this morning i toyed with the idea of posting some thoughts and reflections about spirituality in the workplace. it seems to me that very little has been written about how Christian discipleship can be pursued in the workplace and i think that is lamentable. i would like to write about the importance of spiritual accompaniment, effective encouragement and perhaps even the possibility of well-placed, incarnational exhortation in the workplace.
but since i completely suck at the latter practices, i decided to be superficial instead.
today's question is: which character in the office do you identify with and why?*
as much as i hate to admit it, i have to say that i most readily identify with ryan, the cynical, under-employed intern. much like ryan, i could probably get a more interesting job that is more suited to my qualifications, but for insecurities or some other strange reason i continue to spin the hamster wheel at the SS much like he slogs away his days at dunder-mifflin. further, just like ryan, i am the unwilling object of my bosses' affection. ryan gets ridiculously stupid prank voicemails from michael and has to fend off awkward inquiries about his social life, while i regularly get called into my boss' office to help him decide which pathetically stupid harley-davidson bandana is "cooler" or have to pretend like i'm interested in his assertions that middle-age men who drive the new dodge chargers are not as cool as they think because the new chargers have four doors instead of two. apparently the latter feature of dodge's hemi-endowed sedan is "dorky." finally, in real life ryan is played by b.j. novak, a talented harvard graduate and gifted young writer who has actually wrote a number of last years episodes. although i am not a harvard graduate and would only characterize myself as an adequate young writer, i am planning on writing a number of chuck smith, c.s.s. episodes about my adventure at the SS...if i ever vanquish my inadequacies to the point that i can pursue an occupation that i enjoy and find a way out of this malignant environment. i would also like to tell you a few stories about our office's jan, oscar and angela, but i have to pretend like i'm working.
now you.
* if you do not watch the office please realize that you are a complete (insert your own, preferably non-sexual, put-down here: ). but i suppose we will allow you to remain in our conversation by identifying another TV character that you identify with.
7 comments:
one side note: when i served at lightway we had a dead ringer for dwight schrute. this guy came complete with karate uniform, neo-facist tendencies and a completely odd living situation. fortunately, he did not have a creepy fundamentalist companion like angela in the office who externally toed the line but in her private hours supplied him with "cookies."
hmmm. i will have to think about what character I identify with, but our "CEO" is a dead ringer for the boss in the office - complete with awkward poor social skils. he is even more full of shit than the tv character. in fact, i would say that unless you have met him you would think that i was painting a characature - but the reality is that i would actually be toning him down a bit to make him believable.
it is painful to watch this guy in action. he is a lifetime bach. because he scares the shit out of any woman who spends more that a day with him. he thought it appropriate to by a girl friend a set of cordless tools for christmas. one woman he drove away when he shot her horse in front of her.
his latest adventure is that he has got ahold of a sail boat and a little rebreather and won't stop talking about using the rebreather (a mouth piece, 50 foot of hose, and a compressor) to "dive for sunken treasure in the bay - one of the deepest and most shark infested bays in the world. his plan was to strap dumbbells to his feet and walk around on the bottom. his reasoning being that if he found treasure he would be rich and we would be "swimming in chics cause of all the money we would have."
he wanted to take it out the day he got it but we convinced him to test it first in the camp pool. after a couple of minutes he surfaced and asked, "how do you get the bubbles to go DOWN."
being around him is a combination of slapstick comedy and watching a train wreck.
right now my boss is walking around doing donald duck impersonations. the fun just never stops.
mike, i can't believe you guys thwarted your boss' plan. sometimes train wrecks are fun.
i wish my boss wouldn't have been looking over my shoulder while i typed the former statement.
mike...i am crying. awesome. just awesome.
as for the tw: i guess i have to be lame and say jim. although i could only wish to be that quick with the wit.
that and i literally WAS jim in my former corporate life. complete with my very own pam and dwight. but we're not here to talk about that.
cade, something tells me you had a succession of pam's in your life.
fortunately, you've now got a truman state grad all to yourself.
I am none of these characters, although I feel a bit like a cross between
1. Jim (I am sarcastic, very good at what I do, but terribly lazy and inefficient because I spend my time doing things that help only me and fairly popular around the office- due to the fact that I just don't seem to care what others think of me and my humor/ ideas). of course, I don't hate anyone I work with and care so little about some things that I would never put the energy towards making their lives difficult that Jim does.
2. Jan (because I am a boss and fairly high up and think many people I work with are quite below me and hampering my advancement).
3. Kevin (attitude towards everything around me).
I think a similar attitude surrodunds each of these characters
...stop embarrassing me, i'm trying to work.
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