What can 'Office Space' teach us about Work Design?
The 1999 movie "Office Space" has been one of my favorites for a long time. It tells the story of Peter, a disenchanted office drone, who - after being hypnotized - stops worrying about his job. What I love most about the film is how well it captures what’s broken about work. Here are my favorite scenes, what they can teach us, and some suggestions for leaders to capitalize on those learnings.
The Worst Day of My Life
Peter's girlfriend forces him to see a hypnotherapist. "So I was sitting in my cubicle today, and I realized, ever since I started working, every single day of my life has been worse than the day before it. So that means that every single day that you see me, that's on the worst day of my life."
An extreme sentiment, of course - but very much in line with what Gallup's annual engagement surveys have been telling us for decades now: more than 2/3 of the workforce is either not engaged or actively disengaged. Quiet quitting is real.
Suggestion: Start with asking yourself how your employees experience their work, but don't stop there. Ask them! Does the work offer variety, purpose, and a sense of ownership? Do they feel they have enough autonomy and receive useful feedback? Is the technology fit for purpose? The answers to these questions often reveal plenty of opportunities to make work better and create intrinsically motivating jobs. And if you are looking for a validated tool to gather this data, consider our free MOJO diagnostic.
Fifteen Minutes of Real Work
In this scene, the two Bobs interview Peter to identify opportunities to cut headcount. Peter is brutally honest and admits that he spends hours staring into space. "I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work."
While that number seems extreme, it’s not as far from reality as you might think. It is not uncommon to find that more than half of employees’ time is spent doing low value work that can be eliminated, automated, improved, elevated.
Suggestion: Identify your team's major buckets of work. Estimate the hours required to do the activities involved and ask yourself what the value of each bucket is.
Eight Bosses
A bit later in the same scene, Peter shares that he has eight bosses - and what that means. "When I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That's my real motivation - not to be hassled. That and the fear of losing my job, but y'know, Bob, it will only make someone work hard enough not to get fired."
Obviously exaggerated, but again, not by much. How do you know whether you are doing a good job? If you are lucky, you can tell that by doing the work itself. But very few are. For the rest, the infatuation with command and control has led to layers and layers of management that justify their existence by managing those doing the actual work. This model is based on the false assumption that there is no performance unless somebody manages it - despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.
Suggestion: Connecting individuals or teams directly to their internal or external customers and opening up feedback channels can do wonders to reduce the need for managers to 'manage performance'. In the ideal case, doing the work provides the feedback - just like a golfer can tell from where the ball landed how well he or she did, and adjust their swing.
Paper Jam
Samir, one of Peter's co-workers, is struggling with a malfunctioning printer: "No, not again. I... why does it say paper jam when there is no paper jam? I swear to God, one of these days, I just kick this piece of sh*t out the window." A bit later on in the movie the printer (or fax - the movie was made in 1999) meets its demise, when Peter and his crew take a baseball bat to it.
Technology is now everywhere in the workplace - from sophisticated AI tools to the use of email or calendars. Poorly designed technology is often a major productivity killer: Systems that do not talk to one another, transactions that time out, redundant and often conflicting data, the list goes on and on.
Suggestion: Ask your team to identify their tech pain points, then quantify the value of the lost time. This will help to get the attention of those controlling scarce IT resources. Consider robotic process automation (RPA) to automate highly repetitive work. Modern leaders ensure their team's tech tools work for them.
Work is Broken. Let’s Fix it!
As Peter puts it: "Human beings weren't meant to sit in little cubicles, starring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms and listening to eight different bosses drone on about mission statements." And he is right.
In the context of the Great Resignation/Quiet Quitting, work redesign presents a tremendous opportunity to create jobs people love. Let's seize it.