Basic Trope: The higher-ups in a company have it much better than the people below them.
- Straight: XYZ Inc. consists of a warehouse and an office building. The warehouse meets only minimum standards of an acceptable workplace, while the office is a cushy, well-paying, all-around-pleasant place to work.
- Exaggerated: The warehouse has No OSHA Compliance and no HR department or labor union, while the office looks more like a holiday resort than an office.
- Downplayed: The office has a few small amenities, but isn't that much better, and the people in the Adminisphere are just as hard-working as those outside it.
- Justified:
- Managerial office positions are often different from (and better-paying than) entry-level work (especially that which involves manual labor of some kind).
- People start out at the bottom in this company and earn privileges and better working conditions.
- The office also hosts many meetings with outside investors and other potential clients — a cushy office helps grease the wheels to land those big deals that keep the company out of bankruptcy and dissolution.
- XYZ Inc. only just bought the warehouse from the nearly bankrupt UVW Ltd. Give them some time to get it up to spec.
- Inverted: The office has crumbling walls, extremely dated computers, drafty windows, and low pay, while the warehouse is as cushy as Google.
- Subverted: The warehouse workers grumble about the luxuries in the office they don't receive, but when they see the office for themselves, it is no better then what they have.
- Double Subverted: The office adjacent to the warehouse does not have the luxuries, but the one downtown does.
- Parodied:
- Food tastes better in the office than it does in the warehouse, even if the meals derive from the same batch.
- Cue the Sun whenever a character is given a promotion to the office — and the rain if s/he gets demoted to the warehouse.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: Both the office and the warehouse have equally good (or not-so-good) working conditions.
- Enforced: Truth in Television
- Lampshaded: A sign on the door to the warehouse reads "Abandon hope, all ye who enter."
- Invoked: XYZ Inc. needs to cut costs, and since the Pointy-Haired Boss at the top of the daisy chain doesn't want to make sacrifices himself, he imposes harsh cost-cutting measures on the warehouse.
- Exploited: Stan keeps a sinecure in the warehouse because he's the only one who comes to work healthy every day.
- Defied: Bob knows that poor working conditions and benefits would hurt morale and work quality, so he finds ways to cut costs without sacrificing them. He also visits the warehouse every so often (unannounced, if necessary) to see how things are going, as well as remind himself and anyone with him that management's decisions affect more than just those in the office that they see every day.
- Discussed: "It's beyond unfair that us regular Joes should be basically paying for head office's triple espressos and crisp black '20s-style fedoras."
- Conversed: "Apparently, the word 'regulation' has been stricken from the government's dictionary."
- Deconstructed: This sort of thing can lead to resentment and low morale...leading to decreased quality of work and possibly strikes.
- Reconstructed:
- The HR department goes a major overhaul, to see that all workers are treated fairly and have the best possible working conditions and perks to keep morale (and quality) up.
- Someone who normally works in the warehouse gets a chance to see how upper level management works and it's shown that the cushiness of the head office is at least somewhat justified in terms of those perks being necessary in order to operate — for instance, a pleasantly-decorated meeting room helps leave a good impression on potential investors, and it's almost a necessity for there to be a massage parlor when the stress of having to determine whether betting the company on a new product is a worth the risk (with failure meaning bankruptcy and utter ruin for hundreds of workers) can reach unbearable levels. Of course, it's very easy for those who normally work in the Adminisphere to get carried away with those perks and lose touch with those in the warehouse.
- Played For Laughs: Work Com
- Played For Drama: Someone gets hurt in a work-related accident, and the higher-ups don't care. This leads to a strike, or even a riot.
Back to Adminisphere.
