The office as workplace fief

‘The Office’ is a very successful British television series and the office is the weekday, daylight home of many people. Yet it has hardly been researched at all in its own right as a workspace or domain. This paper argues its significance, posits its feudal character as the heir of the medieval fief (not the Boisot-Child fief); and suggests research questions for the near future. This paper has argued three positions as follows: 1. The office is an important and neglected field of enquiry relevant to the central concerns of critical management studies. 2. A rich source of non-performative interpretations of the office is the medieval fief. 3. The medieval fief conveyed to the vassal rights and security of tenure lacking entirely to the contemporary occupier of an office by a unit of human resources.