Author: Nathan Westerberg

Good morning everyone, and welcome back this snowy morning to the Breakroom! That is right, if you are here in Minnesota you most likely got a nice blanket of snow since yesterday. Not nearly as much as I was worried we would, but at least it was just enough to freshen the snow up for Christmas this next week (5 days away!!!). If you are like me, you have been pretty busy trying to take care of last minute pieces to your festivities. Shopping for presents, decorating the house, and putting finishing touches on the menu. Despite the fact that I struggle with this, please remember to not let yourself be stressed. At the end of the day we do these things to bring joy to friends, family, and ourselves. If you are struggling to even sleep at night because of stress, then something is wrong here. Additionally, just because they are family does not mean they are allowed to get away with giving you a hard time for the holiday. This is your holiday too, so if you have some disgruntled family member being passive aggressive Christmas morning, just let them know where they can stick the mistletoe. That might not fly in the workplace setting, but family is under no such regulations.

With that said, I know you’re excited to know what happened at the office this week!

There was only one thing on our minds this week and that was the fact we would be in a commercial! You heard that right, Dunder Mifflin has decided to do a series of commercials to get our name out there and generate more business. On the one hand, it makes perfect sense because it gets us more publicity and notoriety. On the other hand, I am questioning how necessary television ads are? The nature of our business is we operate in very specific regions, and we cannot go beyond that because we would not be able to deliver to them. Additionally, because we use salesman a big part of their role is to do cold calling to other companies. I feel there is only so much advertising we can do before it is no longer cost effective to do so, and that money could be better spent elsewhere with wiser marketing strategies.

Speaking of different forms of marketing, there is a wide array of advertising options these days. Television is still incredibly synonymous with advertising and you do have the ability to reach a very broad range of viewers, plus they tend to run multiple times depending on what you are paying for. The downside is that among all the forms or advertising, television ads tend to be the most expensive so it truly is something you cannot choose to do on a whim. Radio is typically a cheaper option, at least in comparison to television, and it still has the ability to reach a wide array of listeners. Then there is print, such as in newspapers or magazines, although I have been told that these have gotten pretty expensive over the years. And there is certainly the option of billboards, while these can be pricey they can certainly do the trick in getting you noticed. But with those I feel it is a balancing act of using an ad that is memorable, but also located in an ideal location. But we are in the golden age of media, so these four are often seen as some of the older forms of advertising and we have an entire range of options. Social media is certainly among the most popular, especially because it is technically possible to do this for free. It doesn’t cost anything to create a company profile on Facebook or Instagram, although there are options to have your posts “boosted” for a price. The key difference is that by getting on social media, it is expected for the company to become very active online and maintain that momentum. While many companies choose to do this in-house, there are agencies and business you can hire whose role is to run your social media and publicity if you do not feel like you’re up to it. Tied into social media is advertising through blogs, vlogs, and podcasting. Often times this can involve paid content (I am sure we have all seen “influencers” talking about products) unless the media is operated by the company itself¹. While you are putting in more work in order to save on my money by operating these marketing options yourself, becoming proficient in social media and marketing is an invaluable skill. If asked what skills a person hoping to open a small business should know, there are a whole multitude out there, but learning about marketing is certainly a major one that you should not disregard. It is also important to know that social media can be much more difficult than you would imagine. You may notice that I have a Facebook and Instagram associated with this blog that I do not do nearly as much with as I should. Social media engagement can be very taxing and very often involves putting a great deal of time and energy into a post, only to never hit double digit views. For those starting out, do not get disheartened, stay diligent, and always push yourself to learn and try new things until you find that magic formula.

Instead of venturing into these unique forms of advertising, Dunder Mifflin believes that expensive television ads are the way to do it so that is where we are. Michael had brought us all together to pitch possible ideas for the commercial which we were going to make with a couple of people from an ad agency the company hired. Michael, trying to be helpful, decided to introduce us all individual to try to describe how we could best fit into an advertisement. Like how the accounting team are all different sizes, or Phyllis is a “lesser Aunt Jemima.” Michael was starting to describe his very complex commercial idea (think MTV on crack) when they agency folks interrupt him and explain that we are not actually making our own commercial. Unfortunately, they have an entire ad already to go and each branch is simply filming 5 seconds at the end to wave at the camera. Essentially it gives the company to show the local branch off to viewers, trying to emphasize the personal touch that we can provide when compared to the big box stores.

This riles Michael up, he was truly invested in being given the chance to show how creative he was. He even attempted to talk with Ryan at corporate and when Ryan told him he wasn’t creative, it just got him worked up even more, to the point he told the agency guys to hit the road because he could do it better himself. That is right, Michael made a declaration to Ryan and David that we will make our own commercial and have it sent over to them in the morning. And if they do not like it, the agency can come back on Michael’s dime.

So we spend of the rest of day working diligently on this incredible commercial. We pry could have continued to be selling paper but that wouldn’t have been as exciting. And we all have jobs, Michael is the writer and director so he is busy trying to keep everyone on track. Kelly is put in charge of make up while Oscar is head of costume design (obviously). Phyllis was tasked with lining up a celebrity and lucky for us, mystery writer Sue Grafton was in town doing a book signing! She rushed over and pleaded with her to make an appearance. Unfortunately, she was ultimately escorted out by security when she refused to take no for an answer. Michael was further disappointed with Darryl’s musical composition. Michael was hoping he would design “a rap” for the commercial while he focused more on a catchy jingle. Truth is the jingle was actually pretty catchy, and these are one of the aspects that companies need to try to include on television ads. Jingles have a habit of getting stuck in your head, a phenomenon known as an ear worm. The Kit Kat jingle is an excellent example, as Andy proves that despite not knowing what the ad is for, he certainly remembers the song. A rap may have been noticed, but a jingle is what can become iconic, so Darryl was correct in what he was doing. While the rest of us were working on filming and piecing together the ad, Pam was working tirelessly on crafting a logo using the animation techniques she was learning in class. So diligently was she, that even when the rest of us left to go home, she stayed at the office all night to get it just right.

So how was our commercial received? Poorly, we were not able to sway corporate and they chose to go with their original idea. I personally like the homemade ad and feel that it does more to speak to the local community that Dunder Mifflin will give them the personal touch. The downside of doing a commercial that feels too “corporate” is that you don’t necessarily stand out from the crowd. I will go to the mat and say that our in-house ad was the better choice, but you decide for yourself and compare the two.

So we didn’t get to have our ad broadcast but we still are in the one corporate chose so that is pretty cool! For those out there, any advice to those new to advertising and marketing? Do you have some good resources for those who are trying to educate themselves? Include in the comments so we can help each other out!

With that, I hope you all have a great weekend, and try not to get too overwhelmed with your holiday preparations. When stressed, take a moment for yourself and relax with some hot cocoa, a holiday movie or television episode, cuddles with a dog, or even a cocktail. Good luck to you all, and I’ll see you around the Breakroom!

1. (2024, December 5). 14 Types of Advertising. Indeed. Retrieved December 19, 2024, from https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/types-of-advertising ↩︎

Good morning everyone and thank you for joining me in the Breakroom. We have had a pretty crazy week ranging from the Silicon Valley invasion of the Pentagon, the murder of a prominent CEO of the insurance industry, and caps limiting overage charges through banks. In many ways, I think it does feel like a month in which there is a Friday the 13th. That is right, if you haven’t noticed yet, today is the final Friday the 13th of the year. Anyone here superstitious enough to tread lightly on today? I might not be superstitious but I am a little stitious, though not enough to keep from leaving the house.

But enough about all that, I know you are really here to learn about what happened at the office this week.

You may recall that last week, it was revealed Michael had been working a second job which implied he has been having money problems. Unfortunately, he laid it all out in the open this week. Turns out Michael had around a dozen credit cards, each with a staggering amount of credit charged to each one that he has been trying to work off. I am not sure that Michael really understands how these cards should work because all he was hoping for was for a new card to come in the mail that he could he transfer his credit over to. This is a very real practice and can get dangerous if you are not careful. Many credit cards advertise how you can transfer existing balances over to the new card because there will be no interest or fees for so many months. While you think you are getting a few extra months to come up with the money, it becomes easy to keep on spending in that time and you are in the same place you were before. I sense that is how Michael has ended up with so many cards, constantly moving his charges throughout the various cards. As someone who loves to shop, let me tell you to not let yourself get caught up living outside your means.

Now that Michael has quit that second job, he is stuck trying to come up with a means of solving his money problems fast, and this leads to him asking various staff for their insight. Naturally, he decided that Kevin would be the best option to talk to first. Rather than financial advice, he went to him asking about gambling advice because he knows Kevin partakes in gambling at times. By advice, Michael was actually hoping to recreate movies where Kevin knows of a boxer who is going to take a dive. Surprisingly, he is not connected to such instances but did recommend Michael try the mob. I believe most financial advisers who recommend against trying to gamble your way out of debt.

It was then Creed who tried to help Michael out by recommending he declare bankruptcy. Michael was hesitant because this is bad news in the game of Monopoly, but Creed points out that game does properly represent real life. Take the “Get out of Jail Free” cards, in reality those would cost thousands. Inspired, Michael goes out into the bullpen and cries out to us all “I declare bankruptcy!” This is not how you declare bankruptcy and the whole process is much more complex than Michael understands.

This is a big topic and I am not a professional accountant or lawyer but I will try to give a high level description as I am researching this myself. Simply put, to declare bankruptcy is to legally petition assistance addressing that you have debts which you can no longer pay for. This would be a last resort in most cases when you cannot properly pay them back in the current situations. Michael is incorrect in his interpretation because this does not inherently remove all of your obligations. While it is possible some of your debts may be wiped clean, the majority will be set up with more manageable payment plans. This process can often assist with liquidizing some of your assets so be prepared to have everything you own looked at. To actually do this, you might petition a court with the necessary paperwork. While it is possible to do this yourself, it is always recommended to hire a lawyer who specializes in this to walk you through the process. Additionally, just because you file the paperwork, it is possible to be turned down but your lawyer would be able to have a better understanding as to if this is a risk. Additionally, this will have lasting ramifications for you for many years. It will typically have a significant impact on your credit score and this can result in you being unable to secure loans for awhile.¹ The best recommendation I have about even considering this as a step is to speak to a professional. Your tax advisor or accountant would be a good place to start and could often recommend an appropriate lawyer that you could speak to. While declaring bankruptcy has been able to help so many people, it can also make your life very difficult so that is why it’s best to see if that is your only option².

Oscar, being an accountant, was well aware what Michael was doing and he was quick to point out that Michael didn’t do anything. And this was Oscar got sucked up in attempting to help Michael with his situation. Michael blamed the situation primarily on how Jan has his credit cards, but an investigation into the purchases by Oscar revealed the real reason. He found purchases which include a core blaster workout machine, multiple copies of Best of the Muppet Babies, and professional bass fishing equipment. It seems Michael has not been careful with his spending and that was the real reason behind the credit card debt. Oscar does his best to breakdown where the error is, using PowerPoint to show that Michael’s spending is primarily considered “things no one ever needs” and that his best option is to work with a debt consolidation specialist. This is a real profession, for those who may be in need of one. Typically, you would provide them with all of the information of your debts and they could arrange for more agreeable payment plans with them. Then, you would normally pay this specialist who then dispenses the payment between your debts. This is seen as a better alternative to bankruptcy and although it can still ding your creditor score, it will bounce back much faster. This is absolutely the best option for Michael, unless he really can track down a boxer guaranteed to take a dive. But when Oscar contacts Jan to let him know about the situation, Michael seemed unwilling to admit his screwed up. Instead, he ran out of the room leaving Oscar trying to explain to Jan what happened.

Jan showed up and actually went after Michael. Turns out, they ended up having a pretty good conversation and Jan really helped him. Michael was hoping to run from his troubles but Jan explained how debt can follow you around the world, which it really can. And while she didn’t admit to what they were, she did have ideas on how they could work this debt down.

I am sure we may see some of these ideas soon, but I feel a bit part of it may be tied to hiring a debt consolidator as Oscar recommended. Or maybe Jan will actually get back to working and bringing in an income.

And that was what happened at the Breakroom! I hope everyone is watching their spending, especially this close to the holidays, but if you are concerned then please reach out to the professionals.

Have a great weekend, stay warm, and as always, I’ll see you around the Breakroom.

1. (n.d.). Bankruptcy. United States Courts. Retrieved December 12, 2024, from https://www.uscourts.gov/services-forms/bankruptcy ↩︎
2. (n.d.). Bankruptcy. IRS. Retrieved December 12, 2024, from https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/declaring-bankruptcy ↩︎

Good morning everyone, wishing you a Happy Friday from the Breakroom! By far this has been a difficult week to get back into the swing of things coming off of a holiday week, and planning towards the upcoming holidays this month. For those deep into their holiday planning, I wish you the absolute best luck in your planning! It is by no means an easy feat to plan such a large event, especially for those who refuse to give up on tradition. Not for nostalgia, just because they dislike change; tradition is important to a point, but it is possible to adapt while still acknowledging history.

While this is not a Party Planning post, I do have a recommendation. While the idea of physical party invitations brings up romantic visions like we see in Downton Abbey or Bridgerton, the truth is they are terrible! Let us be honest in saying that very few of us have addresses written down for our friends and family, we simply know where we are going. Besides addresses, you then need to get the invitations, envelopes and postage and then send them out at least a month in advance. This is to ensure that they receive it early enough to then send back, and you have it early enough to plan your event. My recommendation is Basic Invite (https://www.basicinvite.com/) which offers the option to create a free website page for your event which allows invitees to RSVP to the event. By doing it as a site, you can share it via email, social media, or text message. For those who love the physical tools, they do also offer the option to have invitations and cards printed, so they can be your one stop shop. For the record, this is not a paid endorsement and I have no affiliation with them, just the happy creator of a page.

Now, you are probably asking what happened at the office this week? First, I need to tell you that Michael was very obsessed with his new film he started watching, The Devil Wears Prada. The likes to watch films at work when things are slow and he took quite a liking to this one. A huge fan of Meryl Streep, he began emulating her character with poor Pam on the receiving end it all. For those unfamiliar, Streep’s character is a pretty demanding boss who routinely is unfair to her assistants. This didn’t seem to dawn on Michael until the very end where he realized she was actually the bad guy in the film. Personally I will always say Anne Hatheway’s boyfriend in the film wasn’t very supportive and the real villain. But that is my personal opinion and definitely a post for another day; but this is an excellent film and I highly recommend.

Aside from his new movie, Michael has had a pretty rough week it seems. As you may recall, Jan moved in with him after she was let go from her job with Dunder Mifflin. It doesn’t appear she has gone back to work and is instead devoting her time to hobbies like yoga or redecorating the condo. They have also made some interesting decisions like condensing their two vehicles down to one. While this sounds practical, I don’t believe a Porsche can be considered a reasonable choice. It does seem like the magic of living together is disappearing, but I worry about their financial situation. Does Jan really have that much money having not worked in months?

While Michael was dealing with his life, there was an interesting interaction between Jim, Pam, and Dwight. Jim and Pam discovered that Dwight has been running a bed and breakfast from his him, Schrute Farms. Evidently the agrotourism industry has been highly profitable. Agrotourism consists of people staying at working farms and ranches to learn more about the running of the site. While these locations exist anywhere, it does appear that Italy and Spain have abnormally thriving industries. Europe makes sense where they have many family-run farms that go back generations and this could give them the chance to offset costs and keep their name alive. And there is a certain romanticism to visit a European farm that has been around hundreds of years. Initially Dwight was not interested in letting them book a room, I think he smelt a Jim Prank, but he changed his tune when he realized that saying no could give him a negative review on TripAdvisor. Getting a good rating on such sites can truly make-or-break a bed and breakfast, especially for such small businesses. For those interested, click here for the Schrute Farms page.

While it started off as a goof, Jim and Pam actually seemed to enjoy themselves. Schrute Farms offered a whole host of activities including table making, beet wine making, spreading manure throughout the fields, and even a bed time story. Their main voice of concern was supposed “crying out” that they heard in the middle of the night, although Dwight didn’t seem to hear anything.

It was this next morning that we learned a lot more about Michael’s situation when he was tasked with running a presentation. Ryan had told him to learn PowerPoint and to educate us all on how to use it so we can use it as a tool for selling to customers. When Michael opened his up and it required him to do a pretty large update, it was evident that he couldn’t even be bothered to open up PowerPoint. I will mention that while we still use this for slide shows today, there was a period where companies couldn’t get enough of them. So commonplace they were that I learned how to craft them in high school. While I don’t get much chance to make them, it was still a good skill to learn because you never know when you need to do a presentation. And in Michael’s defense, I would say a great way to learn PowerPoint is to go through and create a show together.

However, this realization that Michael didn’t do the work that Ryan asked him to do, resulted in him revealing he has had to take on a second job! That’s right, right after work here he goes to a telemarketing company where he works into one in the morning selling products like diet pills. Now this was shocking, but on average about 5% of the United States population has more than one job. While some might do this to have extra income, there are many who need to do this just for their livelihood. I think many of us take for granted how privileged it can be to be able to only work on job and not worry about money. But in this case, Michael is no longer going to be part of that percentage because he went ahead and quit this other job. Ryan threatened to fire him because he could not be trusted to have a second job if it impacts his current one. For the record, it is possible for a company to fire you over more than one job. There would still need to be a reason so they wouldn’t risk you retaliating legally, but if your job performance suffers due to having more than one job, this is one such reason. And let us be honest, I don’t believe Michael can suffer too many dings to his record.

And that is this week’s Breakdown! Please know that Michael’s money problems are not over, especially now that he is down a job, so please watch for next week!

My question for you, have you ever taken on a second job? For those readers who might be interested, do you have good recommendations for second jobs or side hustles?

Let us know, and until next week, I’ll see you around the Breakroom!

Good morning and welcome back to the Breakroom!

If you are like me, you might have taken today off of work to stay on top of those Black Friday sales, start decorating for Christmas, and simply enjoy a four day weekend. For those of you work, I’m hoping you can have a nice chill day because so many others may be off. If you have not seen it already, feel free to look at my previous post on some recommendations I have for items to look for on sale this weekend!

But I know you are really hoping to find out what happened with the launch party, so let me tell you all of the juicy details!

When we last met, I had gotten you to one hour till the launch party was due to start. Michael had a renewed vigor to elevate their party when he found out Ryan had chosen to not invite him to his fancy soiree in New York. Michael brought in Angela, head of the Party Planning Committee (PPC) and was prepared with an entire list of what he thought constitutes a fabulous party. Per Michael Scott:

Beer
Light Beer
Streamers
Orchids
Better lighting
Something made of ice
Pizza, including pizza with mushrooms, pizza without mushrooms, white pizza
Steak
Chocolates
Someone famous
Cool music
Confetti
Go-go dancers

Now, overall many of these items are pretty doable last minute. You can choose to order pizza, or simply run out to the store and pick up some pizzas. If you are heading to the store, you can easily pick up steak as well. While you couldn’t cook a steak at the office, there are frozen meals which include steak so you could easily do that. Streamers and confetti are often at such grocery stores since they usually have a small party supply section. Chocolates can also be found in said store, or even you could just head to the vending machine. Beer and light beer would involve a store that sells alcohol but is also manageable, as long as your company allows you to have alcohol on the premise. Cool music, anyone with a smart phone can put together a playlist in minutes so that is an easy request as well. But now we start to get into complicated requests; I would be very surprised if you could find something made out of ice. Your best bet would be to get a bag of ice and try to put something together out of the cubes. Even more difficult is “someone famous” since not everyone knows someone famous who can be there within an hour. If you are lucky, you might have someone who knows a local news personality that perhaps could be convinced to show up. And that leaves us with go-go dancers; I would argue this is even more inappropriate than alcohol and could be difficult to arrange last moment. But if you are in a large enough city, you probably could make this happen. But the real question is should you make this happen? I would say no, this is one you can leave off the list of high priority items.

Angela is not happy with this situation, but I will say that I could probably make most of this happen to the best of my abilities. While I normally would try to do it myself, such a last minute change would require me to ask others for help. The difference would be I’d be much nicer than Angela; she was so rude, Phyllis finally stood up for herself and threw the notes with her tasks in her face and walked out. Finally! While we should try to deal with difficult people in a calm way, it is important to know when you need to disengage from the situation.

Michael does do his part to help with the updates and that is to order the pizza from Pizza by Alfredo, a local pizza company. He expects us to be thrilled but he could not be more wrong. He ordered from the wrong place! Pizza by Alfredo is actually a terrible place, as Kevin so eloquently puts it, it is like “eating a hot circle of garbage.” He should have ordered from Alfredo’s Pizza Cafe, which is the best pizza place in town. And we make sure he is aware of it. And things get worse when the pizza boy delivers because there is some confusion with a 50% off coupon Michael had. He thought it would apply to all 8 pizzas, but the company policy is that it only applies to purchases of two pizzas, despite the coupon not specifying this. In Michael’s defense, this is an error on the company’s side. Traditionally, if a coupon does not specify limitations on the coupon, it is their fault and the consumer should receive what the coupon is listed as providing. Since it said 50% off his purchase, he should have been eligible for this and the company would want to print new coupons with the limitations on pizzas. It is not great pizza so you shouldn’t normally order as much as he did, but it is the company’s responsibility to honor the coupon based on how it was written.

I hesitate to endorse this because Michael took this situation to a new level by kidnapping the pizza boy, not allowing him to leave until he gave him the discount he wanted. I give major props to this boy because he stuck to the company policy and refused to give in. But we should have pry done more to get him out of there because we essentially became accessories to kidnapping. Rather than stepping in, everyone decided to instead research the legal ramifications of how they could be involved with what was happening. Additionally, they decided to go ahead and order from Alfredo’s Pizza Cafe while the hostage situation resolved itself. Now it was obvious to most of us that Michael’s frustration was meant for everything that happened with Ryan, and this poor boy was caught in the middle of his anger.

Kidnapping victim on hand, the launch party officially started. Angela ended up pleased because although she wasn’t satisfied with her work, Andy rose to the challenge and provided a swan made out of ice. I don’t know where he found it, but he did get some pretty major brownie points in Angela’s book. It came around to our branch’s turn to say hello on the video chat, and Michael simply bragged how Dwight was able to outsell the website and then uttered an obscenity to everyone watching. Our feed was quickly cut off and went back to Ryan trying to play it all off as a joke.

Everything started to hit Michael in that he held the pizza boy hostage and may have overreacted with that interaction and he tried to diffuse the situation. He had Dwight pay him for the pizzas to get him out the door in hopes that the police wouldn’t be called. But he still wasn’t satisfied with how he ended things with Ryan. Needing a sense of accomplishment, he and Dwight hit the road and headed up to New York to crash the party. It sounds like the party had already ended but he did get to run into one of Ryan’s friends and they were tickled with how embarrassed he was following being called out.

I’d like to say that was the end of the evening, but we were in for one last surprise. Andy decided to get some friends on the phones in accounting and they serenaded Angela with a song in a big attempt to ask her out on a date. I don’t know why Andy is so interested in Angela but he really did try to make every attempt to convince her to go out with him. Even more surprising, she agreed to the date. Personally, I feel she was embarrassed about the situation and felt that it would be too unforgivable for her to turn him down after all of the effort. Do I think they will get serious? I couldn’t have predicted how this night ended so I’m afraid to try to assume to know what will happen so we will see.

And that was the grand finale to our launch party. Do I think it was a success? If you think it isn’t a party until a felony is committed, then yes it was a success. Could I have done better? I don’t want Angela coming for me so don’t tell her this, but yes I could have done a lot better. Please don’t say anything.

I hope this conclusion was satisfying for everyone else! For those that celebrated Thanksgiving, I hope you were able to enjoy it without incident. For many of us, this was our first time running into family members following the election so I’m sure it was very uncomfortable for many. Reminder that it is Black Friday so I hope you get out there and cash in on some amazing deals, are enjoying Thanksgiving leftovers, and are getting into the holiday spirit with decorating. If anyone has leads to solar powered outside lights and decorations, let me know because I’m excited to get my house and yard ready!

Until next week, I’ll be sure to see you around the Breakroom!