Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom. As most of you know this has been truly a rollercoaster of a week. It kicked off with the murder of Minnesota state Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, and the attempted murder of Minnesota state Senator John Hoffman and his wife. While the suspect in these shootings has been apprehended, it is further evidence in the danger that is facing this country due to political discord. These shootings occurred on Saturday alongside hundreds of “No Kings” protests which occurred across the country to protest President Trump’s selfish attempt at throwing a military parade just in time for his birthday. The cornerstone of this country is to be able to voice concerns and protest against acts you disagree with, but these murders go beyond any sort of protest are blatant attacks. And I hope the families are doing okay in light of these vicious assaults. These are scary times in this country and I hope all of my readers are being mindful and safe out there.
With nothing in my personal life being able to top what has gone in this country this week, let us get into today’s Breakdown! This is a continuation from last week where you may remember Michael is attempting ease the stress in the office after Dwight’s botched safety training resulted in Stanley having a heart attack. In the end, Michael realizes that the source of this office’s stress is at his own hands. So now Michael is wracked with this knowledge and doesn’t know how he can address it. The problem lies in he is seeing the stress having to do with his position as the boss rather than anything having to do with his personality or his actions.
He finally does come up with a solution in a method to address what he believes to be the issue, and that is everyone is too intimidated with him so naturally they cannot feel relaxed at work. The solution? He is going to set up a roast of Michael Scott so everyone can poke fun at him. For those unfamiliar, a roast (made very populate through Comedy Central roasts) is where a guess of honor is made fun of by his friends and colleagues. Having grown up during these roasts I can confirm they were very popular. I have seen clips of them since then and I’ve come to realize that they really are not all that funny. Besides the fact that my sense of humor has changed since then, as a former theatre major I do believe that there are trends and audience opinions which come and go. My biggest problem with the roasts of old are that they can get very mean and quite insulting, to be honest. While these are most professionals in the entertainment industry, I do believe that many of us think we have thicker skin that we really do. I can honestly say that I would not feel comfortable to have people roasting me like that, nor would I feel good about myself in roasting them back. Does everyone else agree with me in how comedy changes over time, or is this more my personal opinion and these roasts are still funny?
Only hours later we are downstairs in the warehouse, some of us having invited our significant others to come in, and Michael is on stage preparing to be roasted. Perhaps what was most interesting was getting to hear all of the different jokes people had because it really shines a light into the type of humor each person has.
Angela: Had a whole bit of “If you have ever done blank you might be Michael Scott. Certainly came off like a standup comedian.
Kelly: Went through a list of people she would rather make out with over Michael.
Meredith: Talked about how he has ruined her life and is the reason she drinks
Oscar: Vented at him entirely in Spanish, so I think we lost a bit in translation.
Jim: Broke down the many vocabulary deficiencies that Michael has such as not knowing what words mean or gets the phrase wrong.
Dwight: Tried to defend Michael but after being told how stupid he was just simply lost it and criticized him as a weak man.
Pam: Certainly tried to ham it up like a comedian in breaking down how Michael always falls for internet scams, never works, and said he had a small penis, “If it were an iPod it would be a shuffle.”
Darryl: Pointed out that while Michael always calls them a family, he couldn’t even remember the name of one of the guys in the warehouse. His name was also Michael.
Andy: Our musical entertainer, wrapped a song making fun of him.
As far as a roast being put on by a paper company could go, it was actually pretty good and people were genuinely having fun. Everyone, that is, except for Michael. He got up for his finale and he ended up choking up and had to run out. Like I said earlier, those roasts might look fun but most of us don’t have the skin for those types of jokes meant to be mean and personal. Even into the next day, Michael hadn’t shown up and called in citing a personal day.
Finally, at the end of the day, Michael did show up (in a really great turtleneck, I might add) and he had a few things to say. In response to all of the jokes thrown at him, he was ready with comebacks to everyone (I think to try to make himself feel better). We were all surprised by his sudden appearance, until Stanley started laughing. With that, we all began to leave and it really helped make up for everything that had happened. And that is how roasts typically end in the roastee gets up to roast everyone else and it is meant to end in an overall celebration of them.
So doing a roast of yourself as the boss is technically one way of handling stress in the office. But what other ways are there? I think it is important in recognizing the source: is the company causing unnecessary stress, or is the general stress that everyone experiences? While we should expect workers to be able to self diagnose when they are getting too stressed out at work, it does help to have a supportive leader on the lookout to ensure people are not getting burnt out, so here are few things that can be done:
Take your time off. One of the key culprits behind stress is not taking your time off you are owed. This is in two parts, your daily break as well as taking a vacation. If you feel you have so much work that you cannot take your breaks or vacations, there is a problem that you should bring to your leader. Europe is famous for mandating people to take their vacations, so don’t you dare work yourself so hard that you get burnt out.
Workload. It is possible to take on more than you should, maybe you are short staffed or you are among those who believes that the raises and promotions go to those who work harder than anyone else. Your job is entitled to only so many responsibilities and duties, so do your fair share and acknowledge that you are done. Doing just what is expected has been called “quiet quitting” and I am going call that out as moronic because those who use that term want their staff to do more work than their job is expected to. And for the record, unless you own the company, you shouldn‘t be thinking about work when you are done. I work from home and even I don’t think about work when I’m off the clock because it is not my responsibility or problem any more.
Take yourself out of your head. Sometimes it helps to clear your head. When on break, get away from the desk rather than spending it at your desk. If you can get away with it, put on music or even a tv show while you’re working to set the tone to something a bit more interesting. I can confirm this definitely helps when you’re doing things like data entry or just plugging away through work assignments.
Grab a distraction. Sometimes it helps to do something with your hands, so consider a fidget toy (which became really popular for awhile). If you want something more productive, why not try a Zen garden? Gives you an actual task to focus on, taking your mind off whatever is bothering you with work that day. You can also take a page out of Stanley’s book and take puzzles like crosswords.
Grab a snack. Sometimes it helps to grab a snack, maybe you are more hungry than stressed. I have also heard that sour candy can clear your mind when having stress or anxiety so I can recommend starting there with some sour gummy bears (a personal favorite) or some hard candy because you have to take the time to suck on them. These are good for a special treat but be careful around heavy snacking since poor nutrition certainly would not help your stress.
Get active. I mentioned earlier about getting away from your desk, well why not move around. I have had colleagues who take regular walks on their breaks or if you have an under the desk cycling machine like I do you can do that for a few minutes. They do say that exercise helps release hormones to make yourself feel better, and perhaps burn off a little steam.
If you have any additional recommendations on how to manage stress at work, by all means feel free to share with us!
I hope these techniques might help out the next time you are having a rough day at work, and if nothing else perhaps reading this blog helped distract you just long enough as well. Until next time, I hope you have a great weekend and I’ll be sure to see you around the Breakroom!
