Which characters on The Office are actually good at their job? That’s debatable, there are actually two schools of thought— False. Black bear. Sorry, where was I?
Anyone who’s watched The Office enough times has likely found themselves pondering random things, whether it be important topics like the timeline of Jim and Pam’s relationship — or Dwight and Angela’s biggest and best moments, for that matter -- and what the all-time best episodes of The Office are, or the more trivial things that still seem to matter, like whether Pizza by Alfredo’s pizza is really as bad as these characters say it is. (“Oh, it’s bad.”) These are all things worth discussing, but for now, I want to rate each character based on how good they probably are at their actual jobs. Of course, this is all based on what we’ve seen in the show and a fair amount of speculation and good-old-fashioned guesswork. So let’s get into it!
Dwight Schrute
Dwight (Rainn Wilson) might be overbearing, bossy and occasionally rude, but let’s face it, he’s a really good salesman. He even beat the computer once. Sure, he stumbled a bit (fine, a lot) when he was briefly acting manager of the Scranton branch during the Sabre era, but overall, it’s clear he’s more than capable of the tasks he’s given, whether it’s selling paper, taking over ownership of the building or running a beet farm (and B&B).
Job score: 4/5
Pam Beesly Halpert
Pam (Jenna Fischer) wasn’t great as a salesperson, but when it came to her other roles throughout the series, she was more than qualified. Not only did she keep things running from the front of the office as receptionist for a time, Pam also gets bonus points for how she managed to get out of her unsuccessful sales position and into a completely made-up role of Office Manager.
Job score: 4/5
Michael Scott
Michael Scott (Steve Carell) is a pretty terrible manager. I really don’t think that can be disputed. Though we did see him occasionally shine in moments of chaos, he wasn’t a very good leader. That said, he proved on more than one occasion to be an excellent salesman, and with the struggles Dunder Mifflin faced throughout the show’s run, that has to count for a lot.
Job score: 3/5
Kelly Kapoor
Kelly’s (Mindy Kaling) main job, as far as we know, is customer service, and while it’s really easy to picture her losing track of time doing non-work things throughout her day, I’m also confident she puts everything she has into her work… when it has her attention. We get a glimpse of that during the episode with the watermark, and also when Jim and Dwight do a test-call to the customer service line during “Traveling Salesmen.”
Job score: 3/5
Angela Martin
Angela (Angela Kinsey) might be overly judgmental and occasionally rude to her co-workers, but when it comes to accounting she seems fully capable of her job responsibilities. She also comes across as the kind of person who puts her actual job first while at work, which can’t be said for many of the office workers at Dunder Mifflin.
Job score: 5/5
Jim Halpert
Jim (John Krasinski) is a good example of someone who would probably be really good at his job if he cared enough about it to put in the effort. This is proven on occasion when he does try hard to make a sale (as a salesman) or manage a situation (as co-manager, temporarily). As hard as it is to fault him for not caring enough about his job, it does also count against him a little bit.
Job score: 4/5
Creed Bratton
Creed (Creed Bratton) seems like the kind of person who will do just about anything to keep his job. And I say “just about” because actually doing his job – he works in quality assurance – is not likely to be among the things he’s interested in doing. As we saw with the watermark mishap, he is even willing to push the blame of his own failure onto someone else if it means not getting fired.
Job score: 1/5
Carol Stills
Carol (Nancy Carell) doesn’t work at Dunder Mifflin, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t qualify for this list. As a real estate agent, signs point to her being very good at her job. In fact, Dwight even recognizes that while looking over Michael’s condo closing papers after Michael and she split up.
Job score: 5/5
Andy Bernard
Andy (Ed Helms) seems to be fine as a salesman – not great, but maybe not as terrible as someone like Pam or Ryan when it comes to making sales. And in the later seasons of the series, his abilities as a manager seemed to range from fine to terrible, particularly near the end, so we'll average it out.
Job score: 3/5
Darryl Philbin
On numerous occasions, Darryl proved he was a capable warehouse foreman. So much so that his good ideas impressed Jo Bennet enough during the Sabre era of the series to land him a comfortable office upstairs. Darryl may never seem super passionate about his work, but things got done under his watch.
Job score: 4/5
David Wallace
On one hand, given the struggles Dunder Mifflin faced financially, it would be easy to fault the CFO for its problems. But on the other hand, Dunder Mifflin was on shaky ground when David Wallace (Andy Buckley) joined the company. Did he always make the right call? No. But he remained fairly level-headed and open-minded throughout his run at the company, so I think he gets points for that as well.
Job score: 4/5
Erin Hannon
Erin (Ellie Kemper) tries hard and means well, which earns her a lot of credit, as far as I’m concerned, especially in a work environment where the average employee is probably doing, at most, one of those two things. While Erin does occasionally struggle with certain tasks, she does try hard to do her work well and with a smile.
Job score: 4/5
Gabe Lewis
Gabe (Zach Woods) comes into this series with one of those job roles where you don’t know exactly what he does, but he seems to be around a lot. I’m sure Jo would have her own rating for Gabe, based on his years of loyalty and availability to do whatever she asks of him. From what we actually see of his work though, it’s really hard to view Gabe’s contributions enough to score him very highly.
Job score: 2/5
Phyllis Vance
Phyllis (Phyllis Smith) is probably one of the more underrated employees at Dunder Mifflin Scranton. From how she approaches things, it’s apparent that she’s there because she actually likes coming into work and doing her job. Whatever the case, she seems like a more than capable salesperson who gets her work done and does it with a smile.
Job score: 4/5
Kevin Malone
As we learn pretty early on, Dunder Mifflin doesn’t really need three accountants working in Scranton – yeah, oh. – and it’s just as well because it’s hard to imagine Kevin (Brian Baumgartner) is especially productive. As the seasons go by, it seems more and more apparent that he’s not really the best accountant, though oversight from Oscar and Angela probably helps.
Job score: 2/5
Robert California
If his job is working his way into a CEO position that wasn’t even available, then Robert California (James Spader) is an even 5. But we all saw how things went during his run in the series. Sure, he proved to be effective as a leader on occasion, but he also once drank too much and shut down a whole branch.
Job score: 3/5
Meredith Palmer
On the surface, one might look at Meredith (Kate Flannery) and assume she’s not great at her job in supplier relations. Maybe it’s because she’s occasionally ornery, or because her life isn’t always together. But Meredith strikes me as the kind of person who comes to work truly and specifically dedicated to keeping their job. Does she love what she does? Probably not, but I think she does it well enough where it matters.
Job score: 4/5
Toby Flenderson
As the Human Resources representative at Dunder Mifflin Scranton, Toby (Paul Lieberstein) seems very capable of the work he does, and at times actually steps in to do it. But it’s also clear, particularly in the later seasons of the show, that he’s checked out on a lot of things. It’s like he’s willing to show up and try to keep things afloat but if it doesn’t work out, well... that’s ok too.
Job score: 3/5
Oscar Martinez
Though he has a tendency to look down on people, it surely can’t be argued that Oscar (Oscar Nunez) is bad at his job. He and his fellow accountant, Angela, may bump heads from time to time, but it’s evident that, just as she’s determined to do satisfactory work, Oscar is unlikely to settle for anything less from his own performance either.
Job score: 5/5
Stanley Hudson
Stanley (Leslie David Baker) is undoubtedly working for the weekend (and Pretzel Day, and an eventual quiet retirement in Florida). That said, while he’s there, he’s going to do his job. He's likely an above-average salesman, and while I don’t think anyone would try to argue that he loves what he does, he still seems to be good at it.
Job score: 4/5
Ryan Howard
Ryan (B.J. Novak) is a good example of someone who comes into this series with a ton of potential to be a good worker, but then doesn’t live up to almost any of it. We see him rise to a VP position, only to end up fired for committing fraud. He was also never very good at sales. In his later years, he spent at least part of his working hours attempting to build up a side business, which didn’t pan out.
Job score: 2/5
Hank
As a security guard at the office building, Hank (Hugh Dane) appears to do exactly what’s expected of him. In the early seasons, that even includes returning to the office late at night to unlock the gates when the employees locked themselves in, or weighing in on the chairs vs. copier debate. In the later seasons, his duties increased to manning the coffee shop downstairs. There’s a lot of guesswork involved in deciding how good he was at all of the above, but I like to think he brought his best to every task.
Job score: 5/5
Holly Flax
As a Human Resources representative, Holly (Amy Ryan) strikes me as the type of worker who wants to do a good job. Of course, she has some big challenges ahead of her when she gets to Dunder Mifflin Scranton, and as far as we can see, she does her best to navigate them. If she has one weakness, it’s Michael Scott, but I don’t even want to count that too much against her.
Job score: 4/5
Todd Packer
Todd Packer (David Koechner) is probably a good salesman? It’s really hard to say. The guy is pretty much the worst in every other respect, especially in terms of how he conducts himself around the office, but I have to assume he does sell some paper occasionally... right? In all seriousness, I imagine he has a good rapport with certain clients, so we’ll give him a tiny bit of the benefit of the doubt.
Job score: 2/5
Jo Bennett
It seems evident that Jo Bennett (Kathy Bates) is the kind of person who gets stuff done. Sure, she let Robert California take over her role as CEO of her own company, but I like to imagine that this freed her up to work on some other exciting ventures.
Job score: 5/5
Karen Filippelli
Karen (Rashida Jones) is surely an example of someone who thrives in a good environment, as evidenced by how good things seemed to be going for her in Utica. Of course, when she was working in sales in Scranton, her environment wasn’t the best, all things considered. Even then, she seemed to be a competent salesperson who knew when it was time to leave the party and move on to bigger and better things.
Job score: 5/5
Jan Levinson
For a time, Jan (Melora Hardin) seemed to be very good at her job, even when that involved managing Michael and his unpredictable and occasionally inappropriate behavior. Whether or not her relationship with Michael was to blame for the decline in her job performance is debatable -- the two events did run parallel for a time -- regardless, at her best, Jan did seem to do an adequate job.
Job score: 3/5
Madge
From the times we visited the warehouse throughout the run of The Office, it was clear that there was some hard work being done down there. Madge (Karly Rothenberg) is one of numerous employees seen getting the job done, despite occasional distractions from Michael. Plus, we know that, unlike Michael, she is qualified to safely operate a forklift.
Job score: 5/5
Clark Green
Clark (Clark Duke) was among the new employees at Dunder Mifflin during its final season. While it’s hard to say if he was especially good as a customer service representative, he appeared to want to do a good job and prove himself. In time, maybe we would’ve seen just that, but without much to go on…
Job score: 3/5
Pete Miller
As one of the newer employees at Dunder Mifflin during its final season, Pete (Jake Lacy) appeared to be dedicated to doing his job in customer service with a smile. He strikes me as the type of worker who would have little trouble moving up when the opportunity arose, if he doesn’t find a better job elsewhere first.
Job score: 3/5
Roy Anderson
Roy (David Denman) was probably a pretty good worker in the warehouse, but it’s hard not to factor in his final day of work at Dunder Mifflin. If it weren't for Dwight ant his pepper spray, Roy might have succeeded in attacking Jim on company property. Apart from that though, he seemed like he did a solid job.
Job score: 3/5
Bob Vance
As an occasional reminder that Dunder Mifflin wasn’t the only company on the office property, we had Phyllis’ eventual husband Bob Vance (Robert R. Shafer), of Vance Refrigeration popping in from time to time. Who knows what Bob got up to at his job, but it was evident he was doing well for himself. He was even in a position to hire on all of the warehouse staff when it seemed like the Scranton branch might be closing.
Job score: 5/5
And that covers how we’d rate many of the characters on The Office. Clearly, some were certainly doing a better job than others. Of course, if we were rating the actual cast of The Office, they’d all have perfect scores.
