The Best Fictional Work Places: You Hate Your Boss At Your Job, Well In Your Dreams You Can Work Here

By Joanna Robinson | Lists | August 8, 2011 |

By Joanna Robinson | Lists | August 8, 2011 |

If you didn’t know, of late, when I’m not typing links or lists or terrifying puns at you, I’ve gone back to working in a bookstore. And I love it. It’s something I’ve done on and off ever since I left college and it’s the perfect place for me. I love the rando customers, I love talking all day any day about books. At one point this weekend we played 50’s music for about six hours straight and the whole store was dancing. Customers and staff alike. Literally doing the twist in the Metaphysics section. Oh sure there are days I don’t want to go. And oh yes, there are some customers who cross the line from kookily eccentric to downright rude. But I love it. I do. A good work environment, no matter what your field, is so important. Your coworkers can be a pseudo-family or, you know, they can be the other thing. The murder-death-stabbiest part of your day.

So here’s a dorky list I’ve often pondered when trapped in a job I hate. Fictional places I’d like to work. Not so much for the kind of career offered, but for the staff, the feeling. Gird your loins, all ye who enter here. There’s an estrogen bomb waiting to explode at the end of this list.

Black Books from “Black Books”
(If you want a real taste, watch the unembeddable Time Wasters scene.)

Lulu’s Pies from Waitress

WNYX from “Newsradio”

Sacred Heart from Scrubs
(And just because it’s sort of required. Here are the Turk dances.)

Empire Records from Empire Records

The Shop Around The Corner from You’ve Got Mail
(Oh, sure, tell me you don’t want to work with Steve Zahn and Jean Stapleton. Tell me to my face.)

Championship Vinyl from High Fidelity
(Sometimes I mutter “get your patchouli stink outta my store” very quietly under my breath.)

CSC’s Sports Night from “Sports Night”

The Pawnee Parks Department from “Parks and Recreation”

Sugarbaker’s from “Designing Women”
(If I could work for this woman, it wouldn’t matter what I was doing. I’d shovel dirt for this woman. ESTROGEN BOMB.)

How about you, my worker bees? Is there a place I missed?

Joanna Robinson wants to thank Jeff Davis and Rex Manning for the inspiration.