Comments on: how much would michael scott cost in legal fees?

how much would michael scott cost in legal fees?

tylerfulltilt — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 08:42:12 -0800

Steve Carell may be hilarious in the office, but how much would his jackass behavior cost in real-life? clips (youtube)

By: DU

DU — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 08:48:50 -0800

The same concept as asking what would happen if superheroes really existed, only without the awesomeness of superheroes. But if you are turned on[1] by HR legal issues, this may be your bag[1]. [1]No sexual overture implied by these terms, your mileage may vary, comment writer only carries $20, please don't sue.

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 08:56:01 -0800

I was prepared for humor, I found something humorless. A shame. (DU-you can use [sup]1[/sup] to add superscripts¹. 1-Also handy when you want to write 7².)

By: muddgirl

muddgirl — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 08:57:23 -0800

I only read the first few lines, but OMG Toby is their HR Hero. That made my day.

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 08:59:16 -0800

Toby is the secret star of that show.

By: HuronBob

HuronBob — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 08:59:55 -0800

I'm thinking about doing a blog about the emotional cost that would result if MetaFilter was a REAL family.

By: neustile

neustile — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 09:10:39 -0800

tylerfulltilt, are you a member of an NBC fan club? All three of your posts have been about that network.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 09:16:40 -0800

I ♥ Toby

By: hollisimo

hollisimo — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 09:17:48 -0800

Wow. "Pedantic dissection of popular sitcom with estimated dollar amount of resulting litigation were outlandishly exaggerated scenarios depicted in said show to occur in real office environment" == wildly unfunny. Is she trying to be funny? Or does she really think this stuff up while watching "The Office"? Either case is sort of a shame.

By: miss lynnster

miss lynnster — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 09:19:13 -0800

Huh. Guess I really should've sued people when I used to get sexually harassed by jerks at work before people were PC. Maybe I could've bought a house or sumthin... damn.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 09:20:56 -0800

Yo haters! This is as funny as HR people get so bacdafucup.

By: Horace Rumpole

Horace Rumpole — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 09:22:51 -0800

I was prepared for humor, I found something humorless. A shame. OmieWise, I think you're being unfair. I didn't get the sense that she doesn't get the joke or can't enjoy the show on it's own terms, just that she thought it would be interesting to imagine how the misbehavior on the show would play out in the real world. Teaching by counterexample can be very effective.

By: verb

verb — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 09:23:10 -0800

I... I found the blog really fun to read. Does that make me a dull person?

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 09:25:23 -0800

SLB (OE?) Also: dramatically uninteresting.

By: DU

DU — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 09:26:21 -0800

^D_a^m_n I should have realized that MeFi was all up in there with the allowed tags when I saw the live preview. The limited list of em-buttoned HTML tools threw me off.

By: bullitt 5

bullitt 5 — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 09:27:10 -0800

Very nice...thanks :)

By: Sticherbeast

Sticherbeast — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 09:27:40 -0800

This illustrates one of my main problems with The American Office - I just can't believe Michael Scott wouldn't have gotten the-hell-out-of-fired years ago. It gets under my skin. The writing always tilts this side of unbelievable for me, and something about it irks me. OTOH, I'll be tuning in for the Joss Whedon episode.

By: pomegranate

pomegranate — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 09:28:21 -0800

As an HR exec, I think this site is great; HR people can't watch The Office without doing a mental $$ tally anyway, and someone is finally articulating what we're thinking. This is a GREAT tool to help managers "get it", if they watch this show. People on my team have used pieces of The Office to illustrate key points in management or diversity training, since the show is just over the top enough to be obvious to everyone, but not so exagerrated as to be totally cheesy and unrealistic. HR gets a bad rap but it's (partly) our job to protect the company and help it stay profitable. A good lawsuit can tank the annual profits of small branch like the Scranton Dunder-Mifflin office. A really good lawsuit or a DOL complaint can sink a year's profitability from the entire company, not just a branch.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 09:29:22 -0800

The concept is funny, I don't think they're going for comedy in every entry, but overall comedic premise. I loved this blog but then I love Toby (the xmas episode with the robes was his highlight).

By: hollisimo

hollisimo — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 09:31:59 -0800

"HR gets a bad rap but it's (partly) our job to protect the company and help it stay profitable. A good lawsuit can tank the annual profits of small branch like the Scranton Dunder-Mifflin office." Naw, they get a bad rap in this case because they take a funny show and try to get all real world on its ass. I don't watch the show because it's amusing to think about what would happen were it to be real life-- I watch it because it's escapism. It's TV. Applying this level of scrutiny to it sans humor is sort of missing the point as I see it.

By: BeReasonable

BeReasonable — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 09:34:46 -0800

1. I yell at the TV when I see Macs in ads for stuff like banks and accounting departments, because I know realistically that's just not going to happen and it just irritates me to see Macs everywhere because they look pretty. So I can empathize with her purpose. 2. I beg to differ Mister_A, HR people are a lot funnier than this. And crueler too. I bet the stuff she doesn't put on her blog is actually much funnier.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 09:44:23 -0800

HR people love to carbon copy other people only tangentially related to an issue in an effort to show how important something insignificant is.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 09:51:19 -0800

Now CPAs, they're some funny motherfuckers. I heard this riff the other day about this guy who tried to amortize the COGS for FY '05 over two years by folding it into a line item for CapEx at his offshore manufacturing facility—had me in stitches! HR people are all, "Hey, I like milk."

By: stupidsexyFlanders

stupidsexyFlanders — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 09:58:42 -0800

Fun fact to know and tell: The guy Creed in the show (older creepy guy, klepto) is actually Creed Bratton, who was in the Grassroots. I didn't click on the OP's link because I like my comedy segregated from real-world concerns. That's just how I roll.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 10:09:20 -0800

Fun fact to know and tell: The guy Creed in the show (older creepy guy, klepto) is actually Creed Bratton, who was in the Grassroots. I think they made Creed crazy this season due to his real past. If you watch the first season on DVD, he's pretty much just a weird background character with not much to say or do, but the crew on the commentaries says he had insane stories in between takes, about his life on the road in the 60s. Once the second season of the show started, I noticed a huge change in the character on the show, as he went from background decoration to funny crazy guy that sometimes tells a wacky story of some drug bender gone wrong.

By: EarBucket

EarBucket — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 10:15:20 -0800

I think Paul Lieberstein (who plays Toby) is hilarious. Watching him trying to deflect an oncoming Michael Scott train wreck is often the highlight of the episode for me.

By: loquacious

loquacious — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 10:33:07 -0800

I haven't actually tabbed over to the link, yet, but I'm terribly afraid I'll be exposed to a lethal dose of dusty cat curios, some of those criminally insane "Motivators" posters and too much cheap perfume and/or cologne. I will probably be offered a dusty, tasteless mint before they rip my spine out through my nose and whip me with it. I hate HR. Every HR department I've ever had the extreme displeasure of dealing with is populated by some of the least imaginative and most sadistically cruel sons-of-bitches the world has to offer. It's like they clone these people for the single purpose of being HR zombies. Actually, come to think of it, HR departments the world over are probably the training and killing fields for DMVs. They only send the particularly durable, slow-witted and extra nasty ones to work at the DMV.

By: loquacious

loquacious — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 10:38:39 -0800

*tabs over to the link in question* No, thank you, I'm not a huge fan of mints. OH GOD YOU JUST RIPPED OUT MY SPINE WHY ARE YOU BEATING ME WITH IT OH GOD THAT HURTS SO MUCH PLEASE GOD STOP MAKE IT STOP IT HURTS OH GOD THE PAIN.

By: It's Raining Florence Henderson

It's Raining Florence Henderson — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 10:41:22 -0800

Lot of HR hate around here. I don't get it. I think they're fabulous sport. They're usually fit and healthy, and put up a real fight when cornered. I look forward to HR season every fall.

By: thanotopsis

thanotopsis — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 10:41:53 -0800

Every HR department I've ever had the extreme displeasure of dealing with is populated by some of the least imaginative and most sadistically cruel sons-of-bitches the world has to offer. You know what's painful? When the HR person assigned to pull out your spine through your nose and whip you with it just happens to be a gorgeous/fine/hawt member of your personal sexual preference, and you can't hit on this person because your spine, well, it's got a lot to deal with already.

By: Armitage Shanks

Armitage Shanks — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 10:48:05 -0800

If nothing else, "HR Hero" demonstrates that "road warrior" is in fact not the lamest phrase in the English language.

By: aubin

aubin — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 11:24:47 -0800

My girlfriend is a senior HR person and she finds the show unbelievably frustrating because she keeps putting all of Michael's actions into the personnel file in her head. I imagine she'll have more fun with this than she did with the show.

By: drstein

drstein — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 12:05:18 -0800

"I yell at the TV when I see Macs in ads for stuff like banks and accounting departments, because I know realistically that's just not going to happen " Our accounting department is full of Macs. It does happen. :) Eh, it's a TV show. This is similar to how doctors & other health care professionals can't stand watching ER or any of the other forensic drama type of shows. CSI is a good target.

By: tkchrist

tkchrist — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 12:09:20 -0800

...and you can't hit on this (HR) person Oh. Yes you can. You just can't want your job that bad. You would be surprised how often those HR types are secretly harboring the desire to violate all the rules. Like ministers daughters.

By: Hands of Manos

Hands of Manos — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 12:10:22 -0800

I ♥ Future Dwight

By: Senor Cardgage

Senor Cardgage — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 12:11:50 -0800

OH GOD YOU JUST RIPPED OUT MY SPINE WHY ARE YOU BEATING ME WITH IT OH GOD THAT HURTS SO MUCH PLEASE GOD STOP MAKE IT STOP IT HURTS OH GOD THE PAIN. The upside I guess is that, with your spine gone, you wouldnt feel it.

By: tkchrist

tkchrist — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 12:22:02 -0800

CSI is a good target. Oh boy. Is it ever. A good bud of mine is an ME. He says his average "mystery" is finding a junkie four days TU in a bowl of Top Ramen who has been nibbled on by the cat. Sucks the sexy right out of the job. Self Promotion Filter: I wrote a little sketch for local comedy group on the topic. It was called CSI Enumclaw (being the local Red Neck suburb). The story line involves the CSI Enumclaw team attempting to track down the hit and run killer of a Possum by the inverted imprint of a partial license plate they find in the Possums skull. It turns out they did it.

By: It's Raining Florence Henderson

It's Raining Florence Henderson — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 13:11:02 -0800

Pretty unrealistic there, tkchrist. Unless that roadkill were still attached to their bumper, it would long since have been served up in an Enumclaw diner.

By: Tenuki

Tenuki — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 13:35:32 -0800

CSI: Enumclaw

By: tkchrist

tkchrist — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 13:41:28 -0800

Pretty unrealistic there, tkchrist. Unless that roadkill were still attached to their bumper, it would long since have been served up in an Enumclaw diner. DUDE! Your ruined the ending!

By: subaruwrx

subaruwrx — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 14:52:53 -0800

I lol'd I too am the type of person who overly critiques computer depictions on TV. I can totally relate. Add to that, I just went through a Sexual harassment training and I wish I hadn't. This makes all that training seem worth it though, so now I can get frustrated watching the office and wondering what it will take to get this jerk fired. Incidentally, I think this is why I liked the UK version better. While David was a moron and a bad boss, I dont recall him doing anything TOO illegal or outrageous. It was a lot more believeable. Damn 'Mericans, cant handle subtlety.

By: cell divide

cell divide — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 15:12:32 -0800

Yes, but at the same time you never saw David Brent actually doing anything for the company, while Michael Scott seems to get contracts and do boss-like things here and there.

By: drezdn

drezdn — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 15:47:19 -0800

Yes, but at the same time you never saw David Brent actually doing anything for the company, while Michael Scott seems to get contracts and do boss-like things here and there. As someone pointed out to me, in the US Office, you can actually see why he was made the manager, he was a great salesperson who was promoted beyond his skills (the peter principle in action), in the UK version, David Brent really makes no sense as a manager.

By: hincandenza

hincandenza — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 16:09:11 -0800

Yeah, I actually prefer the American version, which I didn't when it first aired (didn't even see most of seasons 1 and 2 because I figured it would be awful), for the same reasons cell divide hints at. While his goofs and mistakes are more outrageous, Michael Scott is overall shown as more human than David Brent (tangential: I'm loathing season 2 of Extras, it's simply awful, and the awkward scenarios have moved beyond simply humorous to cringe-inducing and unfunny, a la late-era Seinfeld). I think that's largely because the characters have had more time to be developed and refined, and as such there are nuances and complexities you don't see in most sitcoms- a lot of the story is conveyed via wordless exchanges and zooms, with the impact of the faux-documentary style and the editing it implies, so that a lot is understood by way of slight eye movements and not by broad caricature and words. For example, Michael is an idiot and a buffoon, but at times you see sides of him that are likable, or sympathetic, and you see that he is a great salesman- that in fact it's more a case of the Peter Principle (he was promoted one step beyond where he should have been) than Michael being innately bad. All the characters, except Creed, are written that way: Jim torments Dwight, but at times you can also see a bit of humanity there, and an awkward fondness. Everyone thinks Michael is an idiot, but they also know that he's generally just a sad character, and needy, and means well. Most sitcoms write in such broad strokes, it's all just set-up -> gagline, set-up -> gagline. The Office gives all the characters- and likewise the audience- more credit than that. on preview: I see drezdn made the same point- this'll learn me to type a comment, then get distracted by work for 20 minutes

By: Armitage Shanks

Armitage Shanks — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 16:54:06 -0800

The New Yorker on The Office(s).

By: cgc373

cgc373 — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 19:39:20 -0800

Thirty-three states ban sex with animals, he said. Matter-of-fact quote from Tenuki's link.

By: MadAboutPolitics

MadAboutPolitics — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 20:22:01 -0800

Never found Carell that funny.

By: grapefruitmoon

grapefruitmoon — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 23:39:46 -0800

Thanks for this, I've often wondered to myself how much a lawsuit against Michael Scott would be worth, now I know. Armitage Shanks: The New Yorker article is pretty awesome as well. I've often wondered why I personally prefer the American version to the British (which I find totally and utterly unwatchable) and know I know. It's because Americans (like me!) need some kind of consolation and so our assholes are lovable (or at least pitiable) assholes. Also, the side characters are actual characters. This example was perfect. CREED: You know, a human can go on living for several hours after being decapitated. DWIGHT: You're thinking of a chicken. CREED: What'd I say?