Stik-Tek, formerly called Stik Co., is an adhesives company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Its Arlen office is a flat, single story building with many cubicles, a break room, and private offices throughout the building. Dale Gribble briefly worked there as an invoice clerk, as a receptionist, and as the Assistant Vice President of Human Resources. The company only appears once in the Season 5 episode "The Exterminator".
History[]
The company does not allow hats and sunglasses except for particular circumstances, and smoking is forbidden. Every Friday, employees are allowed to dress casually unless they break company rules.
Season 5[]
Around the time that Hank Hill's cousin Rita quit her job at the company, Stik-Tek began laying off employees at the flavored adhesive division due to a drop in revenue resulting from lab monkeys being killed by their piña colada test product. At the same time, Dale, who was advised by his doctor and family to quit pest extermination for his health, became an employee thanks to Rita vouching for his work ability per Hank's request. On his first day there, Dale arrived to the office at 9:01 a.m., causing his new boss, Amy Pitman to tell him that he was a minute late. As she guided him to his office, Pitman ordered him to give up his cigarettes, sunglasses, and hat due to the items being against company policy. Over time, Dale became annoyed with his job for various reasons, including the fact that he had to wake up early for the employee carpool, being forbidden from eating 9 small lunches a day, and having to fill in for the receptionist Judy on her lunch break. He was also annoyed by his carpool associates gossiping about other employees.
One day, in the lunchroom, Pitman spoke with another employee about her hesitancy to fire Bert Halverstrom because she was briefly married to him in the 1980s, whereas the other woman claimed that she could not do so since the two of them started working at Stik-Tek at the same time. Overhearing them, Dale was confused and asked them what the big deal was with firing someone, adding that he killed many "living-isms" when he was an exterminator. Hearing Dale admit that he was not fond of Halverstrom, Pitman asked him to fire him as a favor. He agreed on the condition that he would receive a carton of milk. Subsequently, Dale sat in Pitman's office on her behalf and waited for Halverstrom, remarking that Pitman had "good-looking kids for two ugly people." At the door, Halverstrom came by and was confused since he thought that Pitman requested his presence. Dale gave him thirty seconds to explain why he should continue working at Stik-Tek. When Halverstrom hesitated, Dale immediately fired him, disheartening him. Coming into the room, Pitman commended Dale's decisiveness and asked him to fire another person, Sal Gladstone, because she really disliked him.
Once receiving another carton of milk as payment, Dale fired Gladstone despite the fact that he would lose his health insurance. Discreetly telling Dale about Stik-Tek's recent layoffs, Pitman offered to promote him to the position of Assistant Vice President of Human Resources, an offer which Dale accepted. Accordingly, Dale got a raise and stopped being an invoice clerk and began firing people. In one instance, he even walked into Mitch's birthday party, blowing out the birthday cake candles and ordering him to vacate his office. Because of Dale's power, other employees avoided getting on his badside to avoid being fired, including Rodriguez allowing him to sit in the front passenger seat during their carpool.
Later, Hank, Peggy and Nancy visited Dale's office as he bragged about his position and free time. Putting Joseph's Madagascar cockroaches under his desk, Dale also boasted about possessing the keys to the executive washroom, but he did not allow Peggy to use the bathroom despite her need to use it. Before they left to go to a restaurant, Dale demonstrated his job by firing Lewis in spite of his plea that he had four children, surprising the three. Dale retorted that he fired someone else with eight children, causing Lewis to cry. The next day, while Dale was attempting to fire the janitor Carl, Nancy and Joseph entered his office to ask for the cockroaches for Joseph's science project. Angered by their interruption, Dale even threatened to fire Joseph from the family and even Nancy too. Seeing that the roaches had disappeared from their box, Dale begrudgingly left his office to find the roaches. In the lunchroom, he warned everyone to remain calm, but not before firing Veronica at the same time. At that point, hundreds of roaches scattered throughout the office, frightening the employees.
Not afraid, Dale ordered the roaches to gather in single file and get back in the box, but he screamed upon them not following his order, having previously claimed that the roaches should have followed his command since roaches supposedly followed the commands of the first organism they saw upon birth. Improvising, Dale used various office tools to kill the roaches, then going into the air vents to smash more of the pests, falling through the ceiling in the process. Getting up and covered in cockroach corpses, Dale nonchalantly assured the employees that they could return to eating lunch. Impressed, Joseph complimented his father for killing the roaches without using any poison, making Dale realize that he could return to being an exterminator. Against Pitman's begging to continue his work, Dale affirmed that he would return to pest control, telling Pitman that he liked the power of firing people but concluded that it was a poor substitution for killing pests. Before Dale left, Pitman returned his sunglasses, hat and cigarettes to him, granting him back his iconic look.
Employees[]
Current[]
- Amy Pitman (Human Resources)
- Judy (Receptionist)
- Rodriguez
- Frank
- Linda
- A. Jacobsen
- J. Kaminski
- Unnamed man (Accountant for Accounts Payable)
Former[]
- Dale Gribble (Invoice clerk, receptionist, and Assistant Vice President of Human Resources)
- Rita (Invoice clerk)
- Bert Halverstrom
- Sal Gladstone
- Mitch
- Lewis
- Carl (Janitor)
- Veronica
Trivia[]
- One of the employees, A. Jacobsen, is named after Allan Jacobsen, a staff member on King of the Hill who directed several episodes.