In the movie Office Space, Jennifer Aniston's character Joanna works for Chotchkie's, a "fun" family restaurant. The servers at Chotchkie's are required to wear at least 15 pieces of "flair," crazy buttons and other crap that they can pin to their waiter uniforms. The manager is trying to lecture Joanna about how she's doing the "bare minimum", and Joanna attempts to secure the approval that she's in the clear.
Mike Judge gives a classic Judge-esque performance as the Chotchkie's manager, including a truly obnoxious eye-roll when Joanna apparently isn't getting his point. I'm pretty sure the intent of this scene was to build sympathy for Joanna, who has to work for an arbitrary, lecturing boss. That interpretation would fit in with the rest of the movie, which is more broadly about the banalities of working life. But I find myself siding with Judge.Stan, Chotchkie's Manager: We need to talk about your flair.Joanna: Really? I... I have fifteen pieces on. I, also...Stan, Chotchkie's Manager: Well, okay. Fifteen is the minimum, okay?Joanna: Okay.Stan, Chotchkie's Manager: Now, you know it's up to you whether or not you want to just do the bare minimum. Or... well, like Brian, for example, has thirty seven pieces of flair, okay. And a terrific smile.Joanna: Okay. So you... you want me to wear more?Stan, Chotchkie's Manager: Look. Joanna.Joanna: Yeah.Stan, Chotchkie's Manager: People can get a cheeseburger anywhere, okay? They come to Chotchkie's for the atmosphere and the attitude. Okay? That's what the flair's about. It's about fun.Joanna: Yeah. Okay. So more then, yeah?Stan, Chotchkie's Manager: Look, we want you to express yourself, okay? Now if you feel that the bare minimum is enough, then okay. But some people choose to wear more and we encourage that, okay? You do want to express yourself, don't you?Joanna: Yeah, yeah.Stan, Chotchkie's Manager: Okay. Great. Great. That's all I ask.
Sometimes employees really are looking to do the bare minimum, and they seek a kind of safe harbor to be defined by their bosses. This is the behavior of a low-value employee: Just tell me exactly what I need to do and I'll do that. Careerist corporate drones might want to have the rules clearly laid out so they can game those rules to maximum advantage. The extreme example of this is public sector employees whose pay and retirement benefits are literally set by a formula, and they work (or "work") to maximize the payout of that formula. What's actually expected is that you go a little bit beyond what the letter of the law demands (or what the employment contract or job description demands). Or perhaps what's expected is that you mildly skirt the letter of the law. Some rules are meant to be routinely flouted but need to be written down to prevent excessive violations. Good managers need to be a little bit vague about what the true expectations are, such that they don't get gamed by clever-but-lazy employees. Not to be too "self-help"-y here, but it's good to have an entrepreneurial attitude toward work rather than a bureaucratic formula-maximizer mindset.
That's why I take a sympathetic view of Mike Judge's character Stan. He wasn't trying to be obnoxious or confusing. He was just trying to lecture Joanna on what it means to have a good work ethic. Perhaps he saw unfulfilled potential in her, and he wanted to bring it out. And Joanna just totally misses the point.
While I'm at it...I think the Nicelanders in Wreck It Ralph were right to exclude him from their anniversary party. The formula from Fight Club is perfectly appropriate. ("AxBxC equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.") And Magneto had some great ideas.
I agree with you that Stan wasn't really that bad of a boss and I never understood the hatred people have towards him, I can picture me tolerating having a boss like Stan at my job.
ReplyDeleteI have people who report to me at work. I'm constantly having to say, "This isn't a 'Tell me what to do and I'll do exactly that' kind of job." I guess I feel like Stan sometimes, but I think most jobs are actually like that.
DeleteI feel like Stan had poor communication skills.
ReplyDeleteGetting called in by your boss for something not positive is inherently negative. So it's like getting a thumbs down for doing what was asked. Your post seems to suggest the interaction went beyond simple hourly jobs into symbolizing Peter's white collar world. In that world, which im more familiar with, you have to juggle priorities and rely largely on your boss to communicate to you what is important at that time. After all, they are privvy to more information from meetings only they can attend. If these pieces of flair were process improvement ideas or something extra, you typically don't want to waste your time with doing extra when you have your day to day. Stan had an expectation for Joanna and chose to set that expectation by setting the incorrect one first. I'm don't really agree with your game the system idea or wanting extra beyond what was agreed to before getting hired. That seems to be describing wanting to trick people into not asking for more salary to match the work they'll be asked to do later. It seems silly to expect a potential employee to expect payment for X but also expect to actually work X+more.
I found this looking for other explanations of the scene. I used to think the boss didn't want to be overbearing by requiring 37 flair, but simultaneously wanting everyone to wear 37 flair. Now I feel more like he couldn't demand 37 per the company guidelines of 15, so rather than demand he decided to suggest until he got everyone wearing 37. So if Joanna called corporate to complain he could defend his actions as meer suggestions. But perhaps you are right. He felt his employees needed to go the extra mile and he would push them to do it. But he couldn't change the goal post because then they aren't going the extra mile.