Employee of the Month is a 2006 comedy film starring Dane Cook, Dax Shepard, and Jessica Simpson.
Not to be confused with the 2004 Black Comedy of the same name starring Matt Dillon.
This film provides examples of:
- The Ace: Vince at least seems to be this. Then it turns out he's not only an asshole, but being a show-off over being professional has led him to commit many minor crimes apparently by accident.
- Anti-Hero: While not as bad as Vince, Zach isn’t a very good person himself. He ruins his friends’ hideout, costs one of them his job, sells Vince’s car, steals his wallet, and nearly injures him when they face off in the climax by making him fall from a high shelf.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Vince has made himself a reputation as an awesome employee by, among other things, doing a very elaborate juggling act when he is ringing up items at the cashier to entertain the customers. The "impractical" part is that he has consistently forgotten to ring up items while doing the juggling act, which means he has accidentally given away thousands of dollars' worth of merchandise. This gets him fired and arrested.
- Betty and Veronica: A gender-flipped example. Amy is Archie, with Zach as the Betty (compared to Vince), to Vince’s Veronica.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Semi the store security guard is a simple-minded Gentle Giant, not really caring much when Vince keeps making mean jokes and insults about him at his expense. However the the moment Vince is exposed for under-ringing items Semi immediately tackles Vince to the floor when he tries to make a run for it and carries him off by the belt buckle.
- Big Brother Bully: The store manager is terrified of his older brother and boss and wants everything to be perfect when he shows up. The boss really humiliates him when he first appears.
- Big Little Brother: Glen Gary's older brother, Glen Ross, is a dwarf.
- Brick Joke: Semi, the store's Gentle Giant security guard, is asked in the beginning of the movie by Vince that if his nickname comes from the fact that he's as big as a semi-truck, or if he's "semi-retarded." At the end of the movie, after he exposes Vince for under-ringing items in both the competition and in his job, Semi tackles him while he tries to escape, resulting in Vince commenting "So that's why they call you Semi."
- Chekhov's Gunman: Semi proves that Vince has been giving away free merchandise to customers for years.
- A Day in Her Apron: Averted with Iqbal, who is very happy to spend time with the kids when he is fired and his wife gets a significant promotion at her own job.
- Defeat Means Menial Labor: Vince ends the film fired from the store and put in a comparatively crappier job as a probation employee in a comparatively crappier store on the other side of town.
- Depraved Dwarf: Subverted. When Glen Ross first enters, he acts like he owns the place (which he is the boss of), demands that a woman at the help desk hang up and dust her table, and completely humiliates his younger brother, the manager of the store. However, he's very appreciative when the employees do their jobs well and wins the softball match.
- The Dog Bites Back: At the end, after Vince is fired and put on probation for stealing, Jorge finally stands up to him and gets his revenge by setting off Vince's court-ordered ankle monitor at the end of the film.
- The Dragon: Jorge is this to Vince.
- Employee of the Month: A major part of the movie is Zack trying to win the award at the local "Super Club" (A Warehouse Club), so that he can win the affections of the new cashier, Amy Renfro. He is also competing with Vince Downey, who has won the award 17 times in a row. He is eventually successful at getting the award.
- Food as Bribe: At the beginning of the film, the HR manager is bribed with a Butterfinger to show Amy's employee file to Zack. At the end, she is bribed again to claim she never filed Zack's resignation papers.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Vince is eventually brought down by his own arrogance, as his overly show-off style of scanning items includes passing them behind his back, which inadvertently causes them to not be scanned, thereby giving away groceries for free.
- Jaded Washout: Zach used to have big plans after college and used his grandma’s retirement fund to start a business that flopped. At the beginning of the film, he’s a middle-aged Box Boy.
- Pet the Dog: During the opening credits montage, Zach meets a mother and her son who are arguing about a toy being too expensive and the kid is very visibly despondent. He reaches over and tears a corner of the box open and tells them that the store's damaged goods policy applies a 25% discount before walking away.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Vince at a few points mocks Semi's apparent mental simplicity by calling him a "retard".
- Pyrrhic Victory: Zack wins the softball game and is greatly praised by his manager and coworkers. Unfortunately, he had promised to cover Iqbal's shift that day, which leads to Iqbal getting fired. This is the final straw between him and his friends, who accuse him of only going for Employee of the Month to get into Amy's pants. Amy overhears this conversation and tells Zack off.
- Race Against the Clock: Zack trying to get to work on time after Vince dials back his alarm clock.
- Satellite Love Interest: Amy is given little characterization, and mostly exists to strengthen the conflict between Zach and Vince.
- Shout-Out: The names of the store manager, Glen Gary, and his boss and older brother, Glen Ross, are a clear nod to Glengarry Glen Ross.
- Smug Snake: Vince. He loves to show off a lot, he denigrates everybody around him, he has no problem trying to sabotage his competition, and the moment that it's shown he's given a lot of free merchandise, he tries to run for it.
