The Office, the American Character, and Cultural Forums

In episode four of The Office, titled “The Alliance,” the employees of Dunder Mifflin are concerned about the downsizing rumors that have been circulating the office. Dwight, one of the many employees who is terrified of the possibility of losing his job, suggests to Jim that they start an alliance (an idea that he took from the show Survivor) so that they can have each other’s back and see to it that the other employees, but not them, get fired. Jim, however, thinks Dwight’s plan is ridiculous and just sees it as a great opportunity to mess with him. Michael, noticing how stressed out his employees are about the downsizing rumors, decides that they should throw an office birthday party for Meredith (even though her birthday is still a month away) in order to cheer everybody up.

The American character is represented in several different ways within this episode. Predominately, however, this episode along with the whole series represents the American character as someone who wants or works a stable nine to five office job. This is shown to be a cultural norm as everybody in the show, obviously, works in an office and is very concerned when their seemingly stable job is in jeopardy. Along with this, this episode presents us with some ideological ideas about women in the workplace. First of all, it is a male dominated office with only four women working, one of which is a secretary, and all of which are on the party planning committee (which has no men in it). The ideological ideas that go along with this are that men might be best suited for the higher/better positions within the office, and women might better suited for secretarial positions and more “womanly” tasks such as planning parties. In one scene, Michael even calls Pam, Angela, and Phyllis his “party planning bee-otches,” which does not amuse them at all.

Along with promoting certain ideologies, this episode also creates a false consciousness about working in an office. From watching this show, you may get the idea that people who work in an office do nothing all day but goof-off and have fun. Throughout “The Alliance,” and most episodes of The Office, very little work actually gets done. Jim and Pam spend the entire day pulling a prank on Dwight, Dwight spends his whole day absorbed in the idea of being in an alliance and trying to find out information about who might get fired due to downsizing, and Michael spends his whole day trying to find something funny that he can write in Meredith’s birthday card. Consequentially, none of these people actually work or get anything productive done, giving the audience the idea that working in an office isn’t really “work” and can be fun, therefore creating a false consciousness.

Lastly, in a way this episode acts as a cultural forum, discussing the issue of downsizing and having people lose their job (an issue many Americans at the time were facing). Throughout the episode the characters are depicted as being extremely stressed out and worried about their job and their future. This is actually the reason why Dwight started the alliance with Jim; he was extremely concerned about the possibility of being fired and wanted to make sure someone in the office had his back. The episode also showed, though, that even Michael, their boss, has been affected by the economy and is struggling financially. He donates $25 to Oscar’s nephew’s charity walkathon, not realizing that it is not a flat rate and is per mile, and begins to heavily stress out when he finds out the truth (as he thought that $25 dollars was generous to begin with, but now is stuck paying close to $500). In this way, this episode acts as a cultural forum as it discusses major issues, such as the economy and job stability, that the entire country was facing at the time that this episode aired.

Production Aspects of The Office

It’s been three weeks since I decided to re-watch The Office from the very beginning. So, appropriately, this week I sat down to watch the third episode of the first season of the show titled “Health Care.” In this episode, Jan assigns Michael the task of selecting a new healthcare plan for his employees. After Michael discovers that he has to cut benefits and find a less expensive plan, he decides to delegate the task to Dwight in an attempt to remain the “good guy” in the situation. Dwight, being the unsympathetic and far too practical man that he is, cuts almost all health benefits and chooses the worst possible health plan offered. The employees, understandably, become very upset which leads Michael to promise them a “surprise” by the end of the day in an attempt to cheer them up. With no idea what to surprise them with, Michael ends up hiding in his office all day, never delivering a surprise, and never fixing the terrible choice Dwight made about the healthcare plan.

The production of The Office, and this episode in particular, very much adds to the overall feel of the show. In some ways the production aspects of the show are relatively simply, but very effective. The show’s staging is nothing special, consisting of bland colors and cheap looking office desks; but it is this “non-special” look that contributes to the show feeling like a typical office workspace. The editing and sound within the show also add to this. Between each scene in this episode (and in most episodes of the show) you can hear the clicking of keyboards and the ringing of phones while visually it is edited to show the employees carrying out typical office related tasks, emphasizing their bored looking faces, and often cuts to a shot of the clock slowly ticking away. What these sounds and strategically edited visuals do is give us a sense of a slow, boring, bland day at the office (which many Americans know all too well).

The camerawork is also very crucial to the overall feel of the show. For the most part, the show is filmed in a “mocumentary” style, with shaky cameras that don’t always have the best angle and often have to “spy” on characters from behind plants or through the blinds on windows. Along with the shaky handheld cameras, there are also single person interviews, some over the shoulder shots (but normally only when two people are sitting across from each other at a desk), and some strategic zooming in and out when a character has said something of importance or comedic value. This camera work adds to the documentary feel of the show and also gives you the sensation of being there with them, working along side them throughout the workday.

The Office Episode 2: "Diversity Day"

It was diversity day at the office, and with Michael Scott as the boss, of course craziness ensued. To give a quick summary, in this episode Michael and the employees of the office are forced to go through a diversity training seminar, which we later find out was required due to a controversial imitation of one of Chris Rock’s comedy routines that Michael has done several times in the past.  Michael, being ignorant and thinking he knows everything about intolerance, decides to do his own diversity training seminar after the corporate mandated one is over and the “diversity trainer,” Mr. Brown, leaves. Michael’s training seminar included an exercise in which his staff randomly picked index cards with different races written on them, put those index cards on their heads, and tried to guess what race they chose by having their co-workers use stereotypes to describe that race. While Michael thinks what he is doing is a powerful way to address the issue of racism, the rest of his staff obviously doesn’t think the same thing (which was indicated by one of the characters, Kelly (who happens to be Indian), slapping Michael in the face after he did a poor, and pretty racist, impression of an Indian man).

With “Diversity Day” only being The Office’s second episode, the show made a very bold move in tackling the issue of racism. In reality, however, the show was very strategically using this issue as a platform to set up the character of Michael Scott for the rest of the series. In a review of this episode, Paul Thomas makes the point that Michael is a character that “we can laugh at but at the same time sympathize with.” Essentially, Paul argues that Michael isn’t the racist that he seems to be at first glance in this episode, but is instead “just a moron who doesn’t understand what racism really is or why it hurts others.” I completely agree with the point Paul tries to make in his article. As most Office fans know (at least those who have seen the whole series), Michael is, for a lack of a better term, a lovable idiot. He doesn’t realize what he is doing may be wrong until it is too late (in this case, it was when Kelly slapped him).