like it, has one love |
| especially his boss "Lumbergh" who frequently | | | | in his life: his Red Swingline Stapler - |
| makes Peter come to work on weekends. | | | | about which he is constantly mumbling. |
| | | | |
| Despite the slow start, Office Space became a | | | | Swingline are a real life stationary company |
| massive cult movie, spawning a whole | | | | who do manufacture staplers, but prior to the |
| generation of office bound fans. It seemed to | | | | making of Office Space, they had not produced |
| sum up the working lives of so many in the | | | | a red model in years (a member of the props |
| Western world; even those who had never | | | | team was instructed to paint the stapler prop |
| worked in an office cubicle for a software | | | | red to fit in with the script). Due to the |
| firm could still relate to the maddening | | | | demand generated by the film, Swingline began |
| commute to work, the pointless office | | | | producing the red model again, which went on |
| bureaucracy, the annoying co-workers, the | | | | to become the best selling stapler of all |
| printer that forever jammed and the boss who | | | | time. |
| preferred to spend company time and money on | | | | |
| his shirts and celebrating his birthday, | | | | Perhaps the movie's greatest achievement was |
| rather than giving his staff a pay rise. | | | | striking a chord with so many workplaces |
| | | | around the world; from serviced offices in |
| Such was the connection that Office Space | | | | London to the desks of Detroit, Office Space |
| made with those who watched it, that it | | | | is the voice of the jilted office generation. |