The Office: There was a hidden purpose behind Dunder Mifflin's filming

The Office feels like therapy for anyone who has ever worked a 9-to-5. Who would've thought that a mere paper sales company could be so much fun? Dunder Mifflin's Scranton branch gave us some of our most beloved sitcom characters and memorable laugh-out-loud moments.

Be it the parkour scene or awkward Michael Scott moments, we've all felt some secondhand embarrassment from watching The Office. The mockumentary format made it even more compelling when characters broke the fourth wall as they (mostly Jim) stared directly into the camera.

With time, The Office had become more than just a show for its fans. We had Michael Scott, the world's most inappropriate boss with a heart of gold buried somewhere beneath the cringe. Jim and Pam had the slowest-burning but sweetest love story. Dwight Schrute became one of the most iconic and unique sitcom characters.

And beyond these leads, we also had all the secondary characters' messiness that was oddly wholesome to keep us entertained. But have you ever wondered why Dunder Mifflin's Scranton branch was being filmed?

Well, you're in for a treat if you've ever wondered that, because there was a hidden purpose behind those cameras being set up at the office in The Office.

The Office: The real reason Dunder Mifflin was being filmed

Be prepared because there’s a heartbreaking origin to all of it. According to commentary from The Office writers on the Season 4 DVD, the mockumentary began for a dark reason.

The Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin was chosen for filming because an employee named Tom Peets had tragically died by suicide. The corporation wanted to monitor how the branch was managing employee depression, so they brought in a documentary crew under the guise of evaluating workplace well-being.

The sadder part is that Michael Scott had no recollection of Tom. When Tom’s name finally came up in season 2, episode 8, during Michael’s read-through of employee suggestions, Phyllis casually told us who Tom was. And how he’d taken his own life.

This revealed something very real. The disconnect that often exists in corporate environments, where mental health becomes a bullet point on a to-do list instead of an actual priority. It’s jarring.

But the investigation into workplace morale turned into something else soon. The crew began to realize that the everyday goofiness and dysfunction of these employees were more fun to document. So the angle shifted. And that's how it became about the lives of some of the weirdest people ever to sell paper.

The hidden purpose behind the cameras may have been on the darker side, but the show that came out of it gave us comfort and comedy.

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