The "P.C. Load Letter" scene was not scripted. David Herman had more lines to say to Ron Livingston, but he was interrupted by the printer jamming and didn't understand what the error message meant.

The iconic red stapler coveted by Milton was created for the film by the prop department. They needed a bright enough color to be seen on film and chose red. After the film was released, Swingline began to receive requests from customers for red staplers. Having stopped offering red several years before, they made the decision to start offering the color once more.

Milton was actually based on a former co-worker that Mike Judge had worked with during his days as an engineer. One day, Judge went to the co-worker and asked him how he was doing. The co-worker began talking about how he was going to quit his job because he had been forced to move his desk around too many times.

A scene was cut from the film which showed Lumbergh reacting angrily to his Porsche getting towed. Gary Cole said he was glad the scene was taken out because he felt the Lumbergh character needed to remain at the same emotional state at all times.

One of the promotions for this film invited people in certain cities to watch and participate in the bashing of office equipment. There was also an Internet campaign that linked to a website where people could expose their bad bosses.

Continuity

The make and model of Peter's monitor changes between scenes.

When Peter goes to Joanna's new place of work she comes out wearing her red work shirt. In one shot (from behind Peter), Joanna is suddenly wearing a denim jacket instead of the red shirt.

When Lumbergh and Portwood are in the consulting office going over reviews, Portwood disappears out of the scene once Lumbergh starts to be questioned by the Bobs.

While Peter and Joanna are having lunch at "Flingers" Peter has a glass of water in front of him where the level changes each time the camera goes back to him, though he never takes a sip.

When Peter goes in to get interviewed for the first time by the Bobs, there is no shade or blinds covering the office window. You can see the office through the glass. However, when you see Peter first go in, the window is not see-through and has a blind/shade covering it.



Factual errors

When Peter is signing his confession and enclosing the traveler's checks, at least two of the checks have the same number on the top right corner. Obviously different checks, even the same amount, would have a different check number.

It would not take long for the government to be alerted to the credit union account Peter had set up and trace it back to him, since amounts of $100,000 each receive a red flag. This is factual for all bank accounts as a way in which the SEC can keep watch for questionable funds and money laundering.

In the beginning, when Peter enters his cubicle, he pushes a button on his computer monitor to turn it on. Shortly thereafter, Lumbergh comes to talk to him and you see that the computer is going through the boot process. However, the button would only have turned on the monitor. Most offices have the actual computer under the desk, to save space, and you would have to go underneath the desk to turn it on, a separate action. This is a common error in movies where non-technical people interact with computers: the monitor and computer are treated as one. Actually, they are completely separate components, and anything you do to one doesn't affect the other.

In the opening credits, actor Michael McShane's first name is misspelled "Micheal."

When Peter gets a phone call about his missing cover letter. The Avaya 8410D has 7 ring tones, the one in the movie is not one of them.



Incorrectly regarded as goofs

When Peter shuts down his computer, it shares characteristics with both Macintosh and DOS-based computers, including a hybrid Mac/Windows GUI, an A: drive and a C:\ prompt. The movie is set in a generic, universally-identifiable world, and the hybrid computer is clearly a carefully-planned gag based around that theme, rather than a goof.

When Peter takes down the banner that says "Is this Good for the Company?", Milton has to look across the office at Peter. In a previous scene following the introduction of the Bob consultants, Milton is shown directly under the banner. However, throughout the movie, Milton talks about the fact that his desk is constantly being moved around the office. There also might have been more than one such banner.

The mismatch between the words and the lips when the doctor has the heart attack isn't a goof. It was intentionally done to show that Peter was "in a trance" or was "under". Reality, as he knew, it had been changed.

The big settlement that Tom got from the drunk driver wouldn't have played out the way it did in the movie. This is because it actually would have been Tom's fault because he backed out in front of the drunk driver just before the collision. In addition, Tom is shown heavily drinking just before the incident, making it likely that he had a high blood alcohol level as well. However, this story is being told second-hand by a character who is known for being dumb so he may have embellished the details or gotten his facts wrong.

Peter uses two different buttons to advance through his messages. When Peter motions to leave the answering machine, the messages automatically stop without him pressing any buttons because he pushed the delete button.



Revealing mistakes

When Lumbergh first talks to Peter about his TPS report, Peter has some sort of ear plug in his right ear. The next shot it's gone.

At Bill's birthday party, the pieces of cake being cut in close-up shots are much larger than the ones being passed around.

No one wears a seat-belt in any of the driving scenes.

When Peter and Joanna are driving home from the barbecue, Joanna's hair changes from hanging over her ear to being neatly tucked behind - identical to the shots of them driving

to

the barbecue.

As Bob pulls out Bill Lumbergh's file, with accompanying photo ID, during the post-interview discussions, we see that Bill is wearing the exact same shirt/tie/suspender combination during the meeting as he is in the picture. (Even though this isn't a "goof" in the strictest sense of the word, it is still an unlikely occurrence that, considering the Lumbergh was somewhat of a clothes horse, he would just happen to be wearing that exact outfit, and on that exact day.)



Miscellaneous

Bill's birthday cake is a quarter sheet pan, or 9" x 12", which is 12 to 15 servings. Yet, somehow the office is able to pass around forty pieces of cake before Milton ends up with nothing.

While Tom Smykowski is presenting his prototype of his "Jump to Conclusions" mat to Peter, the audio near the end of the voice line "What do you think? It's a prototype!" abruptly ends.



Crew or equipment visible

When Peter disassembles the doorknob to his office, a mark can clearly be seen on the floor when he stops next to the ladder.



Plot holes

The "plot hole" about Michael not knowing the credit union software well enough, but then suddenly Peter is easily able to upload the virus. This is not a plot hole. When Michael said he doesn't know the credit unit software well enough [to easily upload the virus], Peter says "No, but Samir does." indicating that they need Samir's help to do this. It can be implied here that after consulting with Samir, they were then able to easily upload the virus to the credit union software. A simple task that was given to Peter, likely because he is now a manager and has more access than both Michael and Samir.

Peter says he opened a credit union account to take all the "fractions of a penny" that garnered the $305,000 (and change), so it would be easy to trace the account back to him, since he would have had to open the account with verifiable information.

Michael clearly indicates that he wrote a virus that will "rip off the company big time," but could not install it because, "I don't know that credit union software well enough." Yet, when Peter installs the virus, all he is doing is downloading the virus file from the floppy to the credit union computer at work, and certainly Michael could have handled that. Even Michael himself says, "All we have to do is load it into the credit union mainframe, and the computer will do the rest."

Peter commits multiple acts of vandalism and property damage in the Initech building (drilling out the door handle, destroying his cubicle), yet he is never arrested or charged for any of it.



Character error

"Lose" is spelled "Loose" on the "Loose one Turn" square of the Jump to Conclusions mat. However, it's only a prototype, and a bad one at that.

When Joanna and Peter are on their way to the party she doesn't wear a hat, wears in at the party, and then back in the car it is off.