Office Space and the Occasional Well-Placed Object Lesson

If you haven't seen Office Space -- or even if you have but it's been a while -- rent it. Brilliant comedy which comes far too close to the way we, as office drones, think to be classified as parody; it hits the mark if you're up for a little hyperbolic vengeance and escapism.

I was inspired to revisit this little gem because we have a 'Bob' analyzing our firm right now. He's been there for around a month. In his late forties-early fifties; closely-shorn red hair; glasses; short-sleeved button-up oxfords; very kind, appearing  just a bit quirky on cursory examination, he is the taller of 'the Bobs' from Office Space played so well by Scrubs' John C. McGinley.

The department managers saw unfathomably fit to place him in the office right beside mine and didn't inform us of his purpose until nearly a week after his arrival. I am perhaps the foulest-mouthed, certainly among the most animated members of my 300-plus firm, but I am a really good producer. It took three whiffs of smelling salts to get me and my foul mouth up off the floor when they told us who he was and his purpose for being there. Outwardly, I am protagonist Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) but without the excuse of hypnosis gone awry. Inwardly, I'm fiercely driven to meet the really high personal standards I set for myself. My superiors' impressive and astute observation of this well-hidden characteristic is the only thing that allows me the luxury of appearing to be a dilettante of the highest order.

But about 'Bob'. Among my team, he quickly and unofficially became Bob (since we weren't informed of his name -- John -- until last week) and oh, how savvy and witty we imagined ourselves with our little inside joke: we seem to be the only team to 'get' it, really.

Last Friday  -- Casual Friday (-; -- my supervisor, Jane, wore a t-shirt emblazoned with the image of Bill Lumbergh, the department supervisor played so hilariously by Gary Cole, coffee mug in hand, with the caption "Ummm yeah, I'm gonna need you to come on in on Saturday...that'll be great, thanks." Her blatant advertisement of our previously furtive drollery amused and intrigued me. Very driven, focused and funny but ultimately pretty strait-laced, Jane. I stepped into her office around 10 a.m. to find Bob talking to her and chuckling, she responding only by nodding and concentrating falsely and fiercely on the report in front of her.  She was so pale I feared the smelling salts might want for re-activation; eyes so big, I found myself frantically searching her expansive bookshelf for a vessel in which to catch them, should they pop out entirely, a state on which they appeared to be verging.

Of course I knew instantly why she was in such a state: he'd said something to her about the indirect reference on her t-shirt. Being the type of person I am, I broke out in uncontrollable laughter. Jane was horrified, Bob (nee John) was surprisingly amused and I was peeing my pants at the overall spectacle before me.  Bob just looked at me, shook his head and winked jovially, clapped me on the back and walked out of her office.

After a few minutes with her head between her knees, Jane told me that Bob said the staff at the previous firm with which he'd consulted had given him Hell; to the point he finally rented the movie just to see what they were talking about. He liked it, but didn't quite 'get it'. He grasped the parallels and found them funny, but it really wasn't 'his kind of fare'. He shared this conversation with a self-effacing smile and a disarming approachability.  

Bob's ability to laugh at himself impressed me a great deal; he wasn't faking it. His ability to laugh along with others at an 'inside joke' which his mere presence incited, to which he was initially far more subjected to than included in (though not in any intentionally cruel way), is reflective of something downright inspiring I think. Loathe as I am to admit it, Bob the Efficiency Consultant taught me some little something that morning which has no doubt opened my mind to other advice he may proffer.

We could all learn to laugh at ourselves and our condition a little more. If we have to do it privately, fine; to insinuate ourselves into a somewhat awkward situation in order to laugh with everyone else takes huge initiative at first, but pays off in spades in the end. Bob knew this somehow and, to my estimation, that makes him simply awesome at what he does. The pressures of  living up to the standards set by society, if not by each of us for ourselves, almost dictates that we learn to laugh at least as much as scrutinize the mistakes we make and the ever-so-human shortcomings we exemplify every day.   

So here's to the Bobs of the world who help us see ourselves for what we are, seemingly without effort, occasionally even without realization. They make the world a really cool place. And check out Office Space...again.

 

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