When Office Space came out, the running joke was TPS reports and cover sheets. A modern sequel could easily be based on HME: town halls, morale awards, endless Teams meetings, e-learning, Wheelchair School, and “Coffee with Robert” videos, Scrapbooks, Tech/Sales/Admin days. The list goes on.
In my experience, I’ve never seen so much of a workday devoted to corporate self-congratulation and motivational messaging. It often felt like having a case of the Mondays every day while sitting through talking points that didn’t seem especially connected to the work people were actually there to do.
Then there are the uniforms. The shirts appear to be cut unusually short, which leads to some… memorable moments around the workplace. At times it feels like the company could rebrand itself as the “fat, hairy gut company of BC,” because those shirts don’t leave much to the imagination. It’s an oddly bold uniform design choice.
Another challenge was the expectation to come into the office even when there was little or no work to do. Spending hours at a desk waiting for something to happen doesn’t exactly inspire peak productivity.
All that said, if Mike Judge ever decides to revisit the modern workplace, he might want to take a look here. The material practically writes itself.
