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Find the words in the title: apart / a trap / rapt / rap't / rap / meant (what do you mean) / team / meat / ape? / tent / rent - the things and feelings of Wilder's sentimental cynicism are contained in this title. There's so much under the surface of what seems an ordinary word.
The worker drones of Con Life file into anonymous, exposed, symmetrical offices. They check their nearly identical topcoats and hats at the door. Every man Jack had a hat, laid out in long cloakroom rows: how did you know one was yours? They all looked the same. This is the Grey Flannel Suit, a generation's symbol of conformity. Does this species of lemming exist today?
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Deal-wise
C.C.
Baxter (Jack Lemmon) is a doormat. Mainly for the executive shoes at Consolidated
Life (aka Life Put in its Place -- This Means You, Baxter and Kubelik
-- and You May think you're Getting Somewhere but you Get Exactly Where
and Only Where the Executives Want You). The Con Life execs cheapen his
apartment with revolving assignation as they cheapen elevator operator
Miss Kubelik (Shirley Maclaine) with promises and jeers and leers. 
No
wonder Baxter cares for Miss Kubelik. She spends the day in a mobile cage,
going up only to go down again -- to the ground floor of Con Life, to
the basement tryst in a Chinese (the bottom of the world?) restaurant.
She needs respect. She is Baxter's Dulcinea; but to the execs, and especially
top man Mr. Sheldrake (the effectively cast-against-type family man gone
creep Fred MacMurray), she's Aldonnnza. Alllldonzzzza! 
Baxter
- or as the execs diminish him, "Buddy Boy" - has this verbal tic, speech-wise.
He picks it up from Mr. Kirkeby and his shop-talk: "manpower-wise," "promotion
wise," "date-wise": the executive power to hire, reward, and screw the
subordinate. Baxter toes the line and parrots this corporate-speak; already
a wage-slave, he sublimates himself further to make his way up the corporate
ladder. He doesn't believe in his own voice. How can you if your work
under banal conditions, and the place you call home, whose tiffany lamps
and tennis-racket spaghetti strainer reflect the modest elegance and make-do
ingenuity that distinguishes you, is lorded over by the lords of that
banality?
Baxter
moves up the ladder and kids himself that it's a reward for a job well
done. Why not look the part, accessory-wise? At the office Xmas party
(filmed on December 23rd, 1959), Baxter asks Miss Kubelik's opinion of
his new hat. "It's the executive model." Like an immigrant in a new world,
he wants to assimilate. Belong. A suit will make him a success: this will
give me identity. The derby is unmistakably 
phallic
-- not only is he trying on somebody else's fashion, he's trying on somebody
else's dick. But it's not Baxter's dick.The hat doesn't quite fit: it's
too small -- he's bigger than they are. And the woman he's trying to impress
doesn't have the heart to tell him what she sees. She doesn't like him
because of any strap-on corporate dick but because of his own noble staff.
Then C. C. sees: that Miss Kubelik, too, can't see herself.
Dulcinea
turns out to be only Aldonza after all. But what of it? Baxter needs to
be needed. When Miss Kubelik falls, Baxter is all too happy to pick her
up. He'll take the fall for her, he'll take it on the chin. He takes it
from execs, he takes it from his neighbors -- why defend his ground, his
reputation? Forget the tiffany lamps and the crushed-velvet upholstered
chairs -- there's nothing in there worth stealing. His diginity's already
been taken. But you touch Miss Kubelik... Baxter can't look out for himself,
but he looks out for her, and she and we see this damn fool is made of
something noble that no one else sees. 
It
all works out in the end: Baxter stands up to the windmill Sheldrake and
wins his Dulcinea/Aldonza. Miss Kubelik's rapport with Baxter has gone
from guarded politesse to unguarded honesty. But when the two finally
realize they care for each other, she brushes the stardust off his shoulders.
"Did you hear what I said, Miss Kubelik?" reaffirming his voice. "I absolutely
adore you," transfering servitude from master to mistress.