"The Incentive" is the second episode of the eighth season of the American comedy television series The Office. It was written by showrunner Paul Lieberstein and directed by Charles McDougall. The episode originally aired on NBC in the United States on September 29, 2011.The series—presented as if it were a real documentary—depicts the everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania, branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.