Bill Lumbergh
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Bill Lumbergh, or just Lumbergh, is a fictional character played by Gary Cole in the 1999 cult movie Office Space. A sort of everyboss, Lumbergh is the regional manager of the software company Initech, and serves as an unassuming antagonist to the other characters.
Lumbergh is known to micromanage and often asks his employees, such as Peter Gibbons, to come in to work on Saturdays. He is obsessed with making sure all the office's paperwork (such as TPS reports) is done perfectly, no matter how pointless it may be. His character is known for saying "What's happening?" as a greeting, and when telling an employee they're going to have to do something undesirable starting his sentences with, "m' yeah, I'm gonna need you to" or "if you could just go ahead and", as well as ending these requests with "That'd be great". A Wharton Journal perspectives article opines that the character "brilliantly exposed the emptiness of linguistic conventions at work."[1]
He seems to represent the impersonal and oppressive business practices that Peter despises so much. Peter refers to Bill as "all that is soulless and wrong." The irony of the character's popularity is noted in GQ/Details Men.Style.com, "[T]he guy who stops by your desk and says, "Mmm, yeah, I'm going to have to go ahead and ask you to come in on Sunday," is now an integral part of the soul-crushing corporate culture Lumbergh was created to satirize in the first place."[2]
He drives a Porsche with a vanity license plate reading "MY PRSCHE".
In a deleted scene on the DVD, Peter asks at the end of the movie "Did any of you attend Lumbergh`s funeral?" they all shake their heads. It is implied that he perished as a result of the fire.
In a second deleted scene, Peter's new boss, a foreman at the construction site, speaks to him with the same demeanor as Bill Lumbergh. This indicates that his new boss will be of the same mold as Bill, and that, ultimately, frustrating bosses are inescapable.
[edit] In popular culture
- The character (voiced by Cole) makes a cameo appearance in animated series Family Guy, episode "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz".
- In a 2006 car insurance TV commercial for Safe Auto, a typical "boss" is depicted, whose desk placard reads, "Bill Lumbergh."
[edit] External links
- Best Bosses from Hell discussing Lumbergh, from NPR's Talk of the Nation (July 27, 2006)
- How to make a Bill Lumbergh costume from eHow.com
- Bill Lumbergh soundboard
- Bill Lumbergh fan profile at MySpace.com
[edit] References
- ^ Cole, Douglas. "Why we should remember Bill Lumbergh", 2/12/07. Retrieved on 2007-02-06.
- ^ Underwood, Paul L.. "No More Funny Business", Men.Style.com, February 22, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-02-06.
