While The Office might still be one of the most popular television series ever, the series started 15 years ago. While it might seem modern in some ways, here are a lot of things about this popular comedy that wouldn’t really fly today. Even in the past 15 years, what is considered acceptable and politically correct has changed a lot.
So, there are many things about the show and the characters that feel outdated. Michael Scott, as the main character, had a lot of issues that wouldn’t make sense today.
Having no boundaries with his employees
One of Michael’s biggest overall flaws is that he doesn’t respect people’s boundaries. He’s always trying to get people to like him, and he doesn't’ really think about what others want in the process.
He was way too involved in his employees’ lives in a way that was inappropriate and unprofessional, and he would have been criticized more for this if the show was made today.
How he claimed his employees were a “family”
In this day and age, people often talk about how workplaces that talk about being a “family” often have a lot of toxic habits. These kinds of offices usually expect their workers to give more of themselves than they should.
So, when Michael calls his employees his family, he was putting them in an awkward position. There definitely needed to be more separation between work and the personal lives of everyone at Dunder Mifflin.
The “That’s what she said” joke
While this joke is one of the things that The Office is best known for, this likely wouldn’t really fly if the show premiered now. This is a funny joke that is fine to make with friends and family, but in the workplace, it’s inappropriate.
Michael would say this joke often around women, even people who were his bosses like Jan. This joke had too much sexual innuendo to be acceptable.
Making Dwight help him the drug test
While Micahel might think of his employees as his family, he doesn't treat them well a lot of the time. While he could be rude to most of his employees, he often took advantage of Dwight by making him do things for him.
When he made Dwight give over his urine so that Micahel could also the drug test, it was highly unethical and also just a bad and unfair position to put Dwight in.
Promising money to Scott’s Tots
One of the cringiest moments in the series was the “Scott’s Tots” episode. While Michael did a lot of cringy and awful things, this was one of the worst. He promised a group of kindergartners that he would pay for their college, and then, instead of following through or telling them he couldn’t early on, he let them think this was going to happen.
The class was mostly made up of people of color, so this was extra inappropriate and had uncomfortable race and class dynamics.
His casual racism toward Darryl and others
Speaking of racism, the series definitely handled race issues in ways that it couldn’t get away with today. The biggest offender of all was Michael Scott himself.
While he might not have considered himself racist, he did a lot of subtle things that were inappropriate. This was especially clear in how he treated Darryl. He made a lot of assumptions because Darryl was black and believed in a lot of racial stereotypes.
How cruel he was to Toby
While Michael’s hatred of Toby might have been funny at first or in certain situations, over time it just got to be too much.
Michael was Toby’s superior, so even if he didn’t like Toby, he still needed to respect him as an employee. The things that he said to him and how he clearly despised him was wildly inappropriate for the workplace.
The time he forced Oscar to kiss him
Michael didn’t just have issues with casual racism as he was also rather homophobic. During the “Gay Witch Hunt” episode, he learns that Oscar is gay and says some pretty homophobic things.
But, the worst part is how he tries to make himself the victim when Oscar calls him out, and then he forces Oscar to kiss him. Everything about this episode wouldn’t fly today.
The way he harassed Pam and other women
Along with his outdated views about gay people. Micahel was also rather backward when it came to gender. He was often wildly inappropriate with his female employees, and this was most clear with how he treated Pam.
At one point he tried to kiss her, and he also made some harassing comments about her appearance. Michael didn’t know how to respect women’s boundaries.
All of the racist caricatures he did
While some of the things he said to Daryl were bad enough, nothing feels more outdated and uncomfortable than the characters he did that played up racial stereotypes.
His character of “Ping” was the most horrible of all as it was very racist toward Asian people. Also, he had characters that made fun of overweight people and more.