Do you work for David Brent?

Today is the 25th anniversary of one of the best UK TV shows ever, The Office, brainchild of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.

If you haven’t watched it (seriously?!), it redefined a whole genre of mockumentaries, started by the classic movie This is Spinal Tap 17 years earlier.

It charts the progress (or lack thereof) of fictional paper company Wernham Hogg and in particular its bad boss David Brent (played by Gervais).

In an early scene Brent describes himself as a ‘…friend first, boss second, probably an entertainer third’ and then precedes to demonstrate throughout the rest of the show that he’s essentially a narcissist, hell-bent on his own elevation and ultimate coronation as a senior manager in the company (until he fakes fails a medical and is prevented from doing so.)

Over two series and two brilliant Christmas specials, The Office remains one of the most successful shows ever produced and yet…it’s easy to forget that Gervais and Merchant based the character of Brent on what they actually witnessed in their short working careers to that point. 

The story goes that when the producers questioned whether a boss could be as bad as the one written, Gervais insisted that they take a walk around the BBC, after which they were satisfied the character was authentic.

It’s funny, but it’s also not, because people have to live with David Brent in real life every single day of the week.

And a quarter of a century on, we haven't fixed the problem, we've just given it a name. The Chartered Management Institute calls them ’accidental managers’ – the 82% of people who step into management in the UK without being given any formal training in how to do it.

Brent thought his problem was needing better material. His actual problem was never being taught how to manage people - and as I've written about before, management education is the one lever that consistently moves the needle on culture. It's also, not coincidentally, what I spend a lot of my time doing.

The Office worked because we all recognised him. Twenty-five years on, the uncomfortable bit isn't that Brent still exists, it's how many organisations are still promoting or tolerating him.

What’s one bad boss story you can share (no names please!)