If Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) didn’t have some kind of emotional, pseudo-familial attachment to the collection of weirdos and slackers under her employ, there’s no way those people would have been able to keep their jobs. Rude, crude, unhinged, and perfectly willing to jack someone’s special sandwich — they were all monsters, but they were her monsters. And in a way, that kind of dedication (and ability to rein in the circus and actually put on a show each week) made Lemon a great boss, even if she, herself, exhibited behavior that kept her from being a model employee.
For those times when you find yourself staring out the window wondering when the tyrant who signs your paychecks will move on to torture someone else, here are a few more reasons why Liz Lemon would be the perfect boss.
She’ll Put Up With All Of Your BS
The difficult people Liz Lemon dealt with on a daily basis ranked pretty high on the chaos scale. You’re not perfect, but you probably wouldn’t undertake a lengthy and carefully choreographed fake meltdown like Jenna (Jane Krakowski) did and you wouldn’t denigrate your co-workers on the regular (to their faces…). Because of this, Lemon wouldn’t just tolerate your low-level antics, she’d probably let you pick lunch every day as a way of thanking you for being a welcome change of pace, just as long as it isn’t Blimpie’s.
She Has An Extreme Open Door Policy
It’s not just about putting up with people’s egos and their BS. Liz Lemon’s life is also consumed by the real problems that plague her staff. When Pete Hornberger’s (Scott Adsit) wife suspected that he lied about getting a vasectomy, Lemon lets him sleep at her apartment “for his own safety.” Lemon also endured the experience that was Frank Rossitano (Judah Friedlander) living as her roommate despite his disgusting hygiene, “sun tea,” and smoking habits.
Whatever problem you’re going through, rest assured that Lemon will be there for you with a couch and a lot of patience.
She Appreciates Food As Much As You Do
Lemon is a connoisseur. Take, for example, her special stew recipe, where she uses cheddar cheese instead of water. Lemon’s approach to food mirrors her management style: unconventional and all over the place.
Sure, she may get a tad carried away in her obsession with food — you don’t threaten to cut people’s faces so badly that they “all have chins” if you aren’t serious (and more than a little territorial) about your food — but that just means she’ll be impressed and not horrified when you fold up a pizza and unhinge your jaw and she won’t object when you need to take a personal day to go on a hoagie crawl.
She Understands The Value Of Employee Morale
When Tracy (Tracy Morgan) refused to work because he was jealous of the award Jenna won for Mystic Pizza: The Musical: The Movie, Lemon went out of her way to soothe his ego and up his spirits. Instead of just telling him to suck it up and move on (a move that would never work on Tracy), she created a fake award ceremony to convince him that he too had won an award. You’d never shut it down if a co-worker got the recognition that you crave like air, but if your work started to drag due to a bad breakup, you know she’d have a cake at the ready. Might be her cake. She might not share it. But even the presence of cake is a mood enhancer, no?
She’s Got An In With Her Boss
It’s very important to please your direct supervisor, but you can never forget that in the grand scheme of things, they’re a cog just like you with a boss of their own that they need to suck up to and that you need to fear. Luckily for the TGS staff, Lemon had a great (if somewhat co-dependent and unhealthy) relationship with her own boss, Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin), which means her staff babies had a little extra slack when they stumbled across Jack’s path. And we could all use a little extra slack sometimes.
She Probably Won’t Fire You
When Lutz called her an awful word because she told the writers to work late on Valentine’s Day, she didn’t fire him on the spot. Instead, Lemon looked within and questioned her own behavior. She even volunteered to take on the staff’s work for them, letting them go home early. Sure, she eventually snapped and screamed at everyone to return a sense of balance to the office, but the point is that she didn’t immediately fire everyone. And if you add that to everything she did to make it work with Tracy and Jenna, then it’s pretty clear that Lemon has the patience of a saint.
You read that right. Patience. Those people were certifiable.
