History Main / StandardOfficeSetting

* ''Series/{{Loki|2021}}'': Half of the first season is spent inside the TVA headquarters which is a sprawling maze of office desks and archives filled with functionaries, with an open space for ordinary workers and fancy secluded offices for higher-ups. Cue in training videos, soul-crushing paperwork, falling asleep at a desk, canteen talks, negotiations with DaChief and InterserviceRivalry between Analysts and Hunters typically found in a PoliceProcedural. The TVA are indeed the time cops, so it figures.

* ''Series/{{Loki|2021}}'': Half of the first season is spent inside the TVA headquarters which is a sprawling maze of office desks and archives filled with functionaries, with an open space for ordinary workers and fancy secluded offices for higher-ups. Cue in soul-crushing paperwork, falling asleep at a desk, canteen talks, negotiations with DaChief and InterserviceRivalry between Analysts and Hunters typically found in a PoliceProcedural. The TVA are indeed the time cops, so it figures.

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Compare/contrast with {{Adminisphere}}, a setting workplace trope that portrays higher-ups and white-collars as having everything nice and fancy and so much better than ordinary workers of the same company. SoulCrushingDeskJob is a common subtrope. A DeskJockey is when someone works at a desk despite having an action related job like a police officer or soldier. HospitalParadiso offers an even sleeker-looking workplace than is Standard Office Setting.

Grab coffee. Go to work. Arrive at office building. Say hi to security. Ride elevator up. Arrive at work. Say hi to receptionist. Walk to desk. Arrive at desk. Sit down at desk. Say hi to coworkers. Look around. See motivational poster. This is a Standard Office Setting.

For starters, this is a white-collar workplace, with cubicles and fluorescent lighting that never turns off. Most of the members of upper-management have their own offices, which may or may not be luxuriously furnished. The main room will most likely have a bullpen style setup to make it easier for characters to interact with one another. Everyone is either busy or [[RuleOfPerception non-existent]]. There are piles of papers on every desk and though people should be working, this is a work of ''fiction''. Obviously [[RuleOfDrama nobody is doing exactly what they should be doing]].

* ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' primarily sets itself in the unnamed office that Dilbert works. The office itself is a caricature of real-life offices, with grossly incompetent managers, borderline insane HR employees and a marketing department that seems to be intentionally running the company into the ground. While there are fantasy elements (the HR manager is a cat, one of the employees is a robot), the work is generally grounded in reality.

Especially if this is a WorkCom, expect SwivelChairAntics to ensue at some point and someone to [[CheekCopy use the photocopier in ways they shouldn't]]. If there's TheRedStapler, most people around the office will probably use the same one, and you'll probably end up buying one in RealLife because you keep seeing it in the work.

* ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'': Precinct 99 of NYPD is located in an older New York building. All the detectives have a desk in the bullpen and their direct superior Captain Holt has a small office. The show is a Work Com and there is much office tomfoolery, e.g. the detectives bet each other who will have more arrest, Scully and Hitchcock are useless as detectives but make good coffee, Diaz has rage issues and is occasionally seen slapping computer screens or smashing printers (PercussiveMaintenance[=/=]PercussiveTherapy style); they argue over their break room, try to find secret hiding spots, or in one arc the office is overcrowded because one floor was shut down for maintenance because Captain Holt is unpopular with the higher-ups. They also often play cool OfficeSports (e.g. Jake does the FBP "the full bullpen" -- he skids on his socks's from Holt's office to the elevator).

* ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'': Precinct 99 of NYPD is located in an older New York building. All the detectives have a desk in the bullpen and their direct superior Captain Holt has a small office. The show is a Work Com and there is much office tomfoolery, e.g. the detectives bet each other who will have more arrest, Scully and Hitchcock are useless as detectives but make good coffee, Diaz has rage issues and is occasionally seen slapping computer screens or smashing printers (PercussiveMaintenance[=/=]Percussive Therapy style); they argue over their break room, try to find secret hiding spots, or in one arc the office is overcrowded because one floor was shut down for maintenance because Captain Holt is unpopular with the higher-ups. They also often play cool OfficeSports (e.g. Jake does the FBP "the full bullpen" -- he skids on his socks's from Holt's office to the elevator).

** The investigating team works for the CBI (California Bureau of Investigation). The headquarters are situated in a nice red brick building with modern interiors full of glass, bricked walls and black furniture. Teresa Lisbon leads the team and has her own office. Other members of the team have a desk at the open space. Consultant Patrick Jane, the mentalist, from the title doesn't have a desk, but a couch, and he's often seen lying and sleeping on it. A kitchenette is quite essential for him, as he makes and drinks tea all the time.

* ''Series/TheITCrowd'': The protagonists work in a cluttered basement that has been converted into something of a "geek cave," filled with spare parts, band posters, board games and toys. It also has a sofa, coffee table and television for just hanging out. It contrasts sharply with the bright, modern, corporate decor of the rest of the office, emphasizing how physically and culturally isolated the protagonists are from the rest of the company.

* ''Series/TheITCrowd'': The protagonists work in a cluttered basement underneath one of the tallest and most stately skyscrapers in London. They are the only company department with such ugly environment (though Jenny, the boss, decorates her office with girly stuff, and Roy and Moss fill their shared room with geeky decoration and collectables). The rest of the office takes this trope UpToEleven, as it has to be one of the most glamorous workplace on television (open space bullpen setting, lots of light, lots of windows, green plants everywhere, expensive art in bosses' offices, fancy computers, extremely pretty young women who just seem to hang around, nice benefits for everyone etc.).

The UsefulNotes/IndustrialRevolution led to an increase in the number of workers that businesses needed to handle paperwork, making this OlderThanRadio, but it was TheTwentiethCentury's mass production and assembly lines which caused an explosion of white-collar work and made this the dominant workplace setting. The concept cubicles were created in TheSixties to increase productivity and save space.

* ''Theatre/HowToSucceedInBusinessWIthoutReallyTrying'' takes place entirely in the headquarters of the World Wide Widget company. Being set in the 60's, the office lacks cubicles but is full of secretaries, OfficeRomance, and elevators. The company operates an entire skyscraper which includes both giant rooms filled with desks and opulent executive rooms.

[[DescribeTropeHere Describe the Standard Office Setting on Line 5 of the TP-1090 form.]]

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* ''Theater/HowToSucceedInBusinessWIthoutReallyTrying'' takes place entirely in the headquarters of the World Wide Widget company. Being set in the 60's, the office lacks cubicles but is full of secretaries, OfficeRomance, and elevators. The company operates an entire skyscraper which includes both giant rooms filled with desks and opulent executive rooms.

Comic Book

Compare/contrast with {{Adminisphere}}, a setting workplace trope that portrays higher-ups and white-collars as having everything nice and fancy and so much better than ordinary workers of the same company. [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=zuwk41rmsoorxbatnymrle02 Soul-Crushing Desk Job]] is a common subtrope. A DeskJockey is when someone works at a desk despite having an action related job like a police officer or soldier. HospitalParadiso offers an even sleeker-looking workplace than is Standard Office Setting.

!!Indexes
* INeedAnIndexByMonday (aka WorkplaceTropes)
* {{Settings}}