# Brits... I have a few questions about "The Office" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 23, 2004, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-i-have-a-few-questions-about-the-office/276270 "2004-11-23T14:12:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jillyvn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecb155/32.png) [@Jillyvn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jillyvn)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-i-have-a-few-questions-about-the-office/276270/21 "2004-11-24T01:05:03Z")
> [@burundi](#): > > 1. You guys get to drink at mid-day work parties? Sweet. I’ve never been to an office party in the with wine and beer. We just get nasty, storebought cake and cheap coffee. (Or maybe I’ve just worked in the wrong offices.) Maybe it’s the leftover Brit in us, but every professional job I’ve worked in Canada since graduating university has involved drinking copious amounts of alcohol. Almost anything is an excuse to get loaded. The guy who worked there for a month is leaving? Well, we simply must go to the pub to say a proper goodbye. At my current job, the girls have a regular stock of wine in the office fridge, and break it out at 4 every day. Drink up kids! - Rebekkah ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-i-have-a-few-questions-about-the-office/276270/22 "2004-11-24T20:30:02Z")
> [@Small Clanger](#): > > Wow. They really don’t like that bus station. > > **Bippy** , how bad is that BUS STATION? > > Maybe they could drop the bus station in a six mile deep trench somewhere? Well masturbating homeless man is one of the least offensive people who hang arround there. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-i-have-a-few-questions-about-the-office/276270/23 "2004-11-24T20:40:04Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > That’s not entirely fair - true, the TA are basically ordinary guys who run around with guns at the weekend. But they _do_ have to fight in real wars - thousands of them are or have been in Iraq in the past 18 months. The TA are in fact the UK equivalent of the Reserves. Until Iraq they’d seen so little actual service that they were regarded as a joke, and Gareth is definitely talking up his experiences. > [@burundi](#): > > 1. Would folks actually bring sex toys to the office? (Tim gets an inflatable penis for his birthday; one of the Swindon folks gets a vibrator; etc.) That seemed beyond the pale to me. Not “beyond the pale” so much as tacky: such a thing would likely be tolerated in an adult workplace, but these things in the plot are meant to illustrate a “juvenile and unprofessional” attitude in the characters. ---
**Author:** ![Francesca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@Francesca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francesca)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-i-have-a-few-questions-about-the-office/276270/24 "2004-11-24T20:48:13Z")
> [@Small Clanger](#): > > Wow. They really don’t like that bus station. I drive past it often. It really is that bad. It’s a hideous place. Slough is just grey. Horrible and grey. And when you drive past it on the motorway (the M4, for those taking notes), it smells like shit because the sewage works are right there. I’d pity Slough. But it’s just such a shit-hole I can’t bring myself to. And I live in _Reading_. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-i-have-a-few-questions-about-the-office/276270/25 "2004-11-24T20:57:19Z")
> [@Francesca](#): > > iit smells like shit because the sewage works are right there. Ah but sometimes it smells like chocolate, because Cadbury’s is there. ::Throws out dairy milk bars:: ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-i-have-a-few-questions-about-the-office/276270/26 "2004-11-24T20:57:27Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Gareth is definitely talking up his experiences Do we ever know for sure that he’s actually in the TA at all? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-i-have-a-few-questions-about-the-office/276270/27 "2004-11-24T21:02:58Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Do we ever know for sure that he’s actually in the TA at all? That’s a point; I don’t know. His colleagues seem to think so. Do any of his mates ever mention it? Another question I want to know the answer to is will a boy ever be born who can swim faster than a shark? ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-i-have-a-few-questions-about-the-office/276270/28 "2004-11-24T21:06:07Z")
One good thing about Slough is that it isn’t Basingstoke. ---
**Author:** ![cbawlmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cbawlmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cbawlmer)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-i-have-a-few-questions-about-the-office/276270/29 "2004-11-24T22:56:25Z")
I’ve been to Slough! I studied abroad for a summer at Reading University back in 1996, and we used to go through Slough all the time on the train route to London. I always wondered what was wrong with the town council that named it Slough (even though it wasn’t exactly a glamourous place). Doesn’t it mean “mud hole”? The only one that made less sense to me was Maidenhead. Now \*\*there’s \*\* a name for a town! ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-i-have-a-few-questions-about-the-office/276270/30 "2004-11-24T23:22:46Z")
> [@ianzin](#): > > Yep. We’re a very tolerant, broad-minded people. I doubt there are many UK offices now where this would be regarded as anything more than slightly naughty humour. Not exactly _encouraged_ by the management, but not a cause for any serious complaints either. Anyone making any serious kind of objection would most likely be regarded as a religious freak or an uptight closet facist who needs to get a sense of humour, get a life and stop trying to spoil other people’s fun. :dubious: I suspect that **ianzin** is very much trying to make out personal views as the accepted general opinion. We do have such laws about fostering a work climate of sexual harrassment, and yes, many people would find it offensive and would complain about it, without being “religious freaks” or “uptight”. And management wouldn’t be happy about it either. You see cases all the time in the news where companies get taken to court by ex-employees for permitting such behaviour in their work. The point of it being funny in “The Office” is that it’s unprofessional and you wouldn’t be allowed to do it in any other office. > [@ianzin](#): > > Most definitely. If you ever tried to arrange such an event that featured no alcohol whatsoever, first of all you’d be permanently regarded as some sort of weirdo throwback from the Temperance Society, and secondly you’d fail (people would smuggle booze in there somehow.) Merkins and Brits have completely different attitudes to alcohol. We’re not all drunks, and most of us know about drinking responsibly, but there is an overwhelming expectation that any occasion that’s meant to be sociable or fun will mean alcohol is _available_. Not _compulsory_, mind you, but available. :dubious: Ditto. Plenty of work events, particularily those organised within the work place, are non-alcoholic and no gets regarded as weirdos for it. For a start, Health & Safety regulations make the company responsible for events in their workplace, so if people are falling over drunk it’s their look out. I don’t know what sort of offices **ianzin** ’s worked in, or how oppressive they must be for anyone who doesn’t wish to share their sex life or drink, but they aren’t the exactly norm. You also wonder how funny “The Office” must be if it’s exactly like everyday working life in some places. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-i-have-a-few-questions-about-the-office/276270/31 "2004-11-24T23:32:09Z")
> [@cbawlmer](#): > > I always wondered what was wrong with the town council that named it Slough (even though it wasn’t exactly a glamourous place). Doesn’t it mean “mud hole”? The only one that made less sense to me was Maidenhead. Now \*\*there’s \*\* a name for a town! Yes, it refers to the mud - but predates the local council by [almost a millenniun](http://www.slough.gov.uk/CommunityLife/sloughs_history.asp) And I’ve always thought Braintree should rank high on the bad-but-not-funny placename scale. ---
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2004, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-i-have-a-few-questions-about-the-office/276270/32 "2004-11-25T11:53:06Z")
I never want to work where **futile gesture** works. I have yet to go to an office function where alcohol has not been flowing freely, and people have got very dunk and scuttled off to the stationary cupboard together, or photocopied their arses. Mind you I work in the city and it’s still the norm to stick titty-bars on expenses. Also the dildo/novelty cock made out of chocolate is depressingly common too, as are ribald cards etc. It’s almost always the women who buy them. (is there no American equivalent of Ann Summers? (which is a shop that sells this stuff by the ton) The only thing that is frowned in most places is smutty/offensive emails, whcih is why it is funny that Brent is the subject of one and has to carry out an investigation. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2004, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-i-have-a-few-questions-about-the-office/276270/33 "2004-11-25T12:02:58Z")
> [@Futile Gesture](#): > > Plenty of work events, particularily those organised within the work place, are non-alcoholic and no gets regarded as weirdos for it. I’ll just add that you don’t want to be around our office on Beaujolais Nouveau day. Unless you like getting shit-faced drunk that is. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Arch\_Trout](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9f8e36/32.png) [@Arch\_Trout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arch_Trout)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2004, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-i-have-a-few-questions-about-the-office/276270/34 "2004-11-25T13:05:16Z")
> [@Futile Gesture](#): > > :dubious: I suspect that **ianzin** is very much trying to make out personal views as the accepted general opinion. > > We do have such laws about fostering a work climate of sexual harrassment, and yes, many people would find it offensive and would complain about it, without being “religious freaks” or “uptight”. And management wouldn’t be happy about it either. You see cases all the time in the news where companies get taken to court by ex-employees for permitting such behaviour in their work. The point of it being funny in “The Office” is that it’s unprofessional and you wouldn’t be allowed to do it in any other office. > > :dubious: Ditto. Plenty of work events, particularily those organised within the work place, are non-alcoholic and no gets regarded as weirdos for it. For a start, Health & Safety regulations make the company responsible for events in their workplace, so if people are falling over drunk it’s their look out. > > I don’t know what sort of offices **ianzin** ’s worked in, or how oppressive they must be for anyone who doesn’t wish to share their sex life or drink, but they aren’t the exactly norm. You also wonder how funny “The Office” must be if it’s exactly like everyday working life in some places. I pity you. Risque presents are the norm in most offices. Not a big fan of them myself but don’t see the harm. **Every** work event that I’ve been to has alcohol. No-one would go otherwise. Why would an office that allowed such things be “oppressive” to anyone. You sound like the kind of person that frowns upon others having fun and feels oppressed because you’ve got a stick up your arse and no-one else has. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Martha\_Medea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@Martha\_Medea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martha_Medea)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2004, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-i-have-a-few-questions-about-the-office/276270/35 "2004-11-25T13:28:10Z")
Stale hula hoops washed down with warm white wine served out of boxes in plastic cups or coffee mugs. Memories! ---
**Author:** ![Jervoise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@Jervoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jervoise)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2004, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-i-have-a-few-questions-about-the-office/276270/36 "2004-11-25T14:41:33Z")
> [@Futile Gesture](#): > > You also wonder how funny “The Office” must be if it’s exactly like everyday working life in some places. I think that’s the point, exactly. The Office is funny because it _is_ like a real office. Count me in as another who’s never heard of a work function where drink wasn’t flowing freely. I’ve worked in four London city offices this year and at each the booze has flowed freely–at functions, at lunches and in the evenings. Way of life. ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2004, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-i-have-a-few-questions-about-the-office/276270/37 "2004-11-25T15:33:34Z")
Hmmm–we had wine at office parties (state government of MA) until about 1990, then it was banned. So, subsequent larger parties went to bars around Fanueil Hall. Risque stuff, though, was always banned, just as a matter of taste. Sex toys do not belong in the workplace, period. ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2004, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-i-have-a-few-questions-about-the-office/276270/38 "2004-11-26T00:44:31Z")
> [@Arch Trout](#): > > Risque presents are the norm in most offices. You got a cite with that sweeping statement? You give risque presents to your friends who you know would not be offended. Your workplace is full of your _collegues_. They are not necessarily your friends and may not share your sexual mores or humour. Some of your _collegues_ may find this behaviour makes them uncomfortable and amounts to sexual harrassment. And the law agrees. That is why bringing it to work is not acceptable or professional behaviour and whether you or I can see the harm isn’t the point. > [@](#): > > Why would an office that allowed such things be “oppressive” to anyone. I was talking about the kind of workplace where people who don’t want to share in their _collegues_ sex lives and don’t necessarily wish to drink at every opportunity get called “weirdo throwbacks” and “religious freaks”. > [@](#): > > You sound like the kind of person that frowns upon others having fun and feels oppressed because you’ve got a stick up your arse and no-one else has. ☹ :rolleyes: And you sound like the kind of person who can’t imagine anyone not being personally and emotionally involved in their argument, and so thinks an ad hominem reply will help you. > [@](#): > > I think that’s the point, exactly. The Office is funny because it is like a real office. :dubious: So people watch TV of an evening to see exactly what they’ve seen all day? They’d have to film years of average office life to even fill an single episode of _The Office_. It is, of course, a caricature and exaggeration and what makes it funny is that the behaviour of the staff there goes **beyond** what is usual. ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2004, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-i-have-a-few-questions-about-the-office/276270/39 "2004-11-26T00:48:12Z")
Oops, sorry. The last quote in my above post was from **Jervoise** , not **Arch Trout**. ---
**Author:** ![Arch\_Trout](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9f8e36/32.png) [@Arch\_Trout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arch_Trout)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2004, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-i-have-a-few-questions-about-the-office/276270/40 "2004-11-26T08:13:56Z")
> [@Futile Gesture](#): > > You got a cite with that sweeping statement? > > You give risque presents to your friends who you know would not be offended. Your workplace is full of your _collegues_. They are not necessarily your friends and may not share your sexual mores or humour. Some of your _collegues_ may find this behaviour makes them uncomfortable and amounts to sexual harrassment. And the law agrees. That is why bringing it to work is not acceptable or professional behaviour and whether you or I can see the harm isn’t the point. Every office I’ve worked in and every office of everyone I know, at some point a risque present will have been bought, obviously I’ve not done a study of it but on the evidence that I’ve seen it seems to be a normal thing. People do generally give these presents to those that they know would not be offended, these same people are usually considered friends. Doesn’t stop it being a ‘normal’ thing. I personally don’t give such presents as I find it a little crass. What other people give to their friends at work is none of my business. I think anyone that thinks this is sexual harrassment of them personally has serious problems. Can people cry religious intolerance if an Orthodox Jew sees someone getting a bacon roll as a present from someone? I would hope not. (Not sure if the analogy holds but it seems similar to me) > [@Futile Gesture](#): > > I was talking about the kind of workplace where people who don’t want to share in their _collegues_ sex lives and don’t necessarily wish to drink at every opportunity get called “weirdo throwbacks” and “religious freaks”. I don’t really see it as sharing your sex life, it’s a joke not sex. I don’t think people should share their religions at work. Depends what you find more offensive. > [@Futile Gesture](#): > > :rolleyes: And you sound like the kind of person who can’t imagine anyone not being personally and emotionally involved in their argument, and so thinks an ad hominem reply will help you. No, I don’t think people should be emotionally involved in arguments. I also don’t think being a smart arse and using Latin helps either. It seems that I can’t imagine why anyone would be offended by a joke present, while you can’t imagine why anyone would want to give someone a present that might offend the sensibilities of the more fragile members of the office. Wonder who’s office is more ‘fun’. By fun, I mean a relaxed atmosphere to work in, free from worrying that the slightest little thing you do may cause offensive and get you sacked. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-i-have-a-few-questions-about-the-office/276270.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-i-have-a-few-questions-about-the-office/276270.md?page=3)