Dear Supervisor…
For workers who’ve had enough of the Bill Lumbergs of the workplace!
The first time I watched Office Space, I was 17 years old. I was in the military, kicking it around my barracks with my boyfriend. It was one of the many early memes of the ‘90s, except we didn’t know what memes were.
Office Space gave us one-liners and pop culture references galore (the “Oh!” face, anyone?), but we do not give this film about an affable office worker — a cute-ish white dude with a carefree attitude after a hypnosis session gone, dare I say, right — who gives little to no fucks about his supervisor, their boss, or the hired leeches they bring in to help separate people from their jobs and income.
It was my first glimpse at what working in an office in corporate America would be like, and though I was in the military, I would only get a taste. I wouldn’t get a taste of the doublespeak, the gaslighting, the lack of clear communication, the piss poor, substandard training, and utter sniveling nature of office work and corporate culture until I dropped my camouflage for muted greys, blacks, and tans in the form of suits and pencil skirts.
Don’t get me wrong. The military had its myriad problems — sexual harassment and rape, among others — but at least they were earnest and brutal in the harm they caused. It was…
