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Like millions of Americans, I was instantly hooked when I started watching “The Office.” I used to think the comedic genius of Steve Carell, John Krasinski, Phyllis Smith and the rest of their zany crew in Scranton, Pennsylvania, drove me to binge the show. But, as Bob Batchelor explains, one reason why “The Office” strikes a chord with so many viewers is how deftly it illustrates a widespread problem at workplaces of all kinds.
Batchelor, a Coastal Carolina University professor, studies workplace culture. Drawing on two big new surveys, he explains why “more than two-thirds of the workforce is checked out.”
Some of the malaise stems from the exhaustion employees experience when their work-life balance is out of whack. But, like Jim, Dwight, Oscar, Angela and the rest of their befuddled co-workers, much of what ails the workplace is mass confusion about what everyone is supposed to be doing. “Many workers simply don’t know what they are aiming for, what their priorities should be or in which direction their employer actually wants to head,” Batchelor writes.
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