“It’s not that I’m lazy, it’s that I just don’t care.” That line from the 1999 cult classic “Office Space” movie might’ve gotten a laugh 26 years ago, but for a lot of working millennials today, it’s hitting uncomfortably close to home.
As one millennial recently put it in the r/Millennials subreddit: “The older I get and the farther in my career I go, the more I realize how deadly accurate ‘Office Space’ was.” That simple statement launched a tidal wave of agreement from thousands of people, most of them somewhere between their 30s and 40s, grinding through careers that feel increasingly pointless.
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From Satire To Reality
When the movie first came out, many viewers saw it as an absurdist comedy. Now, it feels like a documentary. “It came out when I was in high school and I thought the exact same,” one person wrote. “I remember a couple years later in my first office job, like a week in I realized ‘it wasn’t satire, it was a f***ing documentary.'”
Another echoed the sentiment: “Watched it again recently and was like ‘oh sh*t.'”
A number of commenters shared that their daily work lives are basically spreadsheets, emails and meetings with no clear purpose. “People ask me what I do at my job, and I can't even explain it. I send emails and make spreadsheets, homie,” one person said. “My decks are basically full reports with a lot of data and they get referred to for years afterwards. I don’t even get to present them.”
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Promotions And Raises? Don’t Count On It
Many talked about doing great work, only to get tiny raises or none at all. “I crunched for three months at the beginning of 2025, usually 10-hour days with a couple of 12-hour days… Hit the target on both [projects], got a 0.5% raise shortly after. Lowest I’ve ever gotten, in a year where I easily did my best work,” someone wrote.
Another added, “Got a huge promotion/raise I’d been trying and failing to get for 5 years”—but only after they stopped putting in effort entirely after their dad passed away.
Several said it outright: if you care too much, you’re either ignored or punished. “The squeaky wheel gets more work assigned to them for no additional pay or prospects for promotion.”
Office Culture Is Dead
The idea of the workplace as a “family” was torn apart by users. One wrote, “I naively approached this job with ‘we’re a family’ energy.” A year later? They keep to themselves now. “People are petty, insecure, control-hungry, arrogant, defensive. Humorless.”
Others pointed to open office layouts and endless meetings as morale-killers. “I'm still wrapping my head around 30-minute daily standup meetings and then filling out a ‘What I Did Today’ in Slack.”
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Realizations Stack Up With Age
Many millennials admitted that the further they move up the corporate ladder, the more hollow it feels. One said their goal is now simply to “do half the work for twice the pay” as a program manager.
Others are focused on survival, not ambition. “You only have to work hard enough to be cheaper to keep than replace,” one comment read. And if there’s one consistent theme, it’s this: working hard doesn't guarantee anything.
One person summed up the entire vibe: “Watching that movie growing up it's like okay, that's kinda funny but he's not being serious. Now… now it's gospel.”
After thousands of comments, one thing is obvious: “Office Space” isn’t funny because it’s exaggerated—it's funny because it's true. And for a generation that grew up being told to find purpose in their work, discovering that the working world often rewards apathy instead of passion feels like a bait-and-switch.
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