The Carefree Peter

The carefree Peter ignores numerous calls from his boss, and sleeps in on the weekend, instead of working overtime. He shows up at work late in jeans and flip-flops; took his supervisor Lumberg's reserved parking; removes the doorknob that always give him static electric shock; tears down the cubicle wall that blocks his view; and disregards Lumberg's instruction. He goes into his interview with the consultants, and starts to describe how he spends a typical work day staring at his desk pretending to be working. "It's not that I'm lazy. It's just that I don't care." says Peter to the two consultants, "If I work hard and Initech ships a few extra units, I don't see another dime. But this will only make someone work hard enough not to get fired." Peter tells the consultants what he really feels about working at Initech because he does not care whether or not he will lose this job. The consultants are impressed by Peter's bluntness about the company's problems and speak very highly of him. They describe Peter as a "bright young man" who "has 'straight to upper management' written all over him." However, the supervisor disagrees with the consultants' opinion, because from the Lumberg's point of view, Peter came across as undependable, arrogant and disrespectful. He "has been real flaky lately", and has been having some problems with his TPS reports. "I'm not sure that he's the caliber person you want for upper management." says Lumberg.

Peter, who did not do much besides playing Tetris and eating Cheetos, ends up being promoted; while Samir and Michael are facing unemployment. Infuriated by the unfair situation, the three decide to take revenge on Initech by placing a virus into the company's accounting system. The virus makes the system always round down to the nearest cent and diverts these fractions of money into a bank account they own. On Samir and Michael's last day at work, Peter steals the constantly malfunctioning printer from the office as a going away present. They take out their anger and frustration on the printer and violently smash it.

Not everyone takes this change very well. "We're all screwed. They're going to downsize Initech", says Tom Smykowski, an ordinary employee, "I bet I'm the first one laid off!" During the interview with the consultants, Tom