What Can We Learn From “The Office”?

MSN Careers thought it would be a good idea to try to look at “The Office” seriously, trying to derive some things we could learn from the show. In the article “What ‘The Office’ Teaches Us About Work,” the writer decides that we should observe the actions of the Dunder-Mifflin employees, then apply those to our work lives by making sure we “joke with care,” “forgo fulsome flattery” and “avoid the gossip grapevine.”

Well, the only thing we can really learn from “The Office” is our own personal boundaries about what we are willing to laugh at, cringe at … or both. So here are the top five quotes heard recently on “The Office.”

Dink ‘n’ flicka, kids. Dink ‘n’ flicka.

1.
Dwight: “How would I describe myself? Three words: hardworking, alpha male, jackhammer. Merciless. Insatiable.”

2.
Michael: “Why did the convict have to be a black guy? It is such a stereotype. I just wish that Josh had made a more progressive choice. Like a white guy … who went to prison for … polluting a black guy’s lake.”

3.
Michael: “Business is like a jungle and I am like a tiger and Dwight is like a monkey that stabs the tiger in the back with a stick. Does the tiger fire the monkey? Does the tiger transfer the monkey to another branch? Pun.

“There is no way of knowing what goes on inside the tiger's head. We don't have the technology.”

4.
Michael: “Okay, you know what, I want you to think about your future at this company. I want you to think about it long and hard.”
Dwight: “That’s what she said.”
Michael: “Don’t you dare.”

5.
Michael: “Society teaches us that having feelings and crying is bad and wrong. Well, that's baloney, because grief isn't wrong.

“There’s such a thing as good grief. Just ask Charlie Brown.”