Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakdown! So what have we had happen this week? Well, we survived the bachelor party last weekend so that was a good start to the week. Also I have a hot tip for people doing a summer party; if you are planning on doing Jello shots, make sure to also do alcohol-free shots as well. Not everyone wants to have alcohol, but very few people will turn down some Jello. I chose to do this and they were pretty popular. I also tried my hand at making some alcohol-free Fireball as part of a drinking game, I will have to include the recipes that I did in the future because they also ended up being pretty dang popular. While I have hosted plenty of times, I haven’t spent much time getting very creative when it came to the drinks so I feel like I got to get out my inner mixologist.
What about some good business advice, I think the piece I want to call out is what to do when you are feeling anxious and stressed at work. We all have those times where we feel overwhelmed, and truth is that a lot of the time it probably has very little to do with work itself. There are certainly times where it actually is nice to have some work to keep you busy and take your mind off things, but it is important to be able to recognize when it is necessary to step away for a mental health break. Step outside for some fresh air, treat yourself to a sweet snack, find funny videos on your phone, do whatever you need to calm your brain down. If you can line it up on your regular breaks, then great! If you cannot, I hope you have a leader as understanding as my own where you can let them know you need to take a personal few minutes and need to step away. If we don’t take the time to acknowledge where our headspace is or if you have the mental bandwidth to deal with the tasks at hand, it could ultimately result in a messier situation. Your work will still be there when you come back so grab that chocolate, turn on some music, and look at the silly memes being sent your way.
With that said, let us get into today’s Breakdown. Picking up from last week, we are officially unveiling the office space of the Michael Scott Paper Company. Michael, Pam, and Ryan all show up fully prepared to take on their first formal day in the space. Ryan simply brought himself and his lunch, Pam showed up giddy to start and brought a plant for the space, and Michael brought in a goldfish and a giant barrel of cheese puffs. But he did more than that as he took the time to update contacts, lined up product distributers, and sent out an evite (electronic invitation) to people for their pancake luncheon later that day. Overall I feel like this was a good setup to a first day in the office, but that doesn’t mean things cannot go down hill from there.
I feel each of them really had their own internal struggles. Ryan simply didn’t seem like he wanted to be there. He is kind of a brat and spent the whole day talking on the phone or putting pictures on the computer. I do believe that deep down, his internal conflict was a combination of he still didn’t believe the company was real and perhaps he is struggling to let himself feel inspired by work again. Or he is simply a punk who thinks he is too cool for this group and just wants to get with friends and hang out “Scranton Style,” whatever that means. Pam was very much trying to remain excited but the day just showed her that the job wasn’t what she had hoped it would be. She was arguing with Ryan the entire day, felt cold in the closet/office, and felt pressured to take on the secretarial duties in the office. At the height of their discord, Michael suggested each person gets to pick a corner of the office and that becomes their private space. Since Michael needs two, Pam gets stuck with the corner with the copier (which coincidentally was the old copier from Dunder Mifflin that was tossed out). In a fit she actually stormed out and came up to the Dunder Mifflin off and essentially begged Charles for a job. There wasn’t anything available, unfortunately, so he had to return back to Michael. Michael also felt a strong sense of gloom today as well. Between seeing Ryan and Pam argue, then suspect Pam was trying to leave, and a very disappointing turnout to the luncheon he felt like he had made a huge mistake.
It was the end of the day and you could have almost bet money that the company was going to give up then, everyone seemed so defeated. But then Pam received a phone call from the one non-Dunder Mifflin person who showed up to their sad little luncheon. He has his own company and, as it turns out, he was in the market for a paper company and chose to place an order. The mood completely shifted after that, you’d swear they never had any doubt. It is true that the world isn’t always fair and that good things do not always happen to good people. But they sometimes do and when they do, it reminds us to not give up on ourselves. Sometimes it is that one win which is all that is needed to propel you forward to keep moving on.
It was a straightforward day at the Michael Scott Paper Company, but what about Dunder Mifflin? Charles hired a new secretary who is coincidentally named Kelly. So our original Kelly has taken it upon herself to rush to Charles and say “yes, you wanted me” each time he would call out for the other Kelly. Her logic is that if he hears this enough, he will actually want her. As silly as this sounds, it can happen because a person will start to associate a feeling or phrase with a person if it happens enough. But new Kelly decides to go by her middle name, Erin, to make it easier. Kelly Kapoor just gets angry because her middle name is Rajnigandha which she absolutely hates. Contrary to what Kevin believes, my research tells me this does come off as a girl’s name.
Andy and Dwight have started to spend a lot of time together and are actually going camping together after work. Despite having been rivals for so long, they found a mutual admiration for one another which seems to happen a lot (according to Dwight). Even when they discover they both have a thing for Erin, they quickly pivot and focus on their friendship. Frankly there isn’t much more to it, they are annoying apart and more annoying together playing music and singing together in the break room.
Finally, perhaps the most annoying part of the day has to do with our very own Jim. Early on in the morning, Jim was asked by Charles to put together a rundown of his client list and to then get it faxed over to the distribution list. And I have an entire series of questions and confusion about this. First, Jim has no idea what a rundown is and he didn’t bother to ask. It is true that a rundown could mean a variety of things, but he should have been able to figure out the gist of what Charles expected from this. But still, it would have been as simple as asking him what specifics does he want to see in this rundown? Charles actually should have clarified this because unless the company routinely has a format referred to as “a rundown” then he is simply asking for a summary but without any parameters. Another issue I have is, there should already be a report or list someplace which is a rundown of Jim’s clients. Charles should be able to look it up or pull from a file and he would have it all; or Jim could’ve done this as well. I do not believe there isn’t a master list of their clients someplace in the office. Finally, why is Charles only asking Jim to do this? I would imagine that Charles should want this from everyone, in which case he would have sent out an email specifying the parameters of what he wants to see in “a rundown.” I will sum this up as Jim is lame for not asking for insight, and Charles for assuming that every company uses the same lingo. Both of them should just get over themselves because they are not being productive. For those reading this, we are actually in a much better place than Jim is. If someone gave me a vague request like that, I very easily could use an AI program to take the information I have and give me a pretty good example of a rundown. But still, I think my key advice with this is if you are tasked with something you are unsure about, take the time to ask. I am very routinely tasked with running certain reports or audits to then provide to leaders or employees. Very often their requests are very vague, likely because they do not realize how many variations I could answer such a request. I take the time to respond to breakdown what I believe they are looking for and will prepare, but to correct me if I need to include a different piece. For example, I am often asked to provide an employee’s worked hours. This might sound simple, but the phrase “worked hours” carries a few different meanings. Are they trying to figure out their placement to their next wage increase? Maybe they need a breakdown of their paid hours to ensure they aren’t short hours. Or perhaps they to provide the hours to renew a license so it must be specifically worked and exclude any sort of paid time off. By taking five minutes at the start, I could save a hour’s worth of extra work later on. So do not be afraid to ask for clarification, a good leader or customer will usually appreciate that extra effort you are making.
I’ve been holding in my frustration of that all day so I just had to get that out.
But that today’s Breakdown! I know I have done longer and was hoping for some brilliant insight but I am afraid I just do not have the bandwidth today. I hope you all have a fantastic weekend, hoping to relax and still be productive so wish me luck! As always, I look forward to seeing you around the Breakroom!
