Bio

Michael was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on March 15, 1964, and frequently talks about his loneliness as a child. He claims to be of English, Irish, Scottish and German ancestry. He claims to have been a child star on the program Fundle Bundle, but this was later proven to be false. He was hired as a salesman at Dunder Mifflin on May 6, 1992 and proved to be extremely effective, which resulted in him being promoted to regional manager.

Personality and management style

Despite his effective sales skills, Michael is lacking in almost all other skills. Jim once created a graph that shows Michaels spends 80% of his time "distracting others", 19% "procrastination", and 1% "critical thinking." He also added the he inflated the "critical thinking" section so people could see it on the graph. Michael's laid back approach results in low workplace productivity, particularly when he places personal interests as a priority over work. To avoid being disciplined for his actions, Michael resorts to scapegoating his employees to cover for himself. Michael described the Scranton branch as "The cool, fun branch... Like Animal House", and is upset when a Dunder Mifflin Utica salesman tells him that Scranton is "worse than Camden."

Michael's business commandments

1. “Fool me once, strike one. Fool me twice, strike three.”
2. “Sometimes you have to take a break from being the kind of boss thats always trying to teach people things. Sometimes you just have to be the boss of dancing.”
3. “Would I rather be feared or loved? Easy both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me.”
4. “People will never be replaced by machines. In the end, life and business are about human connections. And computers are about trying to murder you in a lake. And to me the choice is easy.”