The Office - November 14, 2007

TV viewing is one thing I don’t often get to do. (I am absolutely NOT counting the many years I’ve spent suffering through the recycled offerings of children’s programming on PBS, Nick Jr, Noggin, and most recently, Sprout.)

But The Office is one show that will actually nab me, making me laugh so hard that I have to sit down and watch the rest of it.

In my last life, pre-Monkey, I worked for a couple of years in a research office at a rinky-dink university in the Sunshine State. Mind you, I’m using the word research as loosely as I can. Certainly, the director billed it as such; and certainly, my paycheck originated from the serious cash flow generated by national-level grants that had been written supporting the supposed research taking place.

But life-altering, society-changing, benefitting humanity research? Oh dear, I think not.

When I watch The Office, I’m taken back to those days, days where the Research Associate for whom I worked and I (we were compatriots and friends, despite my often -ok, daily - pointing out to her how stupid our jobs were. Her answer: I know. But they are actually our jobs which pay our bills. Quit moaning and do it already!) could spend hours, literally all day, planning the next birthday luncheon. Birthday cake and catered food took top billing over those pesky research numbers.

And the paper! The trees we slayed, printing endless statistics reports, all of which said the same thing about the research: yeah, this maybe kinda works - maybe. Well, allrighty here folks, gosh darn it, we got ourselves a maybe here! Hot damn! We’ve got ourselves some real results now, folks- let’s get cracking writing a new grant proposal to keep our jobs to help more kids!

Watermarks (yes, I’m still laughing about the watermark episode) were a serious business there. The other research associate in our office, a supposed FSU grad - it was never proven - could spend days, literally DAYS, configuring one watermark on one presentation page. And that pace was ok in that environment. Expected, even.

Oh, it never really leaves you, does it? The oddballs, the shared refrigerator, the in-fighting, the nonsense of all of it but the paycheck.

To all of you out there, fighting the daily wars against monotony and stupidity in your own Office, I wish you the best of luck. The Royal Monkeys, the Insane Canine Posse, and SpongeBob, might push my toes over the edge of the cliff of reason each day, but its all for the love of this job which makes it worthwhile.

WM