Faster. Higher. Stronger. Throughout time, these values have been instilled in those seeking Olympic glory. Kristi Yamaguchi. Scott Hamilton. Apolo Anton Ohno. Each stood atop the pedestal with a gold medal around his or her neck. All heroes.
Add the folks at Dunder-Mifflin to the list. They’re our heroes. They’ve brought a growing phenomenon of the American workplace to the masses: The Office Olympics.
For those who haven’t heard of Dunder-Mifflin (and for those who haven’t watched NBC’s “The Office,” a sitcom about life at this fictional paper supplies company, starring Steve Carell), workers there devised a series of competitions where mugs full of hot coffee served as relay batons and folded paper became footballs. (Missed the episode? Download it from iTunes.)
In honor of the upcoming Winter Games in Turin, At Play traveled to Scranton, Pa. (actually a soundstage near Hollywood), to visit the employees of Dunder-Mifflin (the cast, who spoke to us in character).
They’re still dreaming of Olympic gold, and they told At Play how to recreate the Olympic spectacle at your workplace.
THE ORGANIZERS
A little fun never hurts. Right, Dwight?
We talked to sales rep Jim Halpert and his office rival, assistant to the regional manager Dwight Schrute, about their recent office Olympics.
At Play: So, Jim you’re probably aware that this is now a national trend. You started something huge.
Jim: I [was] not aware of that. That’s incredible.
At Play: It seems that you were sort of the brains behind this whole thing, the mastermind.
Jim: Definitely not. I think I actually just asked the question of what people do in their spare time … all these other people came up with these amazing games and I guess it was just me who went around and wanted to play them.
At Play: So you’re kind of the ringleader, would you say?
Jim: I guess.
Dwight (interrupting): The word I’d use would be ringworm.
Jim: That doesn’t even make sense.
Dwight: Shut up. You don’t make sense.
Jim: Wow!
At Play: Now you were out of the office that day, Dwight, and you came back and … you must have had some inkling that something was going on. What was your reaction?
Dwight: I don’t know what you’re talking about with these games. But games are not part of the workplace.
Jim: Definitely not part of the workplace. We never do them.
Dwight: After work you could play games. But it’s best, even then, if the games relate somehow to the work that you do. For instance, I am a competitive salesman. I can go home after work, I can play paintball. I can shoot other people with paint pellets. And that teaches me a lot about what a jungle it is in the workplace.
Jim: That’s crazy.
Dwight: You know what, there’s really no such thing as life. There really is only work.
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Let `The Office’ games begin
Fictional Dunder-Mifflin employees inspire a nation of cubicle Olympians
`The Office’ staff
Jim Halpert
love-struck sales rep, played by John Krasinski
Pam Beesley
engaged receptionist, played by Jenna Fischer
Michael Scott
the insufferable boss, played by Steve Carell
Dwight Schrute
assistant (to the) regional manager, played by Rainn Wilson
Kevin Malone
Oscar’s desk partner, played by Brian Baumgartner
Phyllis Lapin
Flonkerton champ, by Phyllis Smith
Oscar Martinez
Kevin’s desk partner, played by Oscar Nunez
Creed Bratton
ambiguous guy, played by Creed Bratton
Angela Martin
perpetually annoyed with Kevin and Oscar, played by Angela Kinsey
Kelly Kapoor
Dunderball mastermind, played by Mindy Kaling
Ryan Howard
office temp, played by B.J. Novak
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THE GAMES
HATEBALL
Desktop football, made more interesting with a disliked co-worker nearby.
Angela Martin and her two most persistent tormentors, Kevin Malone and Oscar Martinez, have different positions on the Dunder-Mifflin office Olympics–especially on the subject of Kevin and Oscar’s favorite game, Hateball.
At Play: Tell us about Hateball.
Oscar: It’s actually a form of football that we play. …
Kevin: Yeah. It’s where you, you flick a paper football and we try different things.
Angela: They try to hit my computer.
Kevin: Yeah.
Angela: They hit one of my cat figurines and knocked it off my desk.
Kevin: That was worth lots of points.
At Play: Why is it called Hateball?
Kevin: Because of how much she hates it.
At Play: There are people all over the country playing these games. And they’re increasing in number because of the Turin games coming up. What do you think of this trend?
Angela: Well, I’m embarrassed that our office started this trend in the first place, you know. Work is for work. We’re punching in. We’re getting paid. I, I’m horrified that our office is known for the office of games.
Oscar: Hmm, hmm. You obviously asked the wrong person. Kevin and I are all excited about it. We didn’t expect it to take off this way.
Kevin: It’s so cool.
Oscar: Yeah. And, you know, we started [Hateball] separately. We went to different high schools and yet we had this in common.
Kevin: Yeah.
Oscar: The football.
Kevin: Yeah.
Oscar: And he folded his differently than mine, the triangle. But it’s all the same and …
Angela: Basically what you have in common is wasting time. And then I pick up the slack.
At Play: OK. What do you do for fun Angela?
Angela: I do a lot of things for fun. I …
Kevin (interrupting): Nothing.
Angela: Kevin! (Pause) I play with my cats. I love them. I have two right now. I love antique shows. I think they’re fascinating. I love the History Channel.
At Play: Do you think you guys are going to do it again next year?
Oscar: Definitely. We’re looking forward to it.
Angela: Next year? They do this all the time.
At Play: Really?
Angela: Yeah.
Kevin: Yep. But not officially sanctioned, Angela.
Angela: Well, yes. I guess Pam doesn’t make medals out of yogurt lids.
Oscar: Can I say something?
At Play: Sure.
Oscar: Albert Einstein said imagination is, is …
Angela (interrupting): This is his favorite quote by the way.
Oscar: Yeah. Is more important than education. Is that the …
Kevin: Yeah.
Oscar: Imagination is more important than education.
Kevin: More is more.
Angela: I have such a headache right now.
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FLONKERTEN
A game, supposedly of Icelandic origin, in which competitors strap boxes of paper to their feet and shuffle toward the finish line.
Phyllis Lapin won Flonkerten, just edging out Kevin Malone, who stumbled at the end.
At Play: Tell us about your victory.
Phyllis: Well, I was a little hesitant to even, you know, attempt it. But I’m pretty athletic. And I know you don’t expect that for my size, but I can move. … It’s a little hard to get up on the boxes. It takes, you know, some assistance.
At Play: Some of your co-workers suggested there should be separate competition for men and women in that event.
Phyllis: Oh, I don’t know. I think I held my own pretty well with Kevin.
At Play: So what other events did you participate in?
Phyllis: I participated also in the Paper Toss. We took paper wads and threw them in the trashcan.
At Play: Are you going to do the Games again next year?
Phyllis: Well, I would hope so. I’d like to retain my title with the gold medal.
At Play: Have you been training at all?
Phyllis: Well, I walk a lot, to and from the refrigerator. And to and from the restroom. And, you know I try to keep …
At Play (interrupting): You don’t wear the boxes when you do that do you?
Phyllis: You know what, that’s a good idea. I hadn’t thought of that. I should do that in training.
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DUNDERBALL
A game of skill, requiring competitors to ricochet a spongy ball off a wall and hit a co-worker.
Kelly Kapoor invented Dunderball and talks about her stressful job.
Kelly: I made it up accidentally and that was like 3 1/2 years ago. And then I taught [the HR guy] and we’ve just been playing it competitively for a couple of years.
At Play: You said you made it up accidentally? What were you doing?
Kelly: I was so frustrated after a customer service call that I just took the little Nerf ball out, the ball I usually squeeze when I would get mad because of stress. Then one day I got so mad after a bad call that I threw it against the wall and, um, it hit the wall and then hit this other woman who used to work here. And she didn’t like that at all, but I just started playing this game with whoever worked in that cubicle.
At Play: So you get a lot of annoying or stressful customer service calls?
Kelly: Oh my God, yeah. People! They call me just when they want to complain. It’s rare that you get someone who calls just like really psyched about the product.
At Play: What do people complain about paper?
Kelly: The strangest things. Sometimes it is as little as like the color wasn’t saturated enough. Like I can do anything about that except tell them I’m sorry. And other times it’s big like we messed up the order like we sent them card stock instead of three-hole punch stuff. I feel bad when that happens.
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THE BOSS
Thanks for the medal, but it’s time to get back to work
Michael Scott is the big boss at Dunder-Mifflin. When we caught up with him, he talked about his management style and the new condo that closed on the day of the office Olympics, which kept him away while his staff held its events.
At Play: Michael, we were in the office the other day. Got to meet some of your co-workers. They were very, very hospitable and forthcoming.
Michael: And they were working I hope. Working diligently?
At Play: A little bit.
Michael: Uh-oh. Heads are going to roll. Heads are going to roll.
At Play: First of all congratulations on the new condo.
Michael: Thank you very much. You know what? I have to say that when I got back and they had the awards ceremony to honor me with the purchase of my new condo, I was, I was touched. It probably was one of the, the happiest, most emotional days of my life.
At Play: You were out of the office most of that day. Are you a get-out-in-front-and-lead kind of guy? Or do you like to be there and micromanage?
Michael: Well, I think micromanaging has taken a bad rap. I don’t see anything wrong in micromanaging. That just means that you sweat the details. You have to learn to follow the leader and lead the follower at the same time. There are certain trust exercises you do. Whenever we have a new staff member join I’ll have everyone line up and do mirror exercises. And I want the employees to get to a point where they don’t know who’s leading and who’s following just as long as they know that I’m leading. Do you see my point?
At Play: Absolutely.
Michael: I mean, I am the one who they’re mirroring, but amongst themselves they’re mirroring each other. And so they shouldn’t know who’s mirroring who just as long as they know that I am the big mirror.
BONUS GAME
HUMAN BOWLING
Pam Beesley, “The Office” receptionist, told At Play about a new game idea.
“We can line up all the empty water bottles for the water cooler and then we can, like, human bowling, like push somebody on a rolling chair and try to knock them over.”
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OLYMPIC CHALLENGE!
Get your office into the action
Want to put those paperclip-flicking skills to use?
At Play is looking for the next great Office Olympians.
In the true Olympic spirit, this is an amateurs-only endeavor. No prizes or cash awards. But fame and glory in the pages of At Play could be yours. At Play will run winning entries in the next few weeks during the Winter Olympics at Turin, Feb. 10-26.
And, to make it easy for you, we’ve come up with three unique ways you can play along:
CREATE AN EVENT
Invent a new Office Olympics event and tell us about it. Include the rules, any equipment needed, how you imagine it playing out and what inspired the idea.
STAGE AN OFFICE OLYMPICS
Turn ho-hum casual Friday into Olympic Friday! Hold a torch ceremony with glowing cell phones. Turn the lunchroom into an Olympic Village. Whatever you do, make it competitive and fun–and tell us all about it.
Send your ideas and descriptions of actual events to atplay@tribune.com or send to Chicago Tribune, At Play–Office Olympics, 435 N. Michigan Ave., 5th Floor, Chicago, IL 60611.
MAKE IT MULTIMEDIA
Get out the digital camera, or better yet the digital video camera, and capture your Office Olympics for all to see. Send us your best action shots–or favorite Olympic moments–and we’ll run the best in next week’s At Play section. If you shoot video, we’ll post clips of our favorites online at chicagotribune.com.
To submit photos: Your photo must be a .jpg and at least 200 dpi.
To submit video: Video must be submitted via mail on DVD. It will not be accepted as an e-mail attachment. Your video must not exceed 5 minutes. Video WILL NOT be returned.
For both photos and video, be sure to include:
1. Your full name.
2. Your phone number or e-mail address (for confirmation purposes only).
3. Your office name and town.
4. A caption: Tell us where you took this photo and/or video and what’s going on in it. Please identify any people appearing in the photo and/or video. If the photo or video depicts any children under the age of 13, you need to provide written permission from the child’s parent or guardian to post the photo or video.
For complete rules and terms of use for video and photo submissions, go to chicagotribune.com/officepix
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More `Office’ online
Listen to the full At Play interviews with the cast of “The Office” and look at more photos of their Olympic events.
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chicagotribune.com/office
