Marxist Alienation in Office Space

            In the movie "Office Space," the worker's general discontentment with their jobs is perfectly explained by Karl Marx's theory of alienation. The theory of alienation is the construct in which Marx explains the daily disempowerment of laborers by capital production. Marx theorizes that there are four forms of alienation, the first being the alienation of the worker in his product. In this form of alienation, Marx displays that by constant production, the producer becomes a slave to his own product. The worker works to satisfy the desire for objects by others, not to satisfy himself. As the value of the object increases, the value of the human being producing that object decreases, making the object the superior figure. As a result, the producer belongs to the object rather than the object belonging to the laborer. .
             Recall Peter's nightmare where he is in the courtroom. The judge deems Peter has lead a "trite and meaningless life"." He views his life as insignificant because the things he works on or produces, like his TPS reports, have no real meaning to him. And it's hard to find motivation to perform work that is meaningless, mind-numbing even. Peter explains that once he gets to work he spaces out for an hour before starting work on the day's tasks. He says, "I just stare at my desk, but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch, too. I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work " (Judge 1999). Peter's work is quite obviously valueless to him. He does not produce for himself he produces for others. Thus, Peter cannot see himself in his projects and they are therefore alien.
             Because Peter is unmotivated and uninspired by his job, his labor is forced. This leads to another form of alienation, alienation from ones work. Labor is external to the worker, meaning ones work does not belong to him but to someone else. The work is clearly not done for the laborer because the laborer gets no sense of self-fulfillment from his work.