Office life is having a cultural moment. The 2025 Emmys leaned heavily on workplace dramas, and the new wave looks nothing like The Office of 20 years ago. The shift in tone says something about how people actually feel about work right now.
The Rise of Chaotic Workplace Series
Office life is trending!
Workplace TV series are, once again, on the rise, as confirmed by this year's Emmy Awards. If you want a laugh at situations you've probably experienced yourself, check out this list of the 25 best workplace shows from the past 25 years. It's all there: The Office, Succession, even Ugly Betty! You can even filter the shows by themes: fun topics like burnout or bad bosses. 😅
I'll humbly add the hit The Studio. It's set in a film studio (unsurprisingly) and follows a newly appointed CEO who desperately tries to charm celebrities while navigating the corporate demands and the creative ambitions of his executive team.
A fun watch, and I promise that if you have ever worked in an office, you will find a lot of the scenes suspiciously relatable.
Why Workplace Drama Is Resonating Again
The 2025 wave of workplace shows has a different texture from the 2005-2015 era. The Office and Parks and Recreation were comedies of mundane absurdity - lovable misfits in a low-stakes setting. Succession, Severance, Industry, and The Studio all run on a darker register: ambition, burnout, surveillance, identity collapse. The cultural commentary aligns with where actual workers are. The 2024 Gallup State of the Global Workplace found that only 23% of employees worldwide describe themselves as engaged, and 41% report feeling stressed at work daily - both numbers worse than they were a decade ago. The shows that win Emmys now reflect what people actually feel about their jobs. For office managers and leaders, the cultural mood is a useful data point. Employees aren't only watching for entertainment; they're recognising themselves. That recognition cuts both ways - it can validate frustration, and it can spark conversations about what actually needs to change inside your own office.
What Office Managers Can Take From This
The "lovable misfit" workplace is no longer the cultural reference point. Today's employees relate more to Severance and Industry than to Dunder Mifflin - manage accordingly.
Use workplace TV references in onboarding sparingly. The 25-year reference list spans wildly different attitudes to work.
Acknowledge the moments your office life genuinely resembles a chaotic show. The honest version builds trust; the corporate version doesn't.
Watch one episode of The Studio with your leadership team. It's a useful mirror for how decisions look from the receiving end.
The cultural mood will shift again. The shows are downstream of how people feel about work, so the bigger lever is still the underlying experience.
