2010-02-17, 07:01 PM
The use of an office example is a bit cliched. Many people use the office as an excuse to show inefficiency and stupid day to day operations. But the excerpt doesn't really aim to reinvent the wheel. The office is used more as a metaphor for many stupid practices that white-collar workers have to deal with on a consistent basis.
The phone is often dreaded by workers and companies alike. In many companies, it is required to log a ticket of the conversation that occurred on the phone in order for safety purposes as well as the chance of future liabilities occuring the future. It is possible that the company is getting downsized or is “in the red” and has cut off phone services to it’s customers. This is not what happens in it’s entirety but certain companies find similar solutions to solving their liability issues which can only hurt them further and reduce productivity with inane customers.
The manual is a useless piece of garbage. It contains trivial and trite nonsense that you almost never use for your job due to the fact that the guidelines are too general and cannot compensate for the skills you gain while actually working your job. If your job manual perfectly outlines your tasks and is helpful, then you will probably be fired and replaced with an automated computer program or an efficient worker who takes on your duties as another thing to multitask.
Pacing work is another excellent example. Being hired by our University to test for DHCP and collisions, we were efficient enough to finish our task 4 hours before we were supposed to finish. We were asked to somehow fill in those 4 hours by our managers to show that previous years hadn’t been financially mismanaged and so that we would be able to be paid for the rest of the summer. The sad part is that the IT department hired trained professionals who worked for a far more expensive price and finished the job much slower. The job continues to be done at a half-assed pace according to ancient tradition and poor management.
Receptionists have a horrible job. Answering calls is horrible. Dealing with other people’s lives is horrible. Being expected to bring food in a timely manner because people actually care about when they eat and getting in their morning coffee is a pain as you might be juggling fifteen or more lattes, bagels, and other combinations of weird and benign breakfasts.
The characters in this tale have to be interesting in order to balance off the boring day in the office. It is traditional of the parody. If Jim Halpert and Michael Scott were the typical worker / management duo then there is no way The Office would survive a single season. It is an attempt to grab at our attention in order to make us believe that something interesting could happen in this office much like Southperry. But probably won’t due to fact that it has already developed into a genre that has been crafted with the intention to dissapoint it’s readers as much as possible.
The healthplan is hilarious. Is working such a horrible job worth having possibly the best health care plan ever? It remains another interesting aspect to this company that is intended to create some degree of dilemma within the reader that is overly pointless to us as young adults who are healthy. But considering old age, robust healthcare plans can cost a five-figure salary annual in order ot maintain. It remains an interesting point to those who actually know how much they pay and is meant to create humor as well as interest.
Don’t touch the coffee machine. We depend on it for life. Oh man. +1.
Everything can be understood if you worked an office job. Really. It’s really just that crappy.
The phone is often dreaded by workers and companies alike. In many companies, it is required to log a ticket of the conversation that occurred on the phone in order for safety purposes as well as the chance of future liabilities occuring the future. It is possible that the company is getting downsized or is “in the red” and has cut off phone services to it’s customers. This is not what happens in it’s entirety but certain companies find similar solutions to solving their liability issues which can only hurt them further and reduce productivity with inane customers.
The manual is a useless piece of garbage. It contains trivial and trite nonsense that you almost never use for your job due to the fact that the guidelines are too general and cannot compensate for the skills you gain while actually working your job. If your job manual perfectly outlines your tasks and is helpful, then you will probably be fired and replaced with an automated computer program or an efficient worker who takes on your duties as another thing to multitask.
Pacing work is another excellent example. Being hired by our University to test for DHCP and collisions, we were efficient enough to finish our task 4 hours before we were supposed to finish. We were asked to somehow fill in those 4 hours by our managers to show that previous years hadn’t been financially mismanaged and so that we would be able to be paid for the rest of the summer. The sad part is that the IT department hired trained professionals who worked for a far more expensive price and finished the job much slower. The job continues to be done at a half-assed pace according to ancient tradition and poor management.
Receptionists have a horrible job. Answering calls is horrible. Dealing with other people’s lives is horrible. Being expected to bring food in a timely manner because people actually care about when they eat and getting in their morning coffee is a pain as you might be juggling fifteen or more lattes, bagels, and other combinations of weird and benign breakfasts.
The characters in this tale have to be interesting in order to balance off the boring day in the office. It is traditional of the parody. If Jim Halpert and Michael Scott were the typical worker / management duo then there is no way The Office would survive a single season. It is an attempt to grab at our attention in order to make us believe that something interesting could happen in this office much like Southperry. But probably won’t due to fact that it has already developed into a genre that has been crafted with the intention to dissapoint it’s readers as much as possible.
The healthplan is hilarious. Is working such a horrible job worth having possibly the best health care plan ever? It remains another interesting aspect to this company that is intended to create some degree of dilemma within the reader that is overly pointless to us as young adults who are healthy. But considering old age, robust healthcare plans can cost a five-figure salary annual in order ot maintain. It remains an interesting point to those who actually know how much they pay and is meant to create humor as well as interest.
Don’t touch the coffee machine. We depend on it for life. Oh man. +1.
Everything can be understood if you worked an office job. Really. It’s really just that crappy.