The ostensible training videos feature David Brent, the giggly, arrogant and self-deluding middle manager of a suburban London paper vendor, as a management consultant brought in to advise Microsoft's U.K. employees on how to better themselves.

Brent, played by Office co-creator Ricky Gervais, ends up making inane suggestions, blithely insulting Microsoft employees by calling them "little nerds," and riling up the Microsoft "employee" interviewing him to the point of physical violence. That character is played by Office co-creator Stephen Merchant.

The existence of the videos had been long rumored, as they were first made in 2003, just after The Office's run from 2001 to 2003 in the U.K. ended. The show won an Emmy in the United States and has spawned a hit American version on NBC. The U.S. version stars Steve Carrell as the pompous boss.

The first "Office Values" training video is now the 33rd most popular video on Google Video, behind an eclectic assortment of homemade spoofs and sexually themed video clips. Google Video competes with sites such as YouTube, iFilm and Yahoo Video, which all also host or have links to copies of the video.

A number of self-deprecating Microsoft-produced videos have come from the company in the last year, softening its normally humorless public persona.