B. J. Novak Quotes

The way the British 'Office' got away with being so dark was that it only had 13 episodes. There are realistic elements that people obviously enjoy, but they don't necessarily want to relive the trials and tribulations of their average work day.

The show is called 'The Office,' and while it focuses on the people, the architecture of the space is very important.

If you think your boss is stupid, remember: you wouldn't have a job if he was any smarter.

Office life is very, very strange. It's like no other way of living. You have an intimacy with people who you work with in the office, yet if you meet them on the streets, you both look the other way because you're embarrassed.

I don't watch television, but I saw 'The Office' by accident. I thought it was so sophisticated, the Victorian love story, and so bold. We'd do anything, all of us, to not work in that environment, and then I'm sitting there watching hours of it.

Pretty much anybody who's ever worked can relate to our show.

Why should how I act in my workplace be any different from how I interact with my family at home? It's making sure the company runs on feminine principles where the major ethic is care.

Nine to Five is actually one of my favorite movies. I watched it a thousand times when I was a child, literally a thousand times.

When we asked people if they would rather have a best friend at work or a 10% pay raise, having a friend clearly won.

Building a professional relationship on respect as opposed to affection is a very good idea. Running your art projects the way you'd run a dry-cleaning business is also a really good idea. You shouldn't go into work like you're going on a date, like you're hanging out with friends.

I think Dilbert is actually a radical strip.

In a lot of work places, you work at a lot of jobs and people work more with their colleagues than with their family.

I know that there are coaches who do end up sleeping on the sofa in their office.

It sometimes feels like the workplace is immune from social upheaval. We go to work and do the best we can, and at the end of the day, we return to our lives. We don't abandon who we are, however, when we begin and end our workday. Who we are shapes how we are perceived in the workplace and, in turn, how we perform in the workplace.

If I did not have my work, I would not have any life.

I really got to see my dad enjoy every day that he was working. Everybody should be able to have this much fun when they go to work.

Nobody now is going from department to another department. Only Walt did that. I was very fond of him, really.

Form the habit early in life of leaving your business at the store or wherever you may be employed. Never carry it home to mar the peace of your family; if you do, you will soon drive out the sunshine.

I can't imagine leaving the restaurant. It's hard for me to separate my life from my work; I'm really thinking about what we're doing every day.

The great thing about 'The Office' and it being single-camera and the documentary style is that it's mostly a comedy, but 10 percent of it is, we get to show the existential angst that exists in the American workplace.

Over the long hours of taping 5, 6 or 7 episodes a day, we develop a great sense of family.

I like working, I just don't like to get involved in the competitiveness of it.

I didn't realize I was working in a family medium.

Amazon deliberately provides cafeteria space for only a third of its employees, which encourages people to venture out of the office.

People don't value strongly enough how much time they spend in the office. Imagine you could work with people you love - wouldn't work be great and staff turnover be lower? And your productivity higher?