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  • People say I am the best boss.”

  • The starting premise of The Office is that Michael Scott

  • is pretty much the worst boss ever.

  • He's incompetent, inappropriate, and downright offensive,

  • with the attention span of a toddler and a feeble grasp on reality.

  • Yet, shockingly, Michael's tactics produce consistently strong returns

  • for the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.

  • Utica, Albany, all the other branches are struggling...

  • but your branch is reporting strong numbers.

  • Look, you're not our most traditional guy,

  • but clearly something you are doing...is right.”

  • Michael doesn't even actually know the secret to his success.

  • David, here it is.

  • Don't ever, for any reason, do anything, to anyone,

  • for any reason, ever, no matter what...

  • no matter where...”

  • So we're going to try to evaluate Michael's work performance for him.

  • What is Michael doing right as a boss,

  • in spite of everything that appears so wrong about him?

  • Sometimes you have to just be the boss of dancing.”

  • “I think that pretty much sums it up.

  • I found it at Spencer Gifts.”

  • Before we go on, we want to talk a little bit

  • about this video's sponsor, Skillshare.

  • Skillshare is a superb online learning community

  • with thousands of classes about everything.

  • Bitcoin trading, playing guitar, stop motion animation.

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  • to get 2 months access to all classes for free.

  • If a baby were president, there would be no taxes,

  • there would be no war.

  • There would be no... government, and... things could get terrible.”

  • Being a boss is peak adulting - you're basically parenting

  • a bunch of other adults.

  • But The Office shows us what happens if your boss is an overgrown kid.

  • Babies are drawn to me, and I think it's because they see me

  • as one of them.”

  • There are three things especially that align Michael with a kid:

  • 1) his love of play and creativity,

  • 2) his total lack of impulse control,

  • and 3) his urgent desire for love and approval.

  • A lot of office time gets taken up by Michael's childlike need for play.

  • Sittin' in my office with a plate of grilled bacon.

  • Call my man Dwight just to see what was shakin'.”

  • For him, every meeting is a performance, and he wants it to be

  • a life-changing experience for his audience.

  • People expect a lot from these meetings.

  • Laughter, sudden twists, surprise endings.”

  • Michael also has unconscious creativity in his use of language,

  • much like a kid does.

  • “I'm not superstitious.

  • But I'm, I'm… just a little stitious.”

  • Tell him to call me ASAP as possible.”

  • Occasionally I'll hit somebody with my car.

  • So sue me.”

  • And Michael's use of language becomes a mirror of him as a person --

  • everything he says is wrong, yet something strangely

  • right and delightful emerges from the creativity of his error.

  • It just seems awfully mean.

  • But sometimes, the ends justify the mean.”

  • The common perception around The Office is that Michael's playful antics

  • are a massive waste of time.

  • Holly later discusses the corporate term for this kind of behavior

  • It's called time theft, and it's the same as taking money

  • from the company.”

  • but the show implies that the release we get from playing and goofing around,

  • taking breaks from the drudgery, may actually be good for

  • our focus and productivity.

  • We've all been to boring meetings that might benefit from a little

  • Michael Scott pizzazz.

  • His emphasis on creativity represents an important realignment of values

  • in the workplace.

  • The fundamentals of business.

  • Because you're mental if you don't have a good time.”

  • As much as the employees love to complain about Michael

  • Michael, you are the reason I drink.”

  • What I hate about you, you really suck as a boss.”

  • the two times he actually leaves, the office is suddenly

  • a less warm and happy place.

  • Michael's like the movie on a plane.

  • It's not great, but it's something to watch.

  • And when it's over you're like, how much time is left on this flight?”

  • Toby's words capture what is so special about Michael's presence --

  • he creates an open, fun atmosphere that understands the magic power

  • of giving play a role in the workplace.

  • The workplace demands that we control

  • our emotions and instincts.

  • But the child Michael has an almost pathological lack of impulse control.

  • NO!”

  • Come on, guys, get out of here.”

  • WHERE ARE THE TURTLES?!

  • WHERE ARE THEY?”

  • His totally unfiltered, uninhibited nature

  • Sometimes I'll start a sentence and I don't even know where it's going.”

  • means his team frequently has to babysit him.

  • Yeah, and when Michael gets a broken heart,

  • this whole place comes to a halt.

  • So we're just trying to get out in front of this.”

  • That's awesome.

  • You want some ice cream?”

  • But this responsibility to look after the boss

  • can bring out the best in the Scranton employees.

  • You know what, why don't you guys deal with it?

  • But you need to decide, otherwise I'm taking the bonus.”

  • Because everyone sees him as an incompetent, impulsive child,

  • they rise to the occasion to fill the absence

  • where their manager should be, and do their best work.

  • All of the other bosses who come into Michael's seat

  • seem to be a lot smarter, more logical and more professional,

  • but as managers they mainly get in the way of employees

  • doing their jobs well.

  • Until we get a new receptionist, I want Kevin on the phones.”

  • Phones.”

  • Also, there's been way too much wasting time.

  • So Stanley, I want you on top of that.

  • I want you to be my productivity tsar.

  • Ok, good.”

  • The Office actually implies numerous times that the ideal boss would be no boss at all.

  • Why don't we just leave that position vacant?

  • Truth be told, I think I thrive under a lack of accountability.”

  • Actually, apart from under Michael's leadership,

  • another period of stellar performance for the branch

  • is the 3 months when Andy abandons his post as manager

  • for the Bahamas.

  • The branch exceeded its targets in the past quarter.”

  • Wow!

  • That's wonderful!”

  • “A quarter's three months.

  • That's how long you've been gone.”

  • Michael is the next best thing to no boss at all.

  • His lack of directed, adult-like management creates a sort of vacuum or absence

  • that lets people get on with their work.

  • At least, no one's actively micromanaging them

  • to make their business worse --

  • which is exactly what Andy does the moment he returns from the Bahamas.

  • It appears my employee offered you a price that he was not authorized to.”

  • There is an option in the contract that allows me to back out

  • within thirty days of signing, so

  • I would like to exercise that option.”

  • Michael's desperation to be loved is something of a fatal flaw.

  • Would I rather be feared or loved?

  • Easy, both.

  • I want them to fear how much they love me.”

  • But underneath that is a deep desire to turn his coworkers into his friends,

  • even family.

  • “I'm a friend first and a boss secondand probably an entertainer third.”

  • We're taught that being professional means having boundaries with coworkers.

  • Over time, though, we start to wonder if viewing his coworkers as family

  • is anotherwrongthing he's actually doing right as a boss.

  • Michael's love for his employees is a refreshing change from

  • the corporate bottom line.

  • Let's see Josh replace these people.

  • You think Stanleys grow on trees?

  • Well, they don't.

  • You think the world is crawling with Phyllises, and Kevins?”

  • Most corporations probably wouldn't see such value

  • in a Phyllis or a Stanley or a Kevin

  • Dwight almost definitely

  • would have been fired numerous times under any other boss.

  • We have cause to fire you.”

  • Can you shove it down?

  • Insteadshove down, please.

  • Instead, what I think we should do

  • is strip you of your title as safety officer.”

  • And as much as his employees look dubiously on his sentimentality,

  • Michael turns them into a tight-knit family over time.

  • “I feel like all my kids grew up, and then they married each other.

  • It's every parent's dream.”

  • Rather than spending all this time with our coworkers being slaves

  • to professional barriers, why not follow Michael Scott's example

  • of treating the people you work with like a family?

  • Not just seeing their productivity and results,

  • but valuing Phyllis simply for being Phyllis.

  • Make friends first, make sales second,

  • make love third, in no particular order.”

  • Oscar Martinez, my accountant, is now godfather to my son.

  • Angela Schrute, my former accountant, is now my wife.

  • My top salesman Jim Halpert was best man at my wedding.

  • And office administrator Pamela Beesly Halpert

  • is my best friend.”

  • There's also a fourth childlike thing that Michael does right as a boss.

  • And that's believing in his crazy dreams.

  • Michael Scott is essentially a modern version of Don Quixote.

  • Published in the early 1600s, Miguel de Cervantes' masterpiece

  • Don Quixote is the story of a nobleman who decides that he's a knight

  • in an era when chivalry has faded out of existence --

  • so everyone around him thinks he's gone crazy.

  • Don Quixote is famous for charging at windmills

  • that he thinks are giants,

  • just as Michael is always going about his everyday adventures

  • with over-the-top grandiosity.

  • We are going to reclaim our gift baskets!!”

  • Don Quixote is fixated on the romance of the past.

  • Likewise, Michael is the leader of a small regional paper company in a digital age.

  • Sir, as a company that primarily distributes paper,

  • how have you adapted your business model to function

  • in an increasingly paperless world?”

  • Real business is done on paper.

  • OK?

  • Write that down.”

  • And while everyone knows that the paper business is headed

  • towards obliteration, Michael doesn't see it that way.

  • You're starting your own paper company.

  • Why?”

  • “'Cause I know paper.

  • I know everything there is to know about paper.”

  • Do you know that the industry is in decline?”

  • Yeah.

  • God, I practically invented decline.”

  • Don Quixote gets inspired by reading too many stories.

  • And Michael is just as suggestible.

  • Where's Armani?

  • He's on the phone.

  • Too slow.

  • You're not going to Paris.”

  • Michael just rented The Devil Wears Prada.”

  • Dwight is Michael's Sancho Panza, the faithful sidekick who obediently follows

  • Don Quixote into every misguided crusade.

  • And Holly is Michael's Dulcinea, the farm girl Quixote falls for

  • and reimagines as a great lady.

  • She's the love of my life.

  • What you and Jim have times a hundred.”

  • Others may see more of the commonfarm girlin Holly

  • “I don't get it.

  • I'm sorry, I just

  • I don't get it.”

  • but to Michael she is perfection

  • Holly is the best thing that has happened to this company since World War II.”

  • It's Michael's dogged faith that he and Holly are meant to be

  • Holly and I are like Romeo and Juliet and this office is like the dragon

  • that kept them apart.”

  • that ultimately wins her over.

  • And his happy ending with her tells us to keep trusting in our

  • most outlandish dreams.

  • We know that before Michael was promoted to manager,

  • he was an excellent salesman.

  • His unshakable faith in what he's selling

  • makes him really good at convincing others to believe.

  • So Michael's optimistic refusal to face facts

  • at first appears to be his insanity --

  • but eventually it's revealed to be his superpower.

  • “I understand nothing.”

  • Maybe what a company in a doomed industry truly needs

  • is a hopelessly romantic leader who won't admit defeat

  • or bow down to brutal reality.

  • You have no idea how high I can fly.”

  • At first viewers might look down on Michael and Dwight,

  • and the moredeludedcharacters in The Office.

  • But as the series goes on, we come to pity more the characters

  • who don't have a delusion, or a weird, passionate escape.

  • The employees see their work as existentially pointless

  • “I'm boring myself just talking about this.”

  • and they view their office as a prison.

  • What was prison like?”

  • Not terrible.

  • Boring.

  • We do the same thing every day.

  • But at least we get outdoors time.”

  • You got outdoors time?

  • Michael, why don't we get outdoors time?”

  • And this raises the question - is it really crazy to love working

  • at small branch of a failing paper company, or is it even crazier to feel like

  • a prisoner of a dead-end job and do nothing to change your situation?

  • Listen to this Don Quixote quote - does it not perfectly encapsulate

  • the philosophy of Michael Scott?

  • When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies?

  • Perhaps to be practical is madness.

  • To surrender dreamsthis may be madness.

  • Too much sanity may be madnessand maddest of all:

  • to see life as it is, and not as it should be!”

  • An office is a place tolive life to the fullest, to the max, to...

  • An office is a place where dreams come true.”

  • As the American update to Ricky Gervais' David Brent in the UK Office,

  • Steve Carell's Michael starts out in Brent's mold --

  • as the incorrect, cringeworthy nightmare boss.

  • Is there something besides 'Mexican' that you prefer?

  • Something less offensive?”

  • But in the black comedy style of many British shows,

  • Brent never learns anything or improves as a person.

  • While Michael goes the American path of growing into a beloved,

  • even inspirational character.

  • Never, ever, ever give up.”

  • If you look closer, though, Michael actually doesn't improve

  • or change all that much.

  • Mmm, si senor.”

  • That's offensive.”

  • It's not!

  • It's not offensive during a roast.”

  • Pam Beesly, office hottie.

  • She will do you.

  • “I would never say this to her face, but she's a wonderful person

  • and a gifted artist.

  • What...why wouldn't you say that to her face?”

  • But, over time, the story puts more emphasis

  • on the character's redeeming qualities.

  • The David Brent-like characteristics are balanced by a personality

  • that is truly loving and heartfelt.

  • And this basically makes him the antidote to a lot of what's wrong

  • with the corporate world today.

  • Remember when people used to say 'boss' when they were describing something

  • that was really cool?

  • But now, boss is just slang for 'jerk in charge.'”

  • So maybe, Michael teaches us, the world's best boss is someone who:

  • distracts his employees so they don't work too hard,

  • makes play a priority, brings out the best

  • in those underneath him, values his employees as people,

  • and dares to dream the impossible dream.

  • What a great boss you turned out to be.

  • Best boss I ever had.”

  • This is Tanner Christiansen.

  • Tanner is a creative strategist, the author of The Creativity Challenge,

  • and he's worked as a product designer at Facebook.

  • We saw that Michael's creative play helps his office be more productive.

  • But if you want to make your own creative dreams a reality,

  • you should check out Tanner's class on Productivity for Creatives

  • only on Skillshare.

  • Ideas are easy.

  • Everyone has ideas.

  • But what people don't tend to do is produce something with those ideas.”

  • That's why we really love Skillshare's service.

  • The classes are taught by amazing, accomplished working professionals

  • in design, photography, social media, business,

  • entrepreneurship, and more.

  • In fact, Skillshare has actually helped us at ScreenPrism

  • learn more about animation and design.

  • They offer 20,000 classes about any skill you might want to learn,

  • all for less than $10 a month.

  • Right now you can get two months' access to all their classes for free,

  • but that's only if you're one of the first 500 people

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  • It's a great deal, so hurry up and don't miss out.

People say I am the best boss.”

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《辦公室》:為什麼邁克爾-斯科特是世界上最好的老闆? (The Office: Why Michael Scott is Actually the World's Best Boss)

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    Amy.Lin 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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