New Girl: Each Main Character’s Best & Worst Workplace Decision

Main characters on sitcoms typically make odd and questionable life decisions and the main characters on New Girl are no different. The main characters have a wide range of jobs throughout the series including Cece’s modeling career, Jess and Coach’s teaching, Nick as a bartender, and Winston becoming a police officer.

Schmidt arguably makes the most financially of his roommates in his marketing position. Yet even though he’s overall one of the most successful in his job, that doesn’t stop him from making questionable workplace decisions like everyone else.

6 Jess: Staying A Teacher/Dating Ryan

Jess is a teacher for most of the series and she is incredibly passionate about the job and seems to be a great inspiring presence for her students. She was offered a position outside of the teaching field that would have paid well, but after talking to her friends, she decided not to take the job. She held out looking for a new teaching position and finally found one that led her to being promoted to Vice Principal.

While Jess and Ryan did have a good relationship, it probably wasn’t the best workplace decision for her to be involved with him as she was technically his boss. It caused a lot of problems in the workplace for both Jess and Ryan when the two decided to start dating and shared that fact with the teachers and Principal.

5 Nick: Becoming Part Bar Owner/Not Pursuing Law

Nick at times has a difficult life but overall, he seems content and much happier as a bartender versus pursuing law and becoming a lawyer like he had been planning to be. He sometimes feels insecure about his choice especially when his friends get upset with him for doing nothing but sitting on the couch all day and Schmidt asks him why he isn’t driven like he was in college.

Nick fixes this by becoming part owner of the bar he’s worked at for years. While it’s a rocky beginning at first as he has a difficult time being the manager and leader of his former co-workers, it’s a good workplace move that eventually works out for him. As for not pursuing law, it was probably a good decision for Nick, but at a glance, quitting law school right before graduation and being able to pass the Bar Exam but not pursuing a future in law probably isn’t considered the best workplace decision.

4 Cece: Re-Evaluating Her Career/Letting Jess Cover For Her

For most of the series, Cece is a model and she enjoys her career, but she makes the decision to quit modeling when she realizes it isn’t bringing her happiness anymore. It’s difficult for anyone to quit a steady job and start over somewhere else, especially when she isn’t exactly sure what she wants, but she does it and it works out for her. She’s a bartender for awhile and eventually gets her GED.

Cece overdoes it at her birthday party and can’t do her modeling gig the next morning as she’s too hungover to stand on a rotating platform to display a car. Jess shows up and Cece allows her to stand in for her. Although the two had a fight before, it wasn’t professional for Cece to drink too much the night before her job and Jess tries her best but her covering for Cece turns out terribly.

3 Schmidt: Sponge Account/Relationship With His Boss

Even though Schmidt talks about his job a lot, he isn’t actually shown at his job very often. One episode does focus on his job when he’s trying to be assigned the sponge account; he cheats by having his friends sit in on the focus group and say they like his ideas. He does end up getting the account and is able to show, without cheating, he has the skills to be successful in the marketing world.

At work, Schmidt agrees to a contract so he and his boss can begin a purely sexual relationship. While he seems excited at first, it doesn’t work out.

2 Winston: Saving A Child/Messing With His Boss’s Smoothies

Winston is one of the few characters who constantly changes jobs throughout the series. He begins the show as a professional basketball player and has a difficult time finding a job after this. Winston works a few temp jobs until he finds a job at a sports radio station he sticks with for awhile even though he hates his boss. So much so he messes with the smoothies he prepares daily for him. Although Winston tries to take it back and his boss ultimately laughs at the prank, it’s not a good workplace decision.

Later in the series, Winston decides to be a police officer, and although his roommates are worried about his new line of work, it ends up being a good career move for him. He finds success there, as well as his eventual romantic partner Aly.

1 Coach: Becoming A High School Coach/Trying To Train Nick

It makes sense Coach would want to become a coach, and Jess helps him achieve that dream by getting him a position as at the high school she’s Vice Principal at. Coach loves his new job and the kids love having him as a coach; he seems more fulfilled than when he was a personal trainer.

When Coach was a personal trainer, he decided to train Nick and the results were pretty disastrous. Coach tried to yell at Nick and force him to work out, which is what some people want out of a personal trainer, but it’s not what Nick wanted or needed. It came off as Coach not understanding his friend, not to mention taking up billable worktime.

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