“I worked with a genuine Michael Scott. He was a nice, well-meaning person who just did some absurd things.
We had kidnapping drills one day, where we learned how to ‘not be kidnapped’. Notably, this was a regular, boring office in a regular, boring suburb. No reason why kidnapping would be on anybody’s radar.
He and several of the guys randomly broke out into a push-up contest. Again. White-collar office. Middle-aged dudes in khakis.
He couldn’t remember the nationality of our Hispanic colleague. He tried to ‘learn Spanish’ to make her feel special when she returned from maternity leave. What he learned was not Spanish, and she was actually from Portugal. She knew like, five words of Spanish.
He disappeared for four days. No call. No email. Wouldn’t respond to any of our attempts to reach him. Finally, someone drove out to his house to make sure he was alive. He was. He’d just forgotten to tell us he was taking the week off and then lost his phone in a lake.
There were many, many moments like these. Great boss. Genuinely cared about everyone in the company. Occasional moments of brilliance, where he really got things done. But my goodness, so many moments of ridiculousness.”
