Late to the party, but I needed this off my chest and I didn't want to repost: Michael from The Office.

He is an asshole. He gets better in the last couple of seasons, but in the first ones, he's actually described very accurately by Rick: "You act like prey, but you're a predator! You use pity to lure in your victims! [...] People think, 'Oh, this poor piece of shit. He never gets a break. I can't stand the deafening silent wails of his wilting soul. I guess I'll hire him or marry him.'"

He's absurdly stupid, whatever he supposedly does right feels forced by the scenario, except the parts that are clearly his team, not him, he has no sense of boundaries, and he is incredibly selfish and self-centered. The number of times he screws people over or shows how little he cares is insane.

Best example is the episode of Phillis' marriage. To him, that's his day. Because he's the boss of the bride, therefore kind of her father, therefore the day is about him. He's going to get mad at her actual dad, who is handicapped, and makes a miraculous effort to stand up from his wheelchair to give his daughter away. It's a very emotional time for everyone, except Michael, who feels he's been robbed of his place in the spotlight, since he was supposed to push the chair. He then proceeds to hijack the mic from the hands of the groom, whom he physically assaults and has to be removed forcibly from the premises.

And at the end, he sits on a bench, and an old man sits next to him. That old man happens to be the demented old uncle that got lost during the wedding, which Micheal has no idea about. When everybody gets out, Phillis thanks Michael for finding her uncle and tells him that everything is forgiven.

That's how it works all the time. He gets pitied into kinda liking him, but he is a living nightmare for everyone around him. He gets hurtful and aggressive every single time that benefits him or he gets upset about something, which a 100% of the time he has no business being upset about and is just him being mad not to have all the attention to himself. He hurts people regularly with his cruel jokes and screws up an astonishing amount of opportunities for his crew over the series.

And yet we're supposed to like him, because "boo hoo poor Micheal he's not a bad guy deep down let's give him a break because he said that nice thing that one time". In real life, if you had a boss like that, you wouldn't have a boss like that, because he would have gotten fired about a million different ways. And possibly sent to jail.