Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) simply cannot endure another moment of the mind-numbing, soul-sucking routine and petty annoyances that assault him day after day at INITECH Corporation. When Peter finds a kindred spirit in a waitress, Joanna (Jennifer Aniston), who's suffering in her own employment purgatory, he realizes that life would be a lot more fun if he just got himself fired. So he hatches a scheme that surely will get him booted from his cursed cubicle and free him from the clutches of his smarmy boss (Gary Cole) and the new efficiency experts who plan to put a chainsaw to the INITECH payroll.

But somehow in the upside-down world of corporate thinking, Peter's erratic behavior has, instead of resulting in a quick "pink slip," launched him onto the fast track to a promotion. He's become, according to the new efficiency experts at INITECH, a "straight shooter with upper management written all over him."