The film focuses on the female assistant, from the main perspective, it shows in great detail the content of her personal work and life throughout the day. It reflects the difficult and helpless situation of low-level employees who are just entering the workplace. Although the film is based on Harvey Weinstein's assistant as a prototype, it is not a single case of a company. Workplace social animals are generally like this. The director made the audience really feel all the suppressed emotions in that office through extremely cold situational expressions and character performances, without any background music.
Jane will come to the company first and leave the company at the latest every day. In addition to doing her job as an assistant to the boss, other trivial chores also need her to handle by default, and she also suffers from some exclusion. For example, a colleague who is also an assistant will throw thorny troubles to her; for example, he just orders a lunch for a colleague, but it is not what the colleague wants and is disliked; for example, in the pantry, colleagues in other departments use 's teacup is naturally left to JANE to clean. What makes her even more frustrated is that her presence in the company will not increase because she does more, but it can only be a small transparency in the company. Of course, no matter how many messes there are, it can't compare to the pressure from your boss as an assistant. Whenever Jane makes a mistake at work, or rather goes against the boss's subjective wishes, the boss asks her to write an "apology letter" email. This kind of servile and domesticated management is really unbearable. The boss's management style seems to be the norm, because colleagues even come to teach Jane how to write an "apology letter" very indifferently.
The previous description of jane's daily work provides a detailed foreshadowing for entering the theme of the later story. How can such a small and transparent company report to the immediate boss as the company's top management? This paragraph should be regarded as the climax of the whole film, but it was still handled calmly by the director, explaining the whole process in the form of a dialogue in one scene, without the ups and downs of emotions. From the moment JANE entered the room of the Director of Personnel (the position was not explained in detail, let's assume it was the highest level of the personnel department), the director's stylized reception method could predict that everything that followed should be just a cutscene. JANE is careful to state the reason for her visit, as she does every day in her office. At the beginning of the dialogue, the senior personnel seemed to be very concerned, and indicated to Jane that he could be calm about any matter. But the actual purpose is to know more about Jane's knowledge of the reported "event". After realizing that the "event" to which jane reacted was merely a personal conjecture, without actual evidence, he began to play his real role as a top executive of the company - affirming its value, beautifying its future, and letting it be through all "persuasion". To think that a complaint must be a self-destructive decision. As a result, it is conceivable that how could Xiaobai, a social animal, win a veteran in the workplace?
In this conversation, the most insightful moment for Jane was when she opened the door and left the office at the end, and the HR executive said to her, "I dont think you have anyting to worry about. You're not his type." This sentence, It seems to comfort Jane and tell her not to worry too much about her situation, but it actually shows that this high-level personnel has long been aware of the unspoken "events" of Jane's boss. So, what else can Jane do about this?
When she returned to her position and looked at all the people and things in the company, familiar but unfamiliar, she thought that perhaps her experience today has been experienced by many people, but they can still work in this company every day. Continue to "fight" as usual. At this point, as the other protagonist behind the story, the boss of jane, he has never shown his face in the film once. . The boss once again easily won this seemingly sudden, but long-accustomed confrontation. So, the story ends on Jane's way home from get off work silently, just like her usual day.
So, is it very frustrating to watch the movie? Do social animals in the workplace deserve to be abused?
Maybe now, for beginners in the workplace, the first thing to face is the reality that the workplace is really so cruel. A large enterprise company is like a small society. Faced with the potential rules and culture that have already been formed, the survival rule of a newbie in the workplace may really be to endure or get out. So what can we do to change this situation? The first is based on sticking to the bottom line of your own principles. Forbearance can be temporary. Once you have more say, you can establish rules based on your own principles. Of course, you can also choose to leave unrestrained, just like Anne Hathaway in "The Queen Wearing Prada", who resolutely left after being affirmed by the Demon King. This is not an idealized ending, this is the truest courage. If you can always insist on yourself, where is there no world to display your talents? No matter which choice we choose, as ourselves, we must always keep our bottom line.
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