Bob Porter : I looked into it more deeply and I found that apparently what happened is that he was laid off five years ago and no one ever told him about it; but through some kind of glitch in the payroll department, he still gets a paycheck.
Bob Slydell : So we just went ahead and fixed the glitch.
Bill Lumbergh : Great.
Dom Portwood : So, uh, Milton has been let go?
Bob Slydell : Well, just a second there, professor. We, uh, we fixed the glitch. So he won't be receiving a paycheck anymore, so it'll just work itself out naturally.
Bob Porter : We always like to avoid confrontation, whenever possible. Problem is solved from your end.
After relocating from the US to Scandinavia, people here are always give me crap for having worked in a cubicle farm. And I always tell them I'd go back to that layout in a second compared the open landscape nightmare we have everywhere here.
I remember in the early 00's seeing blogs or cartoons where they would complain and call it their "gray, 4-walled prison cell". Well, that cell is a lot more dignified than today's open-office hot-desking that would be akin to an impoverished country's prison!
While it was a really funny scene in the movie, I always assumed that on top of being cruel this seems like a dangerous way to handle the issue. Looks like a pretty easy wrongful termination lawsuit here. Especially if Milton keeps showing up for work and doesn't get paid for it.
Wrongful termination generally requires either discrimination based on protected class or retaliation for reporting (discrimination / injury / safety).
You generally can’t sue your employer for being an unfair asshole.