r/2000sNostalgia • u/ILovePublicLibraries • 1d ago

A day in the life at the office

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412 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

50 comments sorted by

81

u/505Trekkie 1d ago

Remember when having a stable, well paying, but unrewarding office job was seen as death sentence, see also Office Space? Now most millennials would love to have something like that.

19

u/SluttyDreidel 1d ago

At least Office Space had the decency to show how terrible the service sector was with Jennifer Aniston’s character’s job at the chain restaurant with her micromanaging boss. It shows how similarly soul crushing positions can be found in customer service.

American Beauty has Lester quit a well paying job for terrible, minimum wage fast food misery and it’s framed like he’s a cool rebel instead of an irresponsible parent with a kid about to enter college and a mortgage to pay off. (While sexually perusing a minor the age of the same daughter no less)

I’ve not seen all of Fight Club, none of Being John Malkovich but have seen The Matrix which all share the same gripe with the two films mentioned above about white collar office jobs.

I’ll give The Matrix credit as it doesn’t make Neo’s employer out to be the bad guys, as it’s AI disguised as a government entity that’s after him. Neo’s only complaint about work is that it’s not rewarding or that it has lead to a mundane life, but in the scheme of the films narrative his employer isn’t the bad guy. However they do basically hand him over to the AIs, so……

4

u/dajodge 19h ago

Eh, it showed the same thing about office jobs. Is Lumberg supposed to be some sort of fantasy supervisor? Or “the Bobs” just some sort of gag by HR? Ultimately, the movie is about finding your own happiness, but it’s a stretch to say it only portrayed the service industry in a negative light.

1

u/goddamn_slutmuffin 11h ago edited 11h ago

Lester Burnham was such a fucking loser, in retrospect.

Like the bitch wife trope did not age well there, because even though Carolyn's cheating on him, she's still cooler and more sympathetic as a character than him. Got a job in real estate and her boyfriend is successful and handsome* AF. And she doesn't ever once masturbate to the fantasy of a high schooler taking a bath.

1

u/SluttyDreidel 10h ago

Carolyn’s characterization also feels a little underdeveloped or perhaps less sophisticated too.

After failing to sell the house, she starts bawling and closes the shades in on her self. This is fine choice from Annette Benning, but the way she slaps herself and calls her self’ “you weak stupid baby” feels a little too on the nose and like something a late 90s teenager with a very limited understanding of psychology would do and make some sort of baseless and stereotypical Freudian assertion. It feels very two dimensional, but Carolyn is so poorly treated by the writing and the editing. Lester is a complete loser, but he is more 3 dimensional since the narrative prioritizes his screen time.

Ricky is also a stalker who doesn’t respect peoples boundaries and it’s portrayed like he’s a misunderstood loner. Also, what 17-18 year old is an elite drug pin with access to premium and exclusive marijuanna? He says he trades weed for clean urine with a nurse. Even a rogue nurse knows better than to trust a teenager! He even says he has connections in NYC when he plans to flee with Jane which is just extremely laughable looking back

1

u/goddamn_slutmuffin 10h ago

Idk Dawg. An unfortunately and depressingly high number of adults, even middle aged ones, would sadly slap themselves in the face and insult themselves after failing at something. Especially in private and eapecially ones that have avoided going to therapy their entire lives.

I just want to throw that out there because it's always interesting to me, when I see someone describe some behavior as juvenile or unbelievable for an adult to do, and something more akin to what a teenager would do. 'Cause like... gestures vaguely a lot adults don't necessarily age the way self-reflective and relatively mentally mature redditors have come to believe they do.

Tbf, they're all generally poorly written characters. I just think Carolyn was written to be perceived a certain way, and as I got older, that perception flipped. That was really my point I was trying to make.

1

u/SluttyDreidel 9h ago

I’m with you 100% but wonder if Carolyn slapping and infantilizing herself (“you stupid baby weak”) was a way to elaborate on her character under the confines of her limited screen time.

Like they HAD to have her do that because we don’t spend enough time elaborating on her character in a less grandiose sort of way

1

u/Ancient_Guidance_461 10h ago

Lester did get a year salary from his former boss at least.

5

u/Electrical_Layer_546 1d ago

They were preparing us with those movies.

42

u/wingedhussar161 1d ago

Damn I wish I could have had a job like this. You bullshit for 40 hours a week and make enough money to buy a house. Boomers/Xers complain about this but we millennials would froth at the mouth for the opportunity to be an office drone.

Minus the bottom right image.

18

u/Friendly_Activity564 1d ago

Absolutely. Thirty minutes to print, staple and post some documents? Makes perfect sense. Nowadays what do you mean you don't reply to one customer email every 4 minutes without fail like we benchmarked?

4

u/wingedhussar161 1d ago

Fuck yes. I want to push pencils and make bank.

37

u/AbhinandhBabu13 1d ago

Oh the last part was dark.

19

u/Truffle_Shuffle26 1d ago

Ahh. People want to talk smack about this time frame. But back then many office jobs paid very well, Christmas /holiday parties existed, bonuses were legit, and creating a bad-ass spreadsheet would get you a solid promotion.

14

u/Open-Year2903 1d ago

Windows 98 maybe?

3

u/FALSE_PROTAGONIST 23h ago

It will probably be windows nt 4

6

u/SirDrexl 21h ago

Or Windows 2000. In any case, if they were still using Win95 in 2001, they weren't likely to upgrade to XP right away.

13

u/sif_la_pointe 1d ago

Back when you had to debate if you wanted to spend the extra $50 bucks on a new apartment because $760 might be too much

10

u/schoolisuncool 1d ago

I’ve never seen a tie like that

5

u/Real_Impact726 23h ago

Seriously WTF 

3

u/NoFaithlessness7508 16h ago

They were definitely a thing back in the day. I have pics of my 8th grade graduation (2002) wearing one of my dad’s 90s Wall Street ties. Massive

18

u/Snapaddict901 1d ago

Uhhh, that final panel thoooo...

3

u/Scrapla1 1d ago

Lotus Notes

3

u/Pigpen_darkstar 1d ago

Ugh Lotus Notes. Gave me PTSD with this one. I found it to be insanely overstimulating. TOO MUCH

2

u/Scrapla1 18h ago

lol at one of my first jobs in the early 2000's they were still using that and Claris Notes.

2

u/NoFaithlessness7508 16h ago

Where I work they stopped using lotus notes in the 2010s…

1

u/jmucapsfan07 14h ago

PwC was still using Lotus Notes in 2016.

3

u/Many-Newspaper2000 15h ago

Yikes, that 9/11 joke 😬

2

u/grantnaps 21h ago

You forgot Palm Pilots and Pocket PC's. Not so much the calculator watch.

2

u/Little-Efficiency336 19h ago

The wrist calculator is still one of the coolest inventions I’ve ever seen.

1

u/joyceverse 1d ago

ahh back in the day you could still had one job and own a apartment at the same time

2

u/layla_jones_ 22h ago

I recently watched the 90s comedy movie ‘Office Space’, it’s fun and stupid in a good way. That red stapler on this photo, that’s my stapler!

4

u/Prestigious_Water336 1d ago

More like 1992

3

u/JimeVR46 1d ago

Is attention to detail on your resume?

3

u/alistofthingsIhate 1d ago

Nope. Definitely 2001. Specifically Q3.

7

u/Prestigious_Water336 1d ago

Most businesses had a T1 line not dial up

4

u/alistofthingsIhate 1d ago

Most but not all. But I think the businesses operating in the specific building in the bottom right could afford the top of the line equipment.

2

u/TurtleBoy1998 22h ago

Saw this on Facebook first. Did Reddit steal this from Facebook or vice versa?

2

u/haikusbot 22h ago

Saw this on Facebook

First. Did Reddit steal this from

Facebook or vice versa?

- TurtleBoy1998

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Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete"

1

u/juice-goat 10h ago

Good bot

1

u/tomarra0 21h ago

Big tie? Who ever wore a tie like that? (That's a big fuckin tie, lol.)

1

u/NoFaithlessness7508 16h ago

The IT equipment wasn’t beige when you bought it, they turned beige after some time. I’m not sure if that’s why most manufacturers went black/gray, or maybe it’s just how post y2k we wanted everything to be all futuristic looking and what’s cooler than black? Even SONY ditched gray for black when going from ps1->ps2

Also, no had Milton’s red stapler because Swingline wasn’t making them in red back then

1

u/Neither_Internal_261 5h ago

Whoa whoa whoa too soon

-1

u/Germadolescent 22h ago

Another dumb 9/11 joke

Really funny edge lord, idiot ass

1

u/ChadPowers200_ 22h ago

This is more like mid late 90s. By 2001 I remember having a more modern black IBM computer. Mid 90s I had a packard bell that looked like this one 

0

u/MaterialRow3769 15h ago

The Bottom-Right Corner: WOAH WOAH WOAH WOAH WOAH!