The Office: Season 1, Episode 6 “Hot Girl”

Good morning and welcome back to another day in the office, and another day of chat right here in the breakroom. Without wasting any time, we should get right into today’s happenings.

The morning started off with Michael on an important phone call with his boss, Jan. It seems that corporate has agreed to offering a $1,000.00 prize to the top salesman as an incentive program (the prize in question can be chosen by Michael). While this is exciting news for the office, Michael must first figure out “what motivates people more than anything else?” Dwight, ever faithful, immediately goes to sex and torture but I don’t believe this is what corporate had in mind.

So, what exactly is an incentive in business? An incentive is a reward given to employees which is meant to motivate them to meet specific business goals. In this situation, there will be a price worth $1,000 to the salesman with the top sales at the end of the period. The promise of a prize will encourage all of the sales staff to try to outsell everyone else. Now that has historically been the purpose behind incentives, but there have been additional benefits found. According to Indeed incentive programs can also help build employee loyalty, improve retention, and even enforce a better work culture for the company¹. It is worth noting that most studies done are on established incentive programs while Dunder Mifflin seems to be doing just a one-off event which means you will not see the same results. There will most likely be some sort of uptick in sales across the board since this is still an incentive event, but they can be expected to go back down once the prize is awarded. Doing just one instance can assist with padding the numbers for the quarter, most likely for the shareholders or board, but it will not have as much of a long-term impact without continuously having events in place. If you are developing an incentive program, it should always be in effect rather than just trying to encourage them to work harder when you are trying to look good at the end of the quarter. Whether it offers rewards every paycheck, once a month, or even at the of the quarter; the consistency is what matters in making it successful.

In regard to the incentive itself, if sex and torture are unacceptable, what are some of the most common incentive rewards? According to Entrepeneur, incentive rewards can be categorized as either monetary or non-monetary. Monetary is often the most common reward used which can include bonuses (both cash or prize) as well as promises of available promotions, often times we might see this in the forms of Senior positions. Some companies can offer Profit Sharing in which the employees is rewarded with a percentage of the profits earned in the year; this one is not seen as often and most often offered those in executive positions. Finally, there are incentives based upon commission in which the sales team is rewarded from reaching a specific goal or even off of each sale. Then we also have non-monetary incentives, rewards which do not have a value assigned to them. The simplest form would be recognition by the company, we could see this as an employee-of-the-month, mentioned in a newsletter, or even recognized at a company event. There are the options of company retreats or education events; the concept being that the top employees are considered to be included for these instances which can be seen as beneficial to their career. At the simplest, such incentives can be in the form of extended breaks or leaves such as an extra vacation day or even being able to leave early². At the end of the day, incentives each can have their own audience so it is important to carefully evaluate the rewards, and which would be most well-received by your staff. From my own personal experience, you should probably start in the monetary category. Personally, Michael should have checked to see if he could have just given the staff $1,000 instead of a prize that he got to pick out because people underestimate the value of cash. That being said, technically cash incentives do fall into the realm of taxable income which is why it is not selected nearly enough as an incentive for one-time events in companies, when offering up a pizza party doesn’t have to be coded as such. Just a bit of insight into the realm of payroll that many employees might not realize.

This day is about to get a lot more interesting when a woman comes in wanting to sell handbags in the office to the staff. Pam brought this to Michael’s attention, and he reminds her that no vendors are allowed in the office. He is fine with Pam relaying this message, at least until he catches a glimpse of her. He is suddenly very eager to allow her to sell the bags, strange that he decided this when he realized he thought she was attractive. Not only does she get permission to stay, but Michael lets her have the entire conference room (meaning the HR meeting has to meet elsewhere) and he takes her around the office to meet people.

Legally, there is not necessarily a law against vendors being able to come into a business to sell to the employees. The rules are typically set by either the company itself in which they do not allow anyone not approved, or sometimes rental properties might have notices in place that solicitors are not allowed. Most commonly, the vendor is one who has a produce geared towards the business such as insurance, office supplies, or software. I personally found her gumption to come in and set up shop a bit annoying considering this is a work office and it would have been more professional to set up a future date to come in or perhaps arrange for a pop-up shop with approval by the building manager. But it is most likely because I have no interest in handbags so I may be a bit bias.

I think I am safe in saying that I am not bias in believe Kevin should not have asked Pam if she was “jealous there is a pretty girl here?” I think many of us have had at least one instance in our careers where we saw someone get a job or promotion which we wanted who coincidentally was more attractive than us. Does that make us paranoid and bitter? Turns out there is actually some rationale behind why people considered physically attractive seem to be more successful. Business Insider has published two separate articles discussing the benefits that attractive employees get. There is an actual “beauty premium” in business because attractive employees are more likely make more money. Being physically fit is often portrayed that the individual is a hard worker and would be seen as a better fit for promotions or leadership roles. Additionally, they often have a greater level of self-esteem and this confidence can contribute to negotiating their salaries as well as can be a benefit for those in sales³. Another article included a study through Rice University and the University of Houston which found that employees who had any sort of face blemish or “disfigurement” tended to do poorer in evaluations from job interviews⁴. While it is unfair, it is difficult to prevent all humans from acting on personal opinions or sex drives from making their decisions. If it were, we would not still have disparity in the wages and jobs offered to women and racial minorities when compared to white men. By no means am I saying that you should question any time a more attractive coworker gets a promotion over you as I would like to believe people are becoming more self-aware of their bias in certain scenarios. But for any leaders out there, please be sure to check yourself and truly ask yourself why you are so enamored with one employee over another.

Back to Michael, he did finally settle on the perfect prize to offer as a sales incentive: a $1,000 Starbucks espresso machine. As his logic goes, “it is literally a drug that speeds people up.” This is entirely true; many studies are out there which prove that caffeine can promote awareness, making you more alert. Of course, it often can lead to a crash or even disrupt your sleep if you are the type to drink excessively into the afternoon. I will now drop the subject of caffeine as I am starting to attack myself and my own habits. I do wonder exactly how productive Dunder Mifflin was in the 80s before they knew how bad cocaine was for you. As this is an illicit drug and wouldn’t fly with any companies, I’m going to leave the articles of “Why cocaine should be allowed in the office” back in the 80s where they belong.

Now, I do not know why Katie was so willing to accept a ride from Michael when her ride bailed. Maybe she doesn’t want to pay for a cab, but I would think that would be a small price to pay to avoid any more awkward small talk and comments. I will give it to Michael being so eager to make a good impression that he quickly gets to work at cleaning out his car, including the many Filet-O-Fish wrappers he left behind. He was also wise to get Ryan to help him with that “special project.” A friendly tip for all of those young people going into the business world: always mentally prepare yourself when someone asks you to help with a “special project.” Most of the time I can assure you that you will not find that project to be very special at all. Of course, turns out this extra work was for nought. Despite the best efforts of both Michael and Dwight, it seems she has her eyes on someone else. Jim swooped in with an offer to go out drink, and that ride, and she was all too eager to take him up on that offer. Is this another instance of where an attractive colleague lucked out? That might be up for interpretation so I will leave that for you to decide.

But wow, this was the day that the “hot girl” came to the office. So what did we really learn today? We should never underestimate the power of an incentive and how it can motivate workers. That sometimes it is okay to be a bit petty when we see unqualified, attractive people succeed over us. But more than anything, let this day encourage us to be more confident in ourselves. We have scientific proof that it is that greater self-esteem which can help people succeed. We may not all be Katies or Jims but let us at least find the same self-worth in ourselves that Michael can find every day. Just think before you speak, and you should be able to go the distance. Afterall, are we to believe that his incredible confidence didn’t help him become manager? Just a little nugget to mull over. Until next time, I’ll see you on your next coffee break in the breakroom.