19 TV Characters Who Are Terrible at their Jobs
Lizzy Buczak
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TV shows are notorious for keeping inept characters employed for the sake of a storyline.
And there's a reason for it -- it's relatable.
We all know the person who is a boss but shouldn't be. Or the co-worker that steals openly from the workplace. Or the person who rigged an election to become President.
My personal favorite? The folks that earn admiration for doing the bare minimum.
Here's a list of bad employees who, undeniably, make TV great.
1. President Fitzgerald - Scandal
Has Fitz ever taken the Presidency seriously? Instead of earning his seat in office, a team of morally corrupt individuals rigged the election in his favor. Then, when he was in office, he spent more time wooing his mistress than actually caring about his country. Oh, and did I mention he almost went to war to save her life? At least he was nice to look at, right?
2. Ezra Fitz - Pretty Little Liars
Rosewood was overflowing with corrupt employees from Radley Sanitarium all the way to Rosewood PD. However, Ezra makes the list because he was a high school English teacher who had an on-going relationship with one of his students. He may not have known she was a student when they initially hooked up, but he also didn't call it off after he found out. And at one point, he was even considered to be the girls' personal stalker.
3. Kara Danvers - Supergirl
I have no doubts that Kara would be a great reporter if she ever showed up for work, worked a full shift at CatCo, or actually took the job seriously. Instead, she uses it as a cover for her superhero persona and is always running off to save the world at her "real" job. Not to mention she breaks the cardinal rule of journalism on a daily basis by using herself as a source of news stories.
4. Michael - The Good Place
Michael's sole purpose as the immortal architect of the good place was to create a neighborhood where the humans would suffer eternally. He failed multiple times, and instead of reporting his failings to the judge, kept attempting to fix them while the humans controlled and manipulated him. It probably didn't help that he eventually befriended and helped them escape.
5. Stella - Life Sentence
After beating cancer, Stella got a second chance at life so you'd think she'd be grateful for landing a job at the local coffee shop. Instead, she was never on time, always gave out free coffee to friends and family, and worst of all sucked at making coffee. People take their coffee very seriously, so Stella's indifference was frustrating, especially since the boss kept letting it slide because she "needed this job."
6. Gabi - Young & Hungry
Gabi may be a fantastic chef, but sleeping with your boss on the first day is generally frowned upon everywhere. Every grilled cheese sandwich she served up came with a side of messy drama from her incessant meddling. Shoutout to Yolanda and Elliot who never did a damn thing around the house but remained employed.
7. Dr. Lane - The Resident
Purposefully giving your patients cancer so you can make money off of them doesn't earn you any "employee of the month" titles. Neither does purposefully killing a patient to implicate a fellow nurse who was onto you. Thankfully, Dr. Lane eventually got what she deserved though Dr. Bell remains a problem.
8. Annie - Good Girls
Annie quite literally robbed the grocery store where she was working. Twice. Enough said. She also kidnapped her boss and tied him up in a tree house, but he had that coming after attempting to force himself onto her.
9. Oliver Queen - Arrow
Ditching your mayoral duties to fight crime as a masked vigilante on a regular basis isn't exactly the kind of behavior you'd want from a city official, even if his intentions are good and he's technically protecting the citizens.
10. Alice Cooper - Riverdale
Alice Cooper participates in the spreading of "fake news." A journalist, especially the editor of the Riverdale Register, is supposed to be unbiased, but Alice Cooper presents gossip and conspiracy as facts, uses the paper to carry out personal vendettas, and once attempted to destroy implicating evidence about her past.
11. Ilana - Broad City
The free-spirited, non-committal, "yaaaas queen" is beloved on all fronts, except when it comes to her position at Deals Deals Deals. Some people don't do well in an office setting. A few of the things that make her unfit: doing barely any work, the inability to take direction, sleeping on the job and inappropriate work attire. Getting your company involved in a PR nightmare on Twitter is also not a good idea.
12. Denise Hemphill - Scream Queens
Everyone on Scream Queens sucked at their jobs, but that was kind of the point. Denise was the private security guard tasked with protecting the Kapp Kappa Tau sisters, but all she ever told them was to "run like hell" when they saw the Red Devil or Green Meanie. Her co-worker got stabbed to death, she accused Zayday Williams of being the killer without any concrete evidence and got promoted to FBI agent without the proper qualifications.
13. Det. Harry Ambrose - The Sinner
On a more serious note, Ambrose's fetishes, haunting past, and current state-of-mind make him unqualified to lead a murder investigation. His ability to do the job should be questioned as he once checked out a murder suspect and allowed her to roam unsupervised!
14. Natalie - Orange is the New Black
As an executive assistant to the warden, Natalie cares more about the prison's image and how it reflects on her than what happens inside and how it affects prisoners. Her self-absorbed nature was further evidenced when she embezzle thousands of dollars to fund her husband's political campaign.
15. Karen Walker - Will & Grace
Karen is lucky she's "friends" with Grace because in any other job she would get shown the door. She treats her career as if it were a hobby, approaches it with a passive attitude, does the bare minimum, and then flaunts it for praise and compensation.
16. Michael Scott - The Office
It takes a special kind of person to be a boss. Though highly lovable and genuine, Michael is not that person. In fact, up until he was erroneously promoted, he was the best paper salesman Dundler Mifflin ever had. As a boss, he's incompetent, ignorant, inappropriate, cringe-worthy, petty, and thinks the key to success is to make friends with co-workers.
17. Fox Mulder - The X-Files
Fox Mulder, the FBI agent whose motto was "the truth is out there," was a hero on the cult show, but there was one hiccup with his character: he never solved any cases. Evidence was always inconclusive, deemed "far-fetched" or just ignored. And last I checked, the sole purpose of the FBI was to solve cases and put the bad guys behind bars.
18. Sue - Glee
Do you remember the teacher everyone loved to hate because she seemed very miserable in her own life? Yep, that's Sue. She's the villainous teacher who schemes, is highly critical of both students and staff, reprimands them, bullies them, and flat-out detests most of them. She does have a few redeeming qualities, but they are all trumped by her egotistical nature. Maybe the teaching/coaching profession isn't her calling.
19. Alex Parish - Quantico
I'm adding Alex solely for the fact that an FBI agent needs to be able to have a "fake identity," and after everything that went down during season one, the bombing made her the most recognized agent in the world. How did she continue working in the FBI and eventually the CIA in any capacity other than desk duty after her face was plastered everywhere?
