Is Office Space set in the 80s?

[Lamia]

@Acsenray

The only time in the movie I recall Michael comparing something they’re doing in a movie is the moment when they’re planning to shave micro-cents off of transactions. That happened in Superman III (1983) and Michael explicitly says that.

This is my recollection as well. I guess there could have been a reference to Hackers at some point too, but Hackers had been neither a popular movie nor a legendary fiasco so it doesn’t strike me as the sort of movie people would be referencing even a few years after its release. Wikipedia tells me that Hackers (like Superman III and Office Space) does involve a “salami slicing” scheme, but circa 1999 I think all most people knew about Hackers was that Angelina Jolie was in it and it was a dumb movie that had something to do with hackers.

As for the OP, if Office Space looks like the '80s to you then I’m guessing you’re too young to remember much about the actual '80s. The characters aren’t people who’d be wearing the trendiest new styles of 1999, but for regular office workers (many middle aged) it looks about right to me.

[Amateur_Barbarian]

@Ponch8

CorporateaccountspayableNinaspeaking…justamoment!

• Thank* you. I have NEVER been able to decipher that sonic blur.

[Amateur_Barbarian]

The round-down scam far predates both movies in reality - it was done in at least two cases, by mainframe programmers for large banks, in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

[dropzone]

@Suburban_Plankton

It was released in 1999, and I see no reason to think it was set in anything other than “present day”.

This. I still have to wear a tie.

[cmkeller]

hajario:

The rest were button up shirts and slacks other than casual Friday. After five or six years had passed, every day was casual Friday.

But Hawaiian Shirt Day is still special!

[Yllaria]

@Acsenray

. . . People in the '80s and '90s were looking back to the '50s and '60s and wondering why people wore such small glasses. That’s just how style works.

It was probably also technology related. As lenses got lighter, you could create larger styles without digging grooves into people’s faces. So not only did it look new because it was different from the last fashion cycle, it was newly possible for the first time ever.

(Unless I got the dates wrong. Then nevermind.)