Obligatory Attempt at “The Office” Comparison

In the time “The Office” has been on TV, I am confident that employees in almost every business in America have been compared to characters from “The Office.”

Whether it be the boss who has people come in early just to bring him a breakfast sausage sandwich, the woman who plans the office parties, or the simple-minded, bald accountant, tens of millions of people have made these comparisons.

So, why should you care if I make them as well?

Well, first, because you are reading my blog and probably care what I have to say.

Second, because I am on the other side of the world and things are different down here (remember which way the toilets flush down here).

Before I move on to the comparisons, I’d like to set the scene. This is the second post in my multi-post, site-visit recap.

My counterpart organization is the Office of Environmental Management for a municipality in the El Oro province. Its main projects are:

• Managing the municipal tree nursery
• Assisting communities in starting potable water programs
• Watershed reforestation
• Waste management
• Environmental education

My job description indicated that I might spend time working on all of these programs, but I’m not quite sure yet. I want to get a better understanding of where my skills fit (and officially become a volunteer) before committing my energy to all of these tasks.

All of these programs are based out of a four-desk office in the municipal building. There are three computers and space for a laptop. There is Internet access, but the speed reminds me of 28.8 kbps modem. The staff likes to play music and keep things lively. They are relatively young and say that people from other departments come by to visit because this is the cool group.

In my few days of interaction with the staff and subsequent several hours trying to draw comparisons between them and characters on "The Office," I’m kind of drawing a blank.

My boss—who I also live with—is direct, unselfish, not horribly offensive, and I don’t cringe every time he makes a decision. So all comparisons to Michael Scott are out the window.

One of my co-workers could be compared to Jim. He is young, gets stuff done, and a nice guy.

There is a secretary who is dedicated and very nice, so I guess this is an easy comparison to Pam. I don’t know if there is any history between the Jim and Pam in my office.

Beyond those two, there isn’t much in the way of parallels. Keep in mind, that I will get a better sense of these comparisons after I spend more than three days with them.

I have over 700 days to spend with them.

“The Office,” or a Spanish version of it has not hit the airwaves here yet, so people in Ecuador may not understand this post.

By the time, I’m done in Ecuador, I’m sure I will have enough workplace stories to write a season of “Ecua Oficina.” But the issue is that here, a lot of the ridiculous, illogical things that characters on "The Office" do are considered commonplace and normal.

The show might not come across as comedy here at all. People might just think it’s a bad telenovela ("soap opera").