Alienation In Office Space

Estranged labor

Introduction
According to Marx, estranged labor occurs when an individual partakes in the production of an object that “confronts it as something alien, as a power independent of the producer” (Marx, 1844). Due to this objectification of labor, which results in labor being established outside of the producer, Marx suggests that this is translated into the separation between an individual and the object that he or she has created. As such, under the capitalist mode of production, the individual is unable to connect with his or her labor. This contrasted strongly against Marx’s statement in The German Ideology (1932) that the individual is a free and self-realized being who makes labor an object of his free choice and consciousness.

In terms of Office Space, this illustrated in the many scenes where Michael is seen having trouble with the malfunctioned office printer. While the printer is supposedly an object created by man, these scenes suggest a reversal of roles – man (i.e. Michael) becoming subjugated to the object (i.e. printer) as the printer now stands as an alien, independent force against man. Such alienation is again reinforced in the film China Blue where individuals (i.e. Li) are subjugated to the jeans that they create due to poverty that resulted in them being reliant on their creations (i.e. jeans) to maintain their physical subsistence. Thus, roles are reversed as the object now commands power over its creator (i.e.

This scene implies his detachment from his job as a result of his perception that the production process he is involved in is merely a sequence of repetitive routine that does not provide any intrinsic incentive for him to excel or room for him to determine how his job is to be conducted. Thus, similar to the product of his labor appearing like an alien entity against him, the productive process in this case becomes something that “exists out of him” (Marx, 1844). In the same vein, Li is portrayed in China Blue to be alienated from her act of producing jeans due to the repetitive and monotonous routine of cutting threads daily over long hours. However, one scene in the film that featured Li’s supervisor exclaiming that Li and her co-workers were able to execute all these productive activities even when they are asleep indicates that Li as an assembly line worker, in comparison to Peter, a software engineer, may be denied to a greater extent of her ability to exercise control over how work is being done. Hence, this raises an interesting question if the industry context affects the degree of alienation an individual feels, and whether such difference affects Marx’s proposed consequences of alienation on man’s identity given the knowledge-based economy that most