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In the U.S. version, when Dwight discovers his stapler encased in gelatin, Jim is eating gelatin dessert from a cup with a spoon. In the U.K. version, when Gareth discovers his stapler encased in gelatin, Tim is holding something in his hand (wrapped in paper or plastic) and eating it. I assume it’s supposed to be Jell-O/jelly, but in the U.K. can you hold gelatin in your hand and eat it? My experience with gelatin is that it’s not really amenable to being held in the hand, even if wrapped in paper or plastic. It would tend to both fall apart (from its wiggliness) and melt (from body heat).
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The warehouse crew makes some startlingly sexually aggressive comments directly to Jennifer. Jennifer complains to David about the “boys’ club,” but doesn’t seem to take further action. In the U.S., this kind of behaviour, especially to a company executive would bring swift dismissal. Is this kind of thing tolerated in the United Kingdom? Also, generally speaking, the warehouse crew at Wernham-Hogg seems to be almost thuggish. While the warehouse crew at Dunder-Mifflin is definitely blue collar/working class in character, Darryl, the foreman, comes off as taking his job seriously and carrying off a generally professional demeanor. At Wernham-Hogg, however, entering the warehouse seems to be inviting rather rough treatement at the hands of the crew. Is there still this kind of blue collar thuggishness in British workplaces?
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David is denied a promotion because he “failed the health examination.” What the hell? Who would order a health examination as a condition for a promotion (other than perhaps a drug test)? And wouldn’t this kind of information be considered confidential anyway?
- I saw that bit just last night but, as I wasn’t anticipating this question, didn’t look hard enough.
Nevertheless, I reckon it was what we call Jelly. Possibly Hartley’s Jelly Cubes. They aren’t individual cubes but are stuck together. You melt them in boiling water then let them set and voila - jelly. Or you can just eat them “raw” as Tim was doing. Lovely.
I - and I suspect most Brits - have absolutely no idea what Jell-O looks like in the flesh.
The behaviour and general athmosphere in the warehouse isn’t unknown in real British workplaces - and it’s symptomatic of a badly-run organisation. A decent management wouldn’t tolerate the things that go on, but the Slough office lacks that element, as we know all too well. ‘Thuggishness’ is a good description: the people who end up working at a place like that are those who couldn’t hold down a job in a better-run place which had decent expectations of them.
Plus Lee (the British version of Roy) was always depicted as a thug, like the time he shoved Tim away from Dawn when they were just talking. He also kept Dawn on a short leash, and never seemed friendly or likeable to anyone (including her). Even at his worst, Roy was always portrayed as just a dumb, insensitive lout, but never nasty, mean, or dangerous.
A) It’s a comedy, not a documentary 
B) Let’s assume David was passed over due to generic incompetence. What better way to cheer him up than to imply that his lack of promotion was due to cancer/leposy/ebola etc.
It looks just like that wiggly form in which Gareth’s stapler was encased.
I understand your point, but I don’t think it applies to the U.K. version of “The Office.” From all I’ve heard from Ricky Gervais, he took pains to create an absolutely realistic situation, so I’m working from the assumption that everything we see in the show is actually possible in a British workplace.
Well, David would have to actually show up for a physical evaluation, wouldn’t he? It’s seems a stretch that the whole thing would have been set up as a fraud by Wernham-Hogg.
It’s a grotesque exaggeration of the British workplace. There is a lot of fundamental truth in it, but if you’re looking for the specifics of, say, British healthcare coverage, Ricky Gervais is not your man.
Of course it is. Absolutely true. Hey acsenray are you from Barcelona?
Every job I’ve been offered in the last 25 years in the UK has been ‘subject to references and a medical’. Either one flops and they pass.
MiM
Haven’t seen it for a while but my impression was that “failed the exam” was BS.
I haven’t watched it recently, but I think you’re right. acsenray, did it look like this?
As seosamh says, this is jelly that hasn’t been made up by diluting in boiling water and setting - it’s usually very rubbery and resilient, as it contains enough gelatin to make a pint.
Can’t remember the episode well enough - who actually mentions the health exam? Is it David trying to save face?
At the party afterwards (what in the U.S., we would call a “pink-slip party,” I think), David announces that the Slough branch isn’t being closed after all because he decided he couldn’t let that happen, so he turned down the offer of a promotion.
Later, an older guy with a Welsh accent (I think)–whose name I don’t know, but who is in the background of the Slough branch–says that he has been informed through the grapevine that the reason David didn’t get the promotion is that he failed the health exam. David tries to imply that he failed it on purpose, but doesn’t pull it off very well.
Yeah, that’s the stuff, I think.
Ah, so it’s more like condensed gelatin?
Interesting. I don’t know much about British or European law, but my impression of European privacy law led me to believe that employers wouldn’t be allowed to use health information in this way.
I didn’t say I believed it was a documentary, but I am under the impression that Gervais’s intent was to create situations that absolutely could happen in a badly run company. And, for the most part, what happens does have a very high degree of verisimilitude (unlike the American version of the show, whose Michael and Dwight characters–the counterparts of David and Gareth–are too over the top to be perceived as realistic).
Yes - this is the traditional retail form of make-at-home jelly in the UK - because it’s condensed, it’s not only very rubbery, but the flavour is intensely sweet and fruity too - As a child, I used to beg a cube from my mother whenever she was making the stuff - having a whole block to eat was just a crazy dream.
Pre-employment medicals are common in the UK. The assesment is meant to determine whether the person is capable of doing the specific job. For an example of how it works see this site. This is from the Local Government Employers in the public sector but a private company would probably do something similar.
Regarding privacy laws, there are strict rules about the information that can be obtained and how it can used and stored. When I take on a new member of staff I never see the individual’s health record, this is handled by the HR people and the Occupational Health Service. I just get a report saying so and so is fit to do the job, or that they can do the job but not use - for instance - breathing apparatus.
It’s a long time since I’ve seen that episode of the Office but as I remember it he was going for a more senior job. A medical might be required and could have rejected him if he smoked, drank, or was overweight 
all risk factors for sickness absense due to stress.
Mind you, all that said, it’s not a documentary. Merchent and Gervais needed a plot device to keep David in Slough!
Fascinating. I’ve never seen these over here. We generally make our gelatin dessert from powder.
Smoking, drinking, and obesity can by themselves be a bar to upper management status?
I noticed on the linked Web site that among the factors checked is the degree of absenteeism from the previous job. So does using earned sick leave count against you? Or is it only when you exceed your allotted sick days?
I get it. I’m just trying to parse exactly where reality ends and fiction begins.
Smoking and drinking could be a bar to senior management (or any post) - smokers clearly have more health problems and so cost more to employ, problem drinking could be made worse by stress and then the employer has to deal with a work related health problem. Not saying they would be but they could - depend on how much they want you!
Obesity is more tricky as it might be viewed as a disability and covered by anti-discrimination laws that require the employer to make “reasonable adjustment” to the job - not sure on that.
[hijack]This cannot be said enough - there really are Michaels and Dwights out there. I’ve met many of them in engineering firms, and some of them are worse than these two.
In Spain (where I hold a certification in Workplace Safety), the purpose of medicals is to make sure:
- that you can do the job; someone with a bad back might not be able to take a job requiring heavy lifting, someone colorblind wouldn’t be able to run certain lab analysis.
- that your job isn’t affecting your health negatively
- that any illnesses (professional or not) that you have are detected early
Those medicals are done by the company-contracted medical service (Mutua), not by the worker’s doctors. Depending on what the Mutua finds, they may tell the worker to see his doctor. The company tells the Mutua what physical requirements the job has; the Mutua will report a “pass/fail” but no details.
One of the differences between a good and bad employer in Spain is how the medicals are handled:
the bad employer pays for the minimum tests required for your position; if you have an “office” job they won’t get your hearing tested even if your work requires you to spend several hours a day in a noisy area. They will do the tests “more or less once a year but it may end up being once every two years” (Spanish law requires once a year).
The good one says “general checkup but we only need to know the results of this and this” and makes sure to get the schedule right.
I’ve had coworkers who didn’t wear their ear mufflers, being told off on it many times, until the Mutua detected loss of hearing, at which point they became Ear Muffler Apostles and would badger anybody who wasn’t wearing his own.
In Spain “justified absenteeism” (with an actual baja from your doctor) doesn’t legally count as absenteeism. We don’t get an allotment of sick days, if you’re sick you’re sick.
I know UK laws are different, just throwing this in as an example of European laws.