What do TV shows get horribly wrong about offices?

Homer Simpson at the nuclear power plant. Logan Roy barking “f*** off” at colleagues. Watching television shows and films about business is often our first interaction with the workplace. And often, that depiction is entirely inaccurate.

Which industry you work in will affect how irksome you find these transgressions. Some are obvious (like The Apprentice candidates being given fourteen seconds to design a logo).

For those who have never experienced office culture, though, it can be hard to sort fact from fiction. Gen Zers working their first job might be forgiven for thinking important business meetings are hosted in their CEO’s living room, a la Don Draper from Mad Men.

Below, we’ve outlined seven common TV tropes about jobs that would never be allowed to happen outside the silver screen, and what the non-Hollywood version really looks like.

1. Bored at work? Invite your best friends over

From Friends to Fraiser to Parks and Recreation, sitcom characters have no respect for their mates’ careers. Throughout the working day, they will frequently barge in on their best friend and begin gabbing away on a swivel chair (while several emails go unanswered).

In reality, inviting random strangers to the office violates GDPR laws and would not win you any favours with management. It’s also just weird. Why aren’t they busy at their own jobs?

The same goes for the many, many scenes where a mysterious, breathless woman turns up at the desk and claims to be a long-lost relative of the main character. Unless they’re in a coworking space, the office receptionist would certainly get a stern talking to.

2. Never ask for help or you’re bad at your job

There’s no ‘I’ in team. But there is an ‘I’ in fiction, and most make-believe offices have a trend of the main cast being Jacks-of-all-trades, rather than seeking out the experts.

Legal drama, Suits is notorious for this. Outside help will almost always be called in at law firms (it’s simply impossible for one person to know all the answers) yet office renegade Harvey is depicted as the authority in everything, from business mergers to custody law.

Teamwork is crucial in workplaces. Project teams will usually have third-party consultants or agencies involved. If your cast list doesn’t stretch that far, however, it’s easier to have a stellar lead who somehow has web design experience to complement their law degree.

3. Don’t worry, you can skip the boring bits

Three seconds after the scene where a character storms angrily out of an important shareholder meeting, I wonder: how will they write that up in the minutes? In TV land, though, this isn’t an issue: paperwork doesn’t exist.

Newsflash graduates, admin is a huge part of any job, especially when starting out. Producers want to skip this bit and get straight to the glamour. Perhaps they’re missing out on the genuine excitement that an email typo can bring to a stale day at the office.

If EastEnders is short on drama, it could show Linda Carter accidentally ordering 100 crates of bottled beer from a supplier with unreliable delivery times, resulting in stockouts and a boycott of The Queen Vic. It’s not quite Steve killing Saskia with an ashtray, of course.

4. Had a good day at work? You should be promoted

Perhaps a character tells a funny joke and it makes the boss smile. Boom, promotion. Maybe they pitch an idea in a meeting and it raises the roof. Boom, pay rise.

Whatever the scenario, TV bosses are eager to throw out rewards and bonuses like they’re sweets — presumably leaving their sweating, crying HR team to update contracts, write new job descriptions, and compile reams of information about employee benefits overnight.

The effect is a generation of young people raised on TV who think their career will advance if they can just win over a certain manager. In reality, promotions can take months of performance reviews to complete. Still, it’s fun to dream.

5. Doing something without permission is proactive, not stupid

Managers get a lot of flack, especially on TV shows. They are constantly shown as a walking, talking roll of red tape, coming down on the prodigal intern character to make them do boring things like ‘tell us when you go on holiday’ or ‘ask permission first’.

Industry, a BBC show set in an investment firm, follows six young finance graduates as they navigate the cut-throat competitive world. Heroine Harper immediately carries out a risky six-figure trade for a high-flying client. It’s a suspenseful scene, and also unrealistic.

In reality, Harper would not have the level of seniority to make the trade, and for good reason; risk management is vital for transparent, ethical trading.

The depiction of managers as obstacles, rather than important mentors, has unfortunately seeped into real life. Bosses say their reports think they know better than them. Remember that managers are a vital pillar for junior employees, despite their devilish TV persona.

6. Why not hire all your friends?

Taking on your best friend as a client is not unheard of in real life. In most work dramas, though, a character will sign up their life-long pal as a customer with little thought. Conflict of interest? Never heard of it! Yet in real life, this can pose serious ethical challenges.

Take Emily in Paris, the TV show where Lily Collins plays a blinky American girl doll who works at a French marketing agency. In one episode, Emily manages to convince her boss to let her become account manager to new client and best friend Camille’s family business.

Many firms run ‘refer a friend’ schemes to encourage staff to put their mates forward for job vacancies. Still, Emily’s level of intimacy is unprofessional and could lead to special treatment. Best to maintain personal boundaries between (but who would watch that?).

7. Of course you can take a five hour lunch break!

Unless a TV show is set in the workplace, the writers will almost certainly act as though it doesn’t exist. After all, TV is fantasy land, and we don’t want to watch a show where people work a normal 9-5 (unless, for some reason, that show is The Office).

Watching sitcom characters, teens would be forgiven for thinking that taking a five-hour rest break from work is normal. Even with flexible work, it’s not. Given the amount of daytime coffees that the Friends cast drank, they had all managed to wrangle a 10 hour work week.

Thankfully, that dream of endless spare time is marginally more possible with the advent of the four-day week. Who wouldn’t use their day off to lounge in Central Perk coffee house? Just pretend every Friends episode takes place on a Friday and stop questioning.