Work Experience

"Work Experience"
Holding image
Episode no.	Episode 2
Original airdate	16 July 2001
Written by	Ricky Gervais Stephen Merchant
Directed by	Ricky Gervais Stephen Merchant
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Work Experience is the second episode of first series of The Office.

Plot

David continues to promise the employees that there will be no redundancies while he introduces new employee Donna to the office staff. The very attractive Donna wins the attention of many of the male employees, much to the discomfort of David, who is letting Donna live with him as a favour to her parents, who are friends of his.

While David demonstrates to Donna how to use the office's e-mail system, he discovers a pornographic image with his face superimposed on the body of a naked woman. David quickly finds that everyone in the office has seen the image, even the cleaning woman, who doesn't even have access to e-mail. David tries to cover his obvious embarrassment for the prank by instead telling the staff that he's angry because the image "offends women".

David gives Gareth the task of finding the culprit of the prank. Gareth is more than willing to conduct the investigation, excited at the chance to put the experience from his Territorial Army days to the test.

Jennifer Taylor-Clarke visits David to see if he's yet made any changes to his branch in an effort to keep it running. After hearing that Neil, rival manager of the Swindon Wernham-Hogg branch, has made several changes, David lies and tells Jennifer that he's already let go of an employee in the warehouse by the name of Julie Anderton. After visiting the warehouse and being undermined by warehouse workers, Jennifer catches David in his lie.

After returning from the warehouse, Gareth interrupts David and Jennifer's sour meeting to tell David that it was Tim who created the pornographic image. Already frustrated with David, Jennifer tells him that if he can't handle the responsibility of his job, she'll relieve him of his duties. In an effort to prove himself, David reprimands Tim about the image. However, Tim reveals to David that it was in fact David's good friend Chris Finch who created the image. David's attitude about the prank changes entirely once he realises Chris Finch is responsible, calling it "bloody hilarious". When Jennifer suggests that David apologise to Tim and fire Finch instead, David dials a telephone and stages a firing. Jennifer foils his ruse by pressing the speakerphone button on the telephone, revealing that he has rung the speaking clock instead of Finch.

Trivia

• David mentions Donna's parents, who are named Ron and Elaine. These characters were named after the parents of series co-creator Stephen Merchant.

• The American version of The Office borrows the premise of Finch's prank in the episode The Carpet.

External links

• BBC episode guide: "Work Experience"