Fair Warning: Don’t read this post if you don’t watch The Office.

It should come as no surprise that I am pathetically adept at wasting time. Take right now, for instance, when I am writing a blog instead of working on my plans for the history fair, which is my actual purpose for sitting here at Panera. Or take this morning, when I discovered and took the quiz, “Which Office character are you?” Result: I am most like Jan. Now Jan works for Corporate, wears nice suits, and has a cool and professional manner, most of the time. I do like that. However, Jan also is secretly (or not) attracted to Michael Scott, which is not like me at all. Let’s be clear about that.

The quiz was not very well written. It was obvious which answer choice was linked with which character (I deliberately avoided all of Angela’s answers). Most of the time, none of the answer choices were ones that I would actually give. I’m kind of glad that the answers were rigged, so that the quiz could tell me that I was like ambitious, powerful Jan. If it was a more accurate, insightful character assessment, it might tell me that my greatest fear is actually true: I am most like Dwight.

Dwight takes himself way too seriously. He can be socially awkward. He overestimates his combat skills. He likes to be in the know at work, and is easily intoxicated with even small amounts of power. On occasion, he has manipulated the behavior of others by creating a false economy within his office based on “Schrute Bucks.” He has a false sense of his own irreplacability. He writes a blog. He is slightly paranoid.  He, as you can see from the picture, is a determined worker, intense, a good worker, a hard worker, and he is terrific. It’s uncanny…and a little humbling.

So if you ever catch me being particularly Dwight-ish, please just
put my stapler in a Jell-O mold.  I’ll get the message.