Economists Trace Great Resignation To Comedy Central Airing ‘Office Space’ Constantly During Workers’ Formative Years

MINNEAPOLIS—With record numbers of Americans quitting their jobs, a team of economists published data Friday that traces the trend known as the Great Resignation to Comedy Central’s continuous airing of Office Space during the formative years of the nation’s workforce. “An analysis of the classic comedy’s frequent broadcasts on the cable channel in the early 2000s suggests it was viewed repeatedly by millions of adolescents, permanently shaping their view of office culture,” said Douglas Lopez, a University of Minnesota economist who estimates that two-thirds of the 4.4 million Americans who left their jobs in September did so because they saw similarities between their own workplaces and the fictional Initech, the bleak, soulless company where the film is set. “Because Office Space was running in the background throughout their youth, the millennials in today’s labor market were doing impressions of the boss character Bill Lumbergh before they ever took their first job—an experience that strongly influenced their attitudes toward corporate hierarchy. Our research found that even viewing a short clip of Peter, Michael, and Samir destroying the printer out in the field while the Geto Boys plays increased the likelihood of a worker quitting their job to avoid spending the best years of their life performing meaningless tasks in a sterile, fluorescent-lit hellhole.” These findings follow a report last month that confirmed a spike in Covid-era break-ups could be traced to Comedy Central’s continuous airings of Saving Silverman during the same period.