| William Lumbergh | |
|---|---|
| Office Space character | |
| Created by | Mike Judge |
| Portrayed by | Gary Cole |
| Information | |
| Nickname(s) | Bill Lumbergh |
| Occupation | Vice President, Initech |
William Lumbergh is a fictional character, who appeared initially in the Milton animated shorts, and later was portrayed by Gary Cole in the 1999 film Office Space. A caricature of corporate management, Lumbergh is the division Vice President of the software company Initech, and serves as the main antagonist of the film.
Lumbergh is a micromanager who is focused on pointless paperwork, notably TPS reports; he has been described as "the antithesis of the motivational management leadership ideal".[1] He uses "What's happening?" as a greeting, and when asking an employee to do some unpleasant task starts 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" and "Mmmkay?". A Wharton Journal perspectives article opines that the character "brilliantly exposed the emptiness of linguistic conventions at work."[2] Social historian Joe Moran writes that Lumbergh's "non-confrontational" communication style "masks the reality of management coercion".[3]
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."[4]
Cole later reprised Lumbergh on the Family Guy episode "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz" in a cameo appearance.
Deleted scenes from Office Space actually hint that Lumbergh was originally going to be killed off, but this plot point was deleted from the finished product in post-production [5].