An immature government programmer’s promotion is denied by his overbearing boss, so he resorts to childish pranks with his beleaguered coworkers in the hope he’ll get transferred.

The logline is too wordy. You can get rid of: "...immature..." this is evident,? "...overbearing..." adds little as he or she are already the bad guy or gal for denying the promotion, and "...childish..." is implied in the action.

Also re state the actions and events in a causal manner, i.e:
After his promotion is denied by his supervisor, a government programmer resorts to pranks in an attempt to get fired.

Not sure there is enough meat on the proverbial bones for a whole feature here,? a short perhaps but a 85+ minute film not so much.

NikkiArcane:

In response to your questions:

No. Yes. ?Yes. Yes. ?(And you?)

Contract employees can be easily gotten rid of ?because they don't have civil service protection. ?I saw that happen (too) many times in IT. ?"Snivel" service?employees are, of course, harder to get rid of. ?Actually, practically impossible to get rid of after they pass probation unless they commit a felony.

So yes, lateral arabesque transfers to another department are a tried and true method of dumping problem employees somewhere else.

But I suggest that to optimize the dramatic conflict in your premise, the protagonist's nemesis should be a worthy one. ?In this case, one malicious and competent enough to make life a bureaucratic hell for the protagonist. ?So that the harder he tries to get transferred, the harder his boss games the system to block him. ?And ?get retribution with the 1,001 petty bureaucratic rules and procedures he can inflict on him. (I've seen that happen, too.)

IOW: I suggest the boss should come off as a genuine foe, not merely a comedic foil, an oh-so-convenient plot pi?ata. ?Make it ?a credible threat that the boss and the system can crush the employee. ?(Because it does all the time, as I presume you well know.)

There's a rich vein of dark comedy to mine in the situation. ?Good luck mining the ore.

fwiw

NikkiArcane:

In response to your questions:

No. Yes. ?Yes. Yes. ?(And you?)

Contract employees can be easily gotten rid of ?because they don't have civil service protection. ?I saw that happen (too) many times in IT. ?"Snivel" service?employees are, of course, harder to get rid of. ?Actually, practically impossible to get rid of after they pass probation unless they commit a felony.

So yes, lateral arabesque transfers to another department are a tried and true method of dumping problem employees somewhere else.

But I suggest that to optimize the dramatic conflict in your premise, the protagonist's nemesis should be a worthy one. ?In this case, one malicious and competent enough to make life a bureaucratic hell for the protagonist. ?So that the harder he tries to get transferred, the harder his boss games the system to block him. ?And ?get retribution with the 1,001 petty bureaucratic rules and procedures he can inflict on him. (I've seen that happen, too.)

IOW: I suggest the boss should come off as a genuine foe, not merely a comedic foil, an oh-so-convenient plot pi?ata. ?Make it ?a credible threat that the boss and the system can crush the employee. ?(Because it does all the time, as I presume you well know.)

There's a rich vein of dark comedy to mine in the situation. ?Good luck mining the ore.

fwiw