A nice description

In his spare time at work, Zach put together this little description of what we do in the office. (You may recognize this as the plot to Office Space, if you haven't seen it, and you're particularly interested in my life as an intern, something really resonates from this film. Also, my boss' name has been changed to Cereal. And no, I will not tell you his real name. I have also changed some of the names of some other stuff, but enjoy all the same)

This is a true story that was just made up and going to hit the box office in late 2009:

The film depicts two interns, Sarah and Zach, in the late 2000s at Infotech, a company plagued by excessive management, and the everyday annoyance of office work in a cube farm setting evocative of the Dilbert comic strip. Soon after the movie begins, two consultants (no name 1 and no name 2), nicknamed "The Bobs" since they both have the same first name, are brought in to Infotech to help with cutting expenses. The workers at Infotech are then interviewed in order to determine which employees will be downsized or outsourced.

Zach Holland and Sarah Morgan are interns who spends their days doing senseless busy work that could be carried out by monkeys. Their co-workers include Samir Nainanajad (Ajay Naidu), who complains that no one in the US can pronounce his name correctly; Michael Bolton (David Herman), who is angry that he shares his name with the real-life singer whom he hates; and Milton Waddams (Stephen Root), a soft-spoken, fixated collator who mumbles to himself incessantly (most notably about his co-workers borrowing his stapler) and is repeatedly bullied by management, especially the callous CEO, Cereal. Cereal their nemesis — a stereotypical corporate middle-manager who spends most of his time wandering the office with coffee mug in hand, wears white-collared shirts, suspenders and a belt (a fashion faux pas), and emotionlessly micromanages his employees while engaging them with superficial small talk.

Sarah and Zach finds themselves stressed, burnt out, and ineffective, and will likely be on the Bobs' downsizing list. Fortunately for them, something unusual happens during an occupational hypnotherapy session urged upon him by his soon-to-be ex-friend Anne. The obese "occupational hypnotherapist" Dr. Swanson, portrayed by Mike McShane, suddenly dies of a heart attack before he can snap, or "unhypnotize", Sarah and Zach out of a state of complete relaxation. The newly relaxed and still half-hypnotized Sarah and Zach finds out that Anne is cheating on them but take the news in stride and don't seem to care. They announce that they will not work anymore, instead pursuing his lifelong dream of "doing nothing", and finally asking out Joanna (Jennifer Aniston), a waitress he's long wanted to date.

In a parallel story, Joanna is experiencing a similar frustration with her boss regarding trivial issues, notably the "flair" on her uniform (catchy slogan buttons that supposedly contribute to the "fun" atmosphere of the restaurant). Although she wears the required number, 15, she is constantly harassed for only doing what is required, although it is never explicitly stated that she should wear more. Meanwhile, during his interview with the Bobs, Sarah and Zach open up for the first time about the absurdity of their job and of how Infotech is run, including the issue with having too many managers and not having any real motivation to work except to avoid hassles. The Bobs interpret their candor, easy-going attitude and lack of regard for his job as evidence that he is unmotivated in his current position and thus a prime candidate for a managerial position. Much to his surprise, and Cereal's dismay, Sarah and Zach receive a promotion while their friends Samir and Michael, two of the department's best programmers, are scheduled to be laid off. At a bar with Michael, Sarah and Zach reveals that their strange behavior is not so much due to the residual effects of hypnotism, but instead to seeing the hypnotherapist keel over in front of them, which has given them a new perspective on life, mainly to not waste it on pointless activities.

In order to get back at the company, the two friends decide to infect the accounting system with a computer virus, which will round down fractions of a cent from accrual of interest and transfer the leftovers into their own account over a period of years, leaving them with a slow but steady trickle of cash undetected by the corporation (see salami slicing). Zach and Sarah, when questioned by Joanna about what their had been celebrating, attempts to diminish the sense that he is doing something illegal by comparing the theft to taking the pennies from the penny tray at a convenience store. The plan, however, backfires when a bug in the virus program's code causes it to take $305,326.13 in one day. The three friends are certain that such a large amount going missing in so short a time period will be noticed and result in their arrest. After a crisis of conscience, Peter decides to write a letter in which he takes all the blame for the crime. Peter slips an envelope containing the letter and the money in unsigned Travelers checks under the door of Cereal's office when Cereal is not there, expecting to be arrested soon afterwards.

However, all their problems are solved when Milton finally snaps due to Cereal, who took away Milton's beloved red Swingline stapler and moved his desk to a cockroach-infested storage room in the basement. Milton's paychecks also stop when the Bobs fix an accounting glitch wherein Milton had, unknown to him, been laid off years earlier but continued to come to work and be paid. Milton sets the Infotech office building on fire, having warned several times that he would "set the building on fire" throughout the film, destroying all the computers and the virus code. The comic strips, pinned to the cubicle walls, seen burning in the fire are from the Cathy series.

After the fire is extinguished, Sarah and Zach finally finds a job that makes him happy: working construction with his neighbor Lawrence (Diedrich Bader) on Initech's former site. Peter finds a red Swingline stapler while shoveling up rubble from the fire, and thinks of Milton. Samir and Michael get jobs at Infotech rival Initrode. They stop by the Infotech site to see Sarah and Zach as they are going to lunch, where Samir asks them if everything will be okay. They assure him the fire destroyed all evidence of the crime. Michael and Samir offer to help Sarah and Zach to seek employment at Initrode, but they replies that they're happy working outdoors and getting good exercise. In a deleted scene on the special edition DVD, it is revealed that Cereal is killed in the fire and none of the conspirators attended his funeral.

Milton makes his way to a resort in Mexico with the $305,326.13 he found in unsigned traveler's checks in an unmarked envelope inside Cereal's office.

I'm not sure how long it took Zach to replace all the Peter's with Zach and Sarahs. And no, we're not stealing money from the company, or anything close to that. But we do have to do something to pass the time between assignments.