 The eighth season of the American television comedy The Office commenced airing on NBC in the United States on September 22 , 2011 , and concluded on May 10 , 2012 , consisting of 24 episodes . The series is an American adaptation of the British comedy series of the same name , and is presented in a mockumentary format , portraying the daily lives of office employees at the fictional Dunder Mifflin paper company, a subsidiary of the Dunder Mifflin Inc. nobody wants to work with. The series depicts the interactions, pranks and antics that the office's employees experience, and specializes in sati