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Ever seen Office Space, the movie by Mike Judge? He makes fun of American office culture, with its political correctness, funny characters that run the place, and the general boring atmosphere that comes with working in an office. What about the adapted British TV hit, The Office, with Steve Carell? While reports have said that he has claimed to have his last year on the office this next season, the show is still a stunningly funny example of how we live our lives every day – with awkwardly bad bosses, funny co-workers, and problems only an office could have.

Clearly, office culture is something Americans have come to accept over the decades. Old manufacturing jobs, once comprising an entire third of the American job well, have steadily fallen off over the last few decades to make up only a small portion of our overall employment. While these jobs were often dirty, boring, and often dangerous, our office lives now seem drab and meaningless in comparison sometimes. Remember when Peter in Office Space is about to get in trouble for his scheming, but Milton the stapler guy burned down the office? He turns to working construction.

But with every kind of work comes its own nuances. For example, take the copying machine. Where would we be without it? Getting a simple carbon copy is a mainstay of our everyday lives to put that report on the boss’s desk. And to do it requires a Xerox toner cartridge – something your grandfather probably didn’t have to deal with.

But for every awkward office birthday and time that the printer ran out of ink – thank God for that Xerox toner cartridge, there is a wealth of good things about office culture, including the ability to make our lives a lot easier. Because of office workplaces, we now no longer have to worry about having our limbs chopped off in a factory or falling from high machines and being crippled. We just have to make a few copies and go to a few office birthdays.