History Main / StandardOfficeSetting

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'': Bob Parr briefly winds up as a cubicle drone at the predatory insurance agency Insuricare. In stark contrast with Bob's prior career as a superhero, the office is as bland and drab as possible, and the tyrannical boss Mr. Huph gets mad when Bob actually helps the customers. For extra insult, Bob barely fits into his own cubicle, because he has to share it with a concrete support beam.

Compare/contrast with {{Adminisphere}}, a setting workplace trope that portrays higher-ups and white-collars as having everything nice and fancy and so much better than ordinary workers of the same company. SoulCrushingDeskJob is a common subtrope. A DeskJockey is when someone works at a desk despite having an action related job like a police officer or soldier. HospitalParadiso offers an even sleeker-looking workplace than is Standard Office Setting. The recent antithesis to this is the WackyStartupWorkplace, a fun, amenity-filled office offered by younger and/or hipper companies.

When there's an OfficeRomance, it's usually a case of WillTheyOrWontThey. If anyone is in danger of being terminated, it's never our main cast. Firings are usually equivalent to dying or being PutOnABus, and if a character isn't fired but needs to be put out of the way, they get KickedUpstairs.

The UsefulNotes/IndustrialRevolution led to an increase in the number of workers that businesses needed to handle paperwork, making this OlderThanRadio, but it was TheTwentiethCentury's mass production and assembly lines which caused an explosion of white-collar work and made this the dominant workplace setting. The concept of cubicles were created in TheSixties to increase productivity and save space.

This could be a law firm, publishing firm, newspaper agency, advertising agency, or architectural company. This could even be a politician's campaign office. In fact, the specific type of business doesn't always matter and may not even be known. It just needs to clearly be white-collar.

Especially if this is a WorkCom, expect SwivelChairAntics to ensue at some point and someone to [[CheekCopy use the photocopier in ways they shouldn't]]. They are likely to play OfficeSports. If there's TheRedStapler, most people around the office will probably use the same one, and you'll probably end up buying one in RealLife because you keep seeing it in the work.

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* ''Theatre/HowToSucceedInBusinessWithoutReallyTrying'' takes place entirely in the headquarters of the World Wide Widget company. Being set in the 60's, the office lacks cubicles but is full of secretaries, OfficeRomance, and elevators. The company operates an entire skyscraper which includes both giant rooms filled with desks and opulent executive rooms.

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* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' sometimes features an office filled with cubicles, where characters fulfil generic white collar responsibilities but spend most of their time avoiding work by playing video games, checking email, breaking the computers, etc.

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[[DescribeTropeHere Describe the Standard Office Setting on Line 5 of the TP-1090 form.]]