"Sounds Like Somebody's Got a Case of the Mondays"

If you don't know what movie that line is from, you're missing out on one of life's most significant cinematic lessons. I don't think that any flick ever created has spoken into my life quite as loudly as Office Space. We are now reaching the 10-year anniversary of a comedy with unprecedented rewatchability. In fact, not only is it rewatchable, but like a fine wine or a late-bloomer, it gets better with age. I'm going to attempt to break down why I think that this masterpiece does not get due credit, not just as a comedy, but as an indictor of present day cultural work norms.


First off, everything surrounding the typical work day as depicted in Office Space is completely on point. It's the horrifying morning commute, sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic, constantly checking to make sure that you're not late to a job that you despise. It's the feeling you get on the weekends, that you can't even enjoy them because they just go way to fast. It's the monotonous cycle that the rest of life takes because it seems to be scheduled around a dead-end career.


Then you make it to the office itself, where every character represents a person that you may encounter in real life, including that woman who is way too peppy for being in that enviroment, walking around on the first day of the week uttering something annoying like, "Sounds like somebody's got a case of the Mondays". The boss is a real you-know-what (or maybe you don't-know-what if you're one of the few lucky enough to nerve have a jerk boss) and you'd love to tell him how you really feel but you want to keep your job, as terrible as it may be, because at least it pays the bills. The work itself is pretty much the same thing all the time, and you just pretend to be busy when you don't have anything to do so you won't be bothered by anyone in a position of authority.


When did the average man's work become synonymous with a 9-5 hell?I'm really not sure, but I guess it must have occured to people in the early to mid-90s when someone thought up the comic that the movie was based on. I am so glad I started working with kids, especially ones with disabilities, because it shapes your view of the world in the exact opposite way that Office Space does. I hope that people on the fence about career options watch the movie and contemplate whether they are one of a select few that could handle life as a cubicle-worker at a big corporation.

I've worked office jobs and know alot of other people who have or still do and I can tell you that this quote from Office Space's lead character Peter Gibbons is a good one:
"The thing is, Bob, it's not that I'm lazy. It's just that I just don't
care.......[my real motivation] is 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."

So I think this all came into my head because I remembered that one line about Mondays, and well, it is a Monday, so I figured I would rant about my fear of someday getting stuck at a job like Peter Gibbons and the millions of real life people who hate their work. Just some thoughts as I procrastinate on some schoolwork....sorry, this blog kind of sucked. I think I'm forcing the issue a bit because I haven't had much to write about. I promise you, the next one up will be far more interesting, so stay reading homie.