Good morning and welcome back to the breakroom! Friday is upon us which means that we were able to survive another week in the workplace, but that is not to say it will not go forgotten easily. Let me catch you up with what has all happened in the office!
If anything should be mentioned about this week, is that it was certainly one devoted entirely to Michael. It started earlier this week when Michael called a handful of us into the conference room for an opportunity. He promised he had a means to help become incredibly wealthy, so naturally our interest was piqued. It turns out, he was recently brought into this business endeavor by a buddy to sell calling cards. But the real money isn’t about selling these cards to people, but to get our own friends and connections to also sell calling cards and start to get money from that. Now, if this idea sounds too good to be true, that’s because it and Jim points out he thinks it is a pyramid scheme. Michael is adamant we are wrong and even draws up a plan of how the business structure works. Coincidentally, it lines up to be in the shape of a triangle; some might also refer to this shape as that of a pyramid. Like so many in the past, Michael was sucked up into world of money-costing scams like the infamous pyramid scheme.
Now the pyramid scheme has been a scam that has been around for years, and they are often associated to a business model called multilevel marketing, or MLM. Now, a MLM is a legitimate business model which involves selling a company’s products directly via word-of-mouth. For example, rather than going into a store or website to purchase this said product you have an individual who go through directly. Some famous examples will include Avon, Tupperware, or Mary Kay. I remember hearing such names as I was growing up, I also remember PartyLight being very popular as well as HerbaLife was for a time. Many of us probably know at least one person who works with an MLM and they would be how you could purchase products from that company. With an MLM you make money in one of two ways: 1) selling the said product to customers, 2) recruiting new distributers for the MLM and you can make commission off the products they purchase and sell. These new distributers under you become known as your sales network, also known as your “downline.”1 Now, the Federal Trade Commission (which is where I’ve gotten this previous research) states that a proper MLM focuses on your own sales, rather than putting focus on new recruits. Where it begins to evolve into a pyramid scheme is when the focus and most money is earned not from selling to customers, but by recruiting new people into the business. Per Forbes Advisor, the rule is that MLMs should have 70% of their products sold be to actual customers outside of the company2. But with pyramid schemes, you see the majority of the sales and earnings are not from selling to a customer, but all down the line to your associates within the company.
So Michael’s great idea does start to sound more like a pyramid scheme rather than a MLM with how much emphasis there is on the recruitment portion. And this should be a warning for individuals because it makes sense that you would normally want fewer people in the company to ensure that you are accessing the largest group of customers. If you are approached about joining a company, or are simply researching joining a possible MLM, I strongly recommend taking the time to research the company. Additionally, please review the Federal Trade Commission’s page which I mentioned above because they do give you specific topics to look out for if you are evaluating such a company. As I mentioned, it is very possible that you have someone you know that has a history with such businesses. The sad truth is, many who join an MLM do not because as rich and successful as they would like. One of the infamous cases that I know of is that of LuLaRoe which was one of the biggest trends in the United States for awhile. There are numerous documentaries which go more into detail (and I highly recommend looking them up) but essentially the company has faced a couple of lawsuits claiming it is a pyramid scheme. There are many stories where people typically lost money because they had difficulty selling all of their product and they were obligated to continue to purchase more stock. Additionally, some of the most money earned were tied to those who had a great of people in their downline. But this is the sad truth of MLMs in that they offer independence and financial security and while it is possible, the danger lies in those that become so popular that there are almost more sellers than there are customers. So while it is tempting to jump in to such an offer, please take the time to research and have all of your questions answered. As the saying goes, if an opportunity is too good to be true, it probably is.
Flashforward today, this was actually Michael’s birthday! That’s right, our very own Michael Scott’s birthday was today, and unlike most people he seems to revel in bringing that to the office. Unfortunately, he is also the type who insists on doing whatever he can to make everyone celebrate with him. He brought in donuts as excuse to get them to wish him a happy birthday, thought we were going to get him a stripper, ordered a 8-foot sub sandwich (actually eight, 1-foot sandwiches) of ketchup, bologna, and tomato. Overall he insists on trying to control everything in order to have his dream birthday including making the party planning committee work non-stop, 24/7 (since yesterday). I suppose, Dwight is bringing the level of enthusiasm to the day Michael is hoping for. I’m certainly okay with people being excited for their birthday, but you need to realize you cannot control everyone to do your bidding. Especially not at the office; if it is your birthday and you want to bring in a cake or something for your birthday, then have at it. But don’t try to orchestrate all of these “celebrations” to trick people to worshiping you that day.
Most years we can all sort of put up with most these actions, especially because we are able to get cake, but this is all being overshadowed by the fact that Kevin is waiting to hear back about a skin biopsy. Turns out there is a chance he could have skin cancer, which despite being low odds is incredibly scary especially when you’re waiting for that phone call. Jim and Pam actually felt so bad for Kevin that they decided to go out and run to the store to surprise Kevin with etcetera gifts. Jim let me know to cover for him in case anyone (Dwight) notices that they are gone. They left while Michael was being hoisted into the air on his chair but it was a good call since that only distracted people for so long. Eventually everyone is back and Michael announces that he has come up with a great means to cheer everyone up. Technically this is Plan B, as Plan A was to convince Kevin to just go home so he could stop being such a bummer on this birthday. We thought this was really generous of him, until we get to his surprise at the local ice rink and see there is a banner that says “Happy Birthday Michael” and realize this was more of his festivities. But we didn’t really care because it was fun skating around, being able to get out of the office for the remainder. Michael was certainly in a better mood, and I even saw him chatting with his realtor and really seemed to be getting along with her.
Finally, we all saw that Kevin was getting a phone call and we knew this was the one he was waiting on. He gets off with his doctor and lets us all know that the results were negative. Michael was really upset at this and told Kevin they’d fight it. Evidently Michael didn’t know that this meant the results are good because there isn’t any cancer. He brought up how “in the real world” negative is typically a bad thing but the medical world means that it was good. But it certainly helped clear the air and Kevin couldn’t be happier, especially once Pam and Jim brought out all of his gifts, including 69 packages of Cup of Noodle, and a DVD of American Pie 2. And of course, Michael also got to open up his own birthday presents. While we had gotten him a sampler of Nightswept, Dwight personally got him a hockey jersey (which has ‘From Dwight’ as the name).
Perhaps this wasn’t how I would want to celebrate my own birthday, Michael seemed happy in the end so at least it ended well. And that was the office in a nutshell, but what did we actually learn? I think we learned the most when talking about the risks and dangers of multi-level marketing. But they do provide from entertaining documentaries and podcasts, but it is not fun losing your life savings in them. If anyone has had personal history with being in an MLM or pyramid, please let us know in the comments! I feel too many are at risk out of the simple desire to make some extra money with more freedom, so please let us know what people should watch for before it’s too late.
Otherwise, thank you all for dropping into the breakroom today to go over today’s events. And until next time, I’ll see you around the breakroom.
- (n.d.). Multi-Level Marketing Businesses and Pyramid Schemes. Federal Trade Commission. Retrieved February 29, 2024, from https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/multi-level-marketing-businesses-pyramid-schemes ↩︎
- Napoletano, E. (2023, May 23). Understanding Pyramid Schemes. Forbes. Retrieved February 29, 2024, from https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/pyramid-scheme/ ↩︎
