10 workplace lessons from 'The Twilight Zone'

July 6, 4:08 PMSF Workplace Communication ExaminerKenya McCullum

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Twilight Zone: The Complete Definitive Collection

For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed the SciFi Channel’s marathons of “The Twilight Zone”—including the one from last week’s long holiday weekend. There are many lessons about life that Rod Serling taught us through the show, including some that can help you get along in the workplace.

1. When you work with the public, sometimes you really need to drink. Henry Corwin is a drunken department store Santa Claus with a broken spirit. In order to cope with rude customers and their insatiable need to acquire material possessions, Corwin bends his elbow at the local watering hole—an urge that just about anyone in retail can understand. Although Corwin is fired by his boss, Mr. Dundee, and accused of theft, he still manages to get his dream job—equipped with a sleigh, an elfin assistant, and some reindeer. (Episode: “Night of the Meek”)

2. When you land a new job, people will come out of the woodwork to try to steal it. Millicent Barnes is waiting for a late-night bus to relocate for a new job, but finds that the trip won’t so be easy. Strange things keep happening to her in the station, leading everyone around her to believe that she’s mentally ill. But the truth is Barnes has a doppelganger that has been lying in wait to take over her life—including her new job. Barnes ends up being detained by the police, powerless to do anything about the double that has happily boarded the bus in her place. (Episode: “Mirror Image”)

3. When you’re great at your job, people will never stop trying to outshine you. Although legendary pool player Fats Brown has been dead for some time, he’s still considered the best at the game. This fact gnaws at Jesse Cardiff, who has sacrificed much of his life to master the table and just wants the chance to prove that Brown is not all that his reputation makes him out to be. He gets his wish to play Fats Brown for the ultimate stakes: If Cardiff loses, he dies. After an intense game with a lot of trash talking, Cardiff wins and gets the coveted title of the best. However, he learns that being the greatest is not all it’s cracked up to be when he is regularly summoned from the grave to play other sharks. (Episode: “A Game of Pool”)

4. Literacy is an annoyance. Bank teller Henry Bemis is a voracious reader who takes in everything written—down to the buttons worn by customers to show their support for a political candidate. But his boss doesn’t like these bookworm ways, which leads Bemis to spend his break in the vault to read in peace. It turns out that his nerdiness spares him from being killed by an atomic bomb, but Bemis soon learns that man cannot live on words alone. (Episode: “Time Enough at Last”)

5. Always tell your coworkers about your vacation plans. When the Kanamit aliens come to earth to cure us of our ills, this opens the door for intergalactic travel and very exotic vacations. Mr. Chambers, who works as a decoding expert for the United Nations, lands a coveted seat on the Kanamit spaceship and makes sure to tell his assistant about his plans for fun in the alien sun. Unfortunately, the altruistic aliens are not what they seem and although his coworker tries to save him with the infamous statement “To Serve Man—it’s a cookbook,” Chambers cannot escape becoming “an ingredient in someone’s soup.” (Episode: “To Serve Man”)

Part Two: 10 workplace lessons from 'The Twilight Zone' (continued)

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