McCaughan wrote the song based on a lazy co-worker he worked with while on the night shift at the Kinko's, now a FedEx Office, located on Franklin Street in downtown Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

[3] Alex Denney of The Guardian summarizes the song's content: "a disgruntled employee accuse his boss of slacking off on the job in the strongest possible terms.

[13] The song was a success on college radio, with programmers typically airing it past midnight to avoid obscenity laws.

"[16] Jason Ankeny of AllMusic called it the band's "most celebrated moment," describing it as "a "note-perfect snapshot of minimum-wage angst and attitude.

"[15] Will Hermes, in a blog for radio station WBUR-FM, wrote that the song "defined the sound and the ethos of indie rock.

"[5] Ana Marie Cox from Spin said that the song "resonated with recently educated cynics as just the thing to play too loudly on your parents' stereo that first summer home from college.

"[18] David Sackllah, writing for Consequence of Sound, ranked it among the best debut singles ever by an artist, observing, "The song's wry energy was antithetical to the "slacker" generation that reigned in the '90s, even if they shared a title in common.