MovieChat Forums > Clockwatchers (1998) Discussion > What could Iris have even said?...

What could Iris have even said?...

posted 15 years ago by weeks_daniel
5 replies | jump to latest

When Iris said she wished she could have gone back and stood up for Margaret, what could she possibly have said to rectify things? Iris couldn't have told the truth about staging a strike because then it would jeopardize her own job as well as those of the other 2 girls. And they weren't firing Margaret for stealing, so she couldn't have said anything about that. I was just wondering what she could have possibly done to "speak up" and stand up for Margaret.

Also, I keep reading that Iris wrote down the wrong name when she addressed the recommendation to Margaret. Couldn't it be possible that she really did write down the right name, and that when Margaret was typing her resume she messed up and decided to stop before finishing her full name (Burrell)?

Just curious. =)

[–] stevenackerman69 14 years ago

She could've stood up and said, "Wait, she isn't the thief and I can prove it. I thought she had stolen this green monkey of mine, but it turns out it is right here." That was why she was being fired.

[–] shani-3 12 years ago

There was nothing she could've said to stick up for Margaret, because they weren't really firing her for stealing. Remember what the fortune teller told her, about the "nail that sticks out the farthest gets stamped down the hardest"? They fired her because she was a non-conformist,paranoid, and very loudly critical of the workplace. HR directors call what she did "creating a negative work environment". That type of attitude lowers morale and productivity (you can see it was starting to wear Iris down). The fact that she had Art's missing rubber-band ball, and carelessly left bottles of liquor on her desk didn't help things, either.

Yeah, they're dead; they're--all messed up!

[–] Definition00 12 years ago

The main reason she was fired was because she was the scape goat for the stealing. Iris didn't say anything to save her, because she thought she actually was the one stealing (because she had a green monkey). Had Iris known that the monkey she had wasn't stolen, she would have said "No, I know for a fact she did not steal anything". Now, maybe Iris would have been dismissed because she was a lowly temp. But the fact is, Margaret was thrown out and embarrassed as the 'thief' while her 'friends' just watched it happen without saying a word because they wanted to keep their jobs/thought she actually was the thief.

[–] airwalks 10 years ago

Her stealing/ not stealing the green monkey doesn't prove that she didn't steal the office objects to the bosses though. Even if she could have spoken up, it still wouldn't have done any good. They would just view it as a temp sticking up for another temp. The temps were not respected there, which is why she was the subject of the stealing and not someone like Chleo.

[–] forallpracticalpurposes1 9 years ago

She could have said, "This is wrong - she was sick yesterday and has been here for 2 years, she isn't an office thief and I know because there have been things missing that were taken while she was with ME!". Anything - Margaret just needed someone to say something in her defense - she was a temp at that crappy job for years and was treated like she had only been there a week. Margaret was ignored, over-looked and suspected simply because she was out-spoken and that does not give reason enough to be fired.
They fired her because she didn't call in when absent the day prior.

I do think someone should have said something - Iris knew Margaret wasn't a thief, even if she doubted because of the green monkey, she was a disloyal friend. I think that is what Margaret meant.

-LeLu