Ode to the office

I totally ripped this off from Mindi, but it was so funny that I had to share. I've loved South Park for years, but only recently (as in last season) have I jumped on the Office bandwagon. I'm not a big TV watcher anyway, but most i am most especially not a fan of sit-coms. But last year when we got our DVR, my hubby would record every episode of the Office. Finally, I relented and watched one. I've been a fan ever since. I never expected that one show could be so funny - but it really, truly is. Laugh out loud funny.

So, you know that my DVR is already set for next Thursday's premier.

I think working in an office setting helps me relate to the really awkward situations that Michael Scott puts his employees in. One of my very favorite Office episodes, was the one where they had "diversity training". It reminded me of a similarly uncomfortable episode of my own.

As most of my readers know by now, I work for the local government of a small town - and with small towns typically comes a "small-town" attitude. Over 90% of the town's population is white and Mormon - there isn't much diversity here. The entire workforce of the City at that time was white, except for one African-American police officer (who shall be called Officer Jones, to protect the "diversified"). It was very fitting when our diversity training was done by a man who had grown up here his entire life. During the part of his lecture where he was telling us not to judge people who were "different" then we were, he decided to use a personal example. He told us of how when he first met Officer Jones, he never would have guessed the man was religious by looking at him. But, as it turned out, Officer Jones was not only a religious man, he had even been a church missionary!

The room was silent, and you could cut the irony with a dull knife. No one knew how to respond to the unintentionally racially biased story. It was a classic Micheal Scott-ish moment.

My husband too, has had more than one "Office" experience at his former place of employment (former as of yesterday - wooo hooo). One day last month I was talking to him on the phone while he was at work, and in the background I hear a bell ring, and then a loud cheer accompanied by clapping.

"What was that?" I asked him. "Are you at a ball game or something?"

"No," he sheepishly answered. "Its the new motivational idea at work. Every time someone closes a deal, they have to run to the center of the room, ring a bell, and then we all cheer."

I laughed for days. Can't you just see Andy and Dwight running to ring a bell, while Jim and Pam sarcastically cheer and clap?

Apparently, business has been slow at Ben's former place of employment, and they were struggling to get morale up. The economy had slowed their work by so much, that they were trying to find anything to keep employees busy. It is a pretty "old school" company, where the men are still required to wear shirts and ties. One day last month, work was so slow, that employees were asked to do basic janitorial work. Guys were scrubbing the toilets in their ties. Some of them were asked to clean the pond in the middle of the atrium of the building. Guys were sucking pond scum, with hip-waders over their business suits.

I think we could write a whole episode just based upon his experiences.