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.