The Office: Season 2, Episode 3 “Office Olympics”

Revised 7/24/2024

Good morning all, and let me welcome you back to the Office Olympics. Because of how poignant this episode is for me this time of year, I wanted to add to it and allow many of you to look back at one of my earliest posts, plus perhaps encourage new readers to review it. So why is this post so important? For starters, this Friday will be the opening ceremonies to the 2024 Summer Olympics, being held in Paris. I am so excited to see the ceremonies, evidently conducted right on the Seine River that runs through Paris, especially because it is one of my favorite places in the world. I know we always hear artists talk about the magic of Paris, and I can confirm that it is absolutely true. We here in the United States have no true comprehension of appreciating architecture that has been around that long so we really need to stop kidding ourselves into thinking our country can match many of the others around the globe. In addition to the opening ceremonies, I really do want to keep up and try to watch events to partake in the festivities. For those who are also not big into sports, the Olympics offers a whole slew of events that are much more interesting than basketball or American football. That being said, they are not necessarily more interesting than Flonkerton.

The second reason this was so important to me is that just like Michael was closing on his condo, so too have my husband and I been actively looking at houses for the last few weeks. The market is so different than it was when we purchased our current house, we have more money but our spending power hasn’t exactly carried through as much as we though with how expensive the market is right now. The biggest trend we are seeing is people remodeling their homes themselves, but they do it badly. The result is the sellers want you to pay for their “improvements” but then you need to pay to have them corrected. My personal theory is that during the pandemic, everyone decided to watch too much HGTV and then they decide they can remodel their homes just as well. I am here to say that no, unless you are a trained professional then you should absolutely be hiring someone to do it for you. For anyone else going through the same thing, you have my deepest sympathies and I wish you luck in tracking down that dream home.

But that is why this episode spoke to me so much; I’ve been a bit busy for a Coffee Break but did want to share my thoughts on what has been happening this week and I hope you all enjoy this flashback to ‘Office Olympics’ and that you all tune in for the 2024 Summer Olympics, kicking off this Friday.

Original Post

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the office, and, more importantly, to the breakroom! I think we all can admit that most days as we are getting to work, we ask ourselves, “what should I do on break today?” Well, I very much appreciate you joining me on these breaks to breakdown the happenings of the day.

Enough chit-chat, lets get down to the scuttlebutt. So Michael actually started today very early, though it sounds like this must be a common occurrence which is news to me. He is simultaneously a night owl and an early bird, which makes him wise and has worms (not sure he heard that right) and means he likes to get to work a good several hours before anyone else does. Well, almost anyone else. I think we should both be grateful that we are not Michael’s go-to temp, Ryan, who actually got called in early for a special project. And by special project, it was to pick up Michael’s sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit. I really would like to know why Michael, who admitted to being at work abnormally early, couldn’t have used that time to swing by and get the food himself? I think it has to do with his weird obsession with Ryan, so maybe I should ask too many questions. Although, maybe the biggest travesty is the waist of the perfectly good biscuit (to make it low carb) when it could have just been ordered with out.

Flash forward to everyone now at work, meaning actual business hours, it turns out Michael will be out today to close the sale on his condo. He is really excited to finally be a homeowner, talking about how there was a time in which you had to own land to vote, else they would throw you in the stocks and humiliate you. I cannot comment on that warranting the stocks and humiliation, but he does have a ring of truth surrounding the voting. For a period, there was a property qualification in place for the thirteen colonies, very similar to what was in place in what is now the United Kingdom. In the colonies, each of the states had specific ownerships that had to be met in order to be eligible to vote; fifty acres of land, for instance, was a common example. Predominately, these laws were seen as a method to limit the voting powers of those in lower economic standing to ensure the greatest power was held by those with money and station¹. Dwight actually seems to be okay with going back to those days, although I feel this has less to do with his sixty acre beet farm, and more to do with being able to use stocks as punishment. He is an absolutely stickler when it comes to issuing punishments to people. But with Michael closing on his condo, this can only mean one thing: boss-free day.

A day without the boss, or Dwight, couldn’t come at a better time because people are a bit drained today. Expense reports are due today and they are not super exciting, Jim is slowly dying of boredom over at his desk. Thankfully, Pam is there to help occupy him with one of her little games she likes to do when bored. She likes to take small items, like paper clips or notes, and see if she can throw them into Dwight’s coffee mug from her desk. This actually gets Jim intrigued on other ways that people kill time, especially when Michael is out of the office. Turns out that Kevin and Oscar have been playing “Hate Ball” for a few years; this is basically just paper football at their desks, but Angela really hates that they do it. They then let slip that Toby and Kelly like to play “Dunderball” back in the annex. They use a small ball that they pass to each other by bouncing it off the wall adjacent to their cubicle divider.

These are all very specific things that they do to help pass the time at work, and that brings up the question of what are some different things you can do while bored at work? While everyone has jobs that can be very busy, there are obviously those days and time in which some downtime comes up. Perhaps you have routine paperwork that fluctuates so you might have a light day, or very few phone calls coming in for the day. Chris Leitich with Career Addict was eager to recommend simply entertaining yourself by doodling, watching an interesting video on Youtube, or just doing a quick internet search for random articles. There is evidence that these actions can help destress you, which is meant to help prevent long-term burnout. He did also recommend other tasks such as clearing out your inbox, reading up on industry-specific articles, or simply planning out your schedule². Jennifer Herrity published an article through Indeed which focuses more on using that down time to be productive. You could teach yourself useful skills, such as becoming more familiar with Excel; perhaps write an industry article for a publication; start a networking group; or even take the initiative on updating department protocols. These are certainly not bad recommendations, as all too often do we tell ourselves “if only we had time” when it comes to these productive ideas³. And perhaps somewhere in between productive and entertaining, I found an impressive list from Leo Babauta at Zen Habits. Among my favorites were write a blog post; drink some water; pursue a hobby; or just get wild⁴. There are many things we can do when we are getting bored at work and trying to fill the time, and while not all might be work-related I do feel they have their value to being productive. My personal favorite means of keeping myself entertained is listening to podcasts; they are more consecutive than listening to music and not as distracting as television, but still entertaining. Specifically, I will recommend Office Ladies but whatever helps occupy the silence of the day is great. Unfortunately, not everyone has the right work setting where they can do this so it is all about finding that tool which helps you reset every so often to continue with the day.

Back at the office, Jim has taken these games and created the first Office Olympics. Opened with the light of a cookie-scented candle, everyone will be competing for gold, silver, and bronze (blue) yogurt lids in a series of events. What can I say aside from, let the games begin! We truly have a wide variety of events that have been going on today. We first have Flonkerton, which is an Icelandic event of racing with paper boxes on our feet which Phyllis narrowly beat Kevin at. But, Kevin came back by being the victor at seeing who can fit the most M&Ms in their mouth. After that, Stanley and Phyllis were neck and neck in a makeshift game of HORSE. Ryan then came in first when they competed to see who could guess would come off of the elevator next (he guessed someone to Vance Refrigeration). We were just in the middle of Toby and Oscar racing each other around the office holding a mug of coffee when Michael and Dwight finally came back (though I thought they’d be gone longer). This did sort of put a damper on the games and only Jim really still seemed excited by it. Even Michael seemed sort of off, and I thought he’d be really excited about having closed on his condo so I’m wondering if the whole event ended up being more stressful than he expected. With that full rush of reality, we are all brought back to the real world.

Or so we though, Jim and Pam were all set with a special Closing Ceremonies for the Olympics, and they brought Dwight and Michael in on it! Michael was awarded a gold medal for closing on his condo, which I think he really needed to remind him that he did accomplish something amazing. Dwight seemed pretty eager to also accept silver, I think for just being Dwight. And, of course, Jim accepted bronze which I feel is well deserved for putting that together. And like that, our work day closes to the national anthem and a series of paper doves strung in the air. Not too shabby for a day that could’ve been just like any other.

Were you able to get a medal yourself? If not, it really is all about having a bit of fun to break up the monotony of the work day and I hope you were able to learn something! More than anything, it is okay to break up that boredom at work and it can actually be healthy. Not only are you more likely to get a second wind when you need a break, it really does help with burn out. So whether you find time to better yourself with a new skill, clear up your desk or inbox, or devote your time to a hobby like blogging I hope you can find what works best for your job. Until next time, I’ll be sure to see you around the breakroom.