Author: Nathan Westerberg

Posted in Coffee Break

Coffee Break: Creative Technology “Hacks”

Posted on by Nathan Westerberg

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! I am out of the office today, need some relaxation after feeling a little under the weather this week. Plus, preparing for my friend’s wedding this weekend so needed some time to run a few errands to get myself ready! Now, I did not want to leave you in the lurch so I decided to give you all a Coffee Break.

Today’s topic is actually being taken from a recent huddle my team and I had. When we do not have major news to discuss, we often end up on odd topics and our most recent one has been on useful “hacks” that we can do with technology that we had no idea about! I do have two here to discuss, and obviously I would love for any readers to share their own in comments for everyone to know about.

The first I have is, searching in your photos. You read that right, when you go into your photo gallery in your phone, there is a search field that you can look things up. What I did not know, is that if you were to type in a word like “dog”, your phone AI will review each photo and try to find all of those that have a picture of a dog in them. While playing with this, I also noticed that my phone started to recognize faces and would assign names to them if it had a way of knowing it. Besides being able to search for pictures of objects, it can even register if there are words in a picture. Where did this realization come up? If you happen to take screenshots of recipes, you can search for an ingredient like “parsley” and it will bring up any image that has that word listed anywhere.

Absolute game changer, right? Can make looking through photos so much easier and especially if you do lots of recipe screenshots.

Now for my personal favorite, and that is one I picked up from a video online. If you find a recipe online that you like, I am sure you will find that it could have pages and pages of story and lore associated so it takes forever to get down to the recipe. What you can do is go into the web address at top and go to the very beginning (before even the http) and type in cooked.wiki/ and then click ENTER. This will then convert the website into a recipe card of sorts with only the recipe and ingredients, and cutout all of the unnecessary verbiage. This has been my newest obsession and it makes hunting for recipes so much easier. No offense to the food bloggers out there, but most of the time I really only need the recipe.

I hope to come back with more fun tips like this in the future, but please share your own with all of us!

I’ll be back next week with a full Breakdown, but as always you can catch me around the Breakroom!

Posted in The Office

The Office: Season 3, Episode 24 “The Job: Part 1”

Posted on by Nathan Westerberg

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! I hope we have all had a great week. I know here I have had another productive week of helping people correct the mistakes they made while not paying attention, so that is always fun. And we had people over, in preparation to restart our game nights, so it is certainly fun to get to show off the new house. And I did miss getting to make large meals, there is just some things that are so hard to make for just two people.

But you are really here to hear about what happened at the office, since we left last week with Michael announcing that he was expecting to be hired for a job he was interviewing for at corporate and was looking for his replacement. Of course, he was also going up against our own Jim and Karen who were being considered as well. So what is the update on this, you ask?

For starters, Michael ended up heading to New York on the wrong day so he completely blanked on what the appropriate date was for the interview. But he wasn’t nervous, and if anything it gave him the chance to confirm with David Wallace where he stood in comparison to others. As far as the others go, he had the most seniority and employees below him compared to his competition. And he was the manager put in charge of the transition of when Stamford was closed and absorbed into the Scranton branch.

So confident he was that he already began to implement some pretty major decisions, both at work and at home. He formally offered Dwight his job which means that Dwight Schrute is our new Regional Manager (if Michael actually gets the job). What is Dwight’s first official change as manager? Glad you asked, he has already decided that it will be demoting Jim from his role as Number 2 in the office and that means he needs to hire someone new for that role. He doesn’t even have the job yet and he is already interviewing people for that spot; only Andy applied so I think it is safe to say we know who is going to get it. Besides giving the job to Dwight, Michael has already sold his condo before he has even interviewed for the job. He figures he will need the money, so he sold it for 80% of what he originally paid for it, on Ebay. Now I am not an expert of real estate but I can confirm that you should not be selling your house before you even have a job. If anything, you shouldn’t be making any major life decisions tied to getting a job, until you have formally received the offer.

Michael isn’t the only one who has the interview on his mind, even Jim decided to put in a little more effort to preparing for the interview. He is wearing a well-fitting suit, instead of his usual laid back attire. He even got a haircut to really round out his new professional attitude. As Karen had pointed out to him besides being able to look presentable, this way he doesn’t look as homeless. He and Karen even decide to call it an early day and head up to New York that night rather than doing it early the next day. Gives them a chance to play tourist for the night and explore the city.

While this is all happening, Pam is still coming to terms with her proclamations from the beach day. If you recall, she decided to really let everyone know how she felt about them skipping her art exhibit and especially how she and Jim are even friends anymore. Creed even reveals that he blogged about it intensively. For those interested, you can look up his blog here at https://creedthoughtsgov.com/.

If that all wasn’t enough, we get a long, overdue visit by none other than Jan Levinson. She decided to do some soul searching after she and Michael broke up and she has returned because she is just not prepared to give up on them and wants to discuss them getting back together. Michael had to quickly bring together his group of women to get their advice and they really did rally behind him and urged him to just forget her. She made him miserable and he needs to remain resolute in his decision. He then went back to do this and we discovered that while she was away, Jan got a substantial break enhancement. And like that, all was forgiven and Michael was back together with her. To quote Michael when Pam asked why he did that, “Your advice was good, but hers was bigger.”

And that was what happened at the office today. So we did not learn a whole lot so I want to continue with going into the subject of “How to prepare for a job interview.” And lets try to learn from our colleagues from the office.

Be on time. Michael showed up an entire day early for his interview; I need to emphasize that if you are late to an interview that immediately doesn’t look good. Not only should you be on time, but I personally recommend getting there 15 to 25 minutes early. So why such a large amount of time? First, you want to intend on getting there early so that way if something holds you up, you are right on time. We cannot always predict traffic, road construction, or other delays so the best we can do is prepare for them. Additionally, you want to have that extra time in case you are not familiar with the area and you might get lost either driving there or perhaps if they are in a large building you can navigate your way there. If you happen to get there far too early, then now you have time to mentally prepare and even fix your hair or remove any lint from your outfit.

Decide your look. I am a planner, so I prefer to have my outfit and appearance all lined up. I’ll decide days in advance on what I am wearing so I can ensure it is clean an ready. Plus, you should be like Jim and make sure your hair and general look are all cleaned up. Before you even speak, you are being judged based upon your look so you need to be clear on that image you are sending out. My current outfit is this cute tweed jacket and cute vest to give off a “serious but fun professor” sort of look. Smart but approachable who thinks of the long-term, was sort of my goal. Once you have your outfit, look in the mirror and ask yourself “who do I want people to think I am?”

Bring your paperwork. It never hurts to have backup copies of your resume, even though they should still have that copy. Also, take a quick review of it ahead of time because you have to be prepared to speak upon any aspect that is mentioned. So please, make sure everything is honest. Also double-check to see if they needed you to bring anything; Karen made sure to get copies of hers and Jim’s sales records because they were asked.

Confidence. I think we have all seen people go into positions that we didn’t think they’d get and sometimes it helps if you interview really well. Try to be charismatic and while it is okay to have an air of seriousness, you have to be confident going in there. It is not necessarily good to be as delusional as Michael is being, but he is going with that mindset he will interview well and he is proud of his accomplishments. Use that because a bit of confidence can make all the difference in settling your nerves.

Preparation. Prepare for the interview and this means research! If this is a new company, you should read up on what they do and perhaps have a talking point that you can bring up. My big tip is that I have an interview binder that when I have a big interview coming up I load up with research that I can study. What is always there, however, is my CliftonStrengths. For those who do not know, this is a measure of 34 strengths that we use in our actions and decisions. Far more superior and accurate than those personality tests which try to put you into one group, this measures how often and perhaps how apt you are to use these different strengths. I have this information here because I use these strengths as talking points to why I would be a good fit for the position, and will gear my past experiences towards them. My top 5 strengths are:
Intellection
Strategic
Input
Analytical
Competition

Overall, I am very heavy into strategic thinking. I do not like to be impulsive and will gather as much information as I can to then make a carefully crafted decision. I also have a competitive piece so that is me often comparing myself to others and challenging myself to prove I can do something.

And those are my top recommendations to preparing for an interview, and my hot tip of using CliftonStrengths. If you are interested in learning more about these, reach and I can put you in touch with my husband who has been training to use these as a coach, and is who taught me about them.

Good luck to everyone out there currently preparing for a job interview, knock them dead and I hope you get it! Until next week, I’ll see you around the Breakroom!

Posted in Uncategorized

The Office: Season 3, Episode 23 “Beach Games”

Posted on by Nathan Westerberg

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! Yet again, I’m afraid this is shaping up to be one of those weeks where I just cannot get wait to get to the weekend. Work has certainly not been bad, just it is a week where there is far too much “how did you make that problem?” But aside from that, the workload has been mellow so I really shouldn’t be complaining too much. So what is new in my world otherwise? Well we got the new Dungeons and Dragons handbook, so I’m excited together with people to play that again. Agatha All Along just came out and while I haven’t watched it yet, I’m eager to so please no spoilers! And otherwise we are still settling into our new house, although we haven’t really touched any of our remaining boxes quite yet. But enough about that, you are here for the office Breakdown and boy did we have a big day!

So it all started the other day where Michael was having one of his mysterious medical situations. Basically, around 40 times a year Michael is suddenly very sick and unable to work but with no real symptoms. Each time Dwight is incredibly worried and spends a solid hour with him on WebMD. But I think we can all agree that each of us has spent a lot of accumulative time on WebMD trying to diagnosis ourselves and others. For those not familiar with the site, you can pinpoint parts of your body which are not well, choose symptoms, and it will try to offer you possible diagnoses. In all honesty, I’m sure most of the people who were using the site were not sick at all. This is interrupted when Pam tells Michael that he has a call from David Wallace at corporate, and he urges everyone out of his office for this mysterious call. Later that day, Michael announces that we are going to do a Beach Day! That’s right, the entire office is being closed down (except for Toby) and we get to go spend the day at the beach. Yes this might sound odd, but as soon as you call it a team building exercise then corporate cannot approve it fast enough.

After a nice bus ride, filled with group singing, we arrive at the beach and quickly move to stake out our spots on the beach. But Michael quickly decides to make it clear that we are not there to have fun but partake in a serious of group games. He first appoints leaders of teams who then choose from the remainder to be their teams. We have Team Voldemort led by Jim, who also has Karen and Kevin. Team Gryffindor is led by Dwight who recruited Creed and Ryan. We have the Blue Team with Stanley who is joined by Phyllis and Oscar. And, of course, Team USA with Andy at the helm and supported by Angela, Kelly, and Meredith. You will notice that Pam wasn’t included to join, and this is because he got to be tasked with diligent note taking. To help offer an explanation to this, Michael was actually invited to interview for a job with corporate. Michael is very confident in his abilities and assume he is getting the job, so he needs to figure out who to recommend for his job. And that is the purpose of the Beach Day, he is using it as a chance to put his top candidates through a series of trials so that they can prove themselves.

So what does Michael thing of his candidates? To him Jim is the cool, smart, good-looking guy like himself and would be a great role model. Con is that he can be pretty lazy; he will often spend only half an hour doing a job that takes Michael a whole day. We have Dwight who has the best sales record and loves the work more than anyone, but he is an idiot. We have Stanley in the mix because of all the important contributions black people have given society. And then Andy who is classy, went to Cornell, he trusts him; downside is he doesn’t really trust him. So those are the candidates, each got various scores from the days of the event; at point Jim had 10 points, Dwight got a gold star, and Stanley a thumbs up. Michael insisted Pam look for a conversion table but her notebook didn’t have one. If I had to grade them I’d say a gold star would be worth 30 points while a thumbs up is 20 points. Do you agree or do you have a better comparison?

So what is Michael basing his decision on? A big fan of the television show, Survivor, he has designed a serious of challenges, each more daunting than the last.

Egg and Spoon Race
A great manager has to be able to lead, so in this race the leader has to give instructions to one of their teammates to escort an egg in a spoon to the finish line. If that wasn’t hard enough, they are also blindfolded which is why they need the directions. At the end of this event, no one successfully completed the race (and quite a few didn’t take it seriously).

Hot Dog Eating Contest
A good manager must also be hungry and be fueled by that hunger in the workforce. Michael personally cooked over 800 hot dogs (it was actually Pam) so each person can beat the world record (the current record is 83 hot dogs by Joey Chestnut1). No one is enthused about this because there are no condiments and most people would rather have something like a turkey burger (Michael had only one made for himself). But once it was revealed that this would result in someone being made manager, they found their motivation. Andy actually walks away victorious in this event.

Sumo Wrestling
Next up, Michael brings out a serious of inflatable sumo suits that people will wrestle and force each other out of the sumo circle. Stanley certainly comes alive and goes crazy on Jim, scoring any easy win! But, in the end, it is Dwight who emerges victorious from the entire event. Oddly enough, it was shortly after this even concluded that Andy simply disappeared. I didn’t think he would just go home but I knew he was pretty upset about losing. And then I overheard Dwight and Angela talking about sabotage and how it was and ancient Dutch art. For the record, the word “sabotage” is actually French, coming from the word “saboter” which means “to wreck, bungle, or botch.”

Coal Walk
That is right, Michael commissioned someone to come out and set up as a coal walk, where we must face our fears and walk on a path of fire. No one is interested for even a moment, although we urge Michael to do it himself. He seems to think burning his foot on his Foreman Grill was enough and I will confirm, it is not the same thing at all. Michael cannot do but Dwight actually rises to the occasion and says he will stand out there until he is made manager. Ultimately, he collapses from pain and we have a whole problem of trying to get him out of there before he burns. So how exactly does this work? Well I have seen it mentioned in a television show and did find a study on it. So first, the theory is you move very fast so your foot does not last on the ember that long (Dwight shouldn’t have lingered) and the second piece is that embers do not store up enough heat to injure you as long as you move fast enough. So that is the physics reason, but now on to the study. The overall belief is that the firewalker can get so stimulated that they are fueled by adrenaline that this allows them to move through the fire without harm. When we often see these rituals conducted, there is a great deal of fanfare with music, dancing, and a crowd of people to work the firewalker into a state of frenzy2. Dwight had none of this so this was his second mistake in attempting to do the walk. In the end, this was not a great group to try to accomplish this.

“Bob Hope” Factor
Going into the lightning round and that is people need to prove that they can inspire the troops like Bob Hope (or Amanda Bynes) and Michael insists they get in front of everyone to motivate us. Jim starts but he reveals that he doesn’t think he should go for this job and is actually going to be interviewing for the corporate job, alongside Karen. With him out of the running, we have Dwight get up with his version of the Aristocrats joke. This joke has been around a long time, if you go to Youtube you can find it told by numerous comedians. The premise is this: a family is trying to book their routine with a talent scout so they beg for them let them audition. The family then proceeds to perform all sorts of unsettling acts, this is where the comedian really makes it their own joke but it can involve sexual acts, violence, murder, and gross bodily processes. At the end of this horrific explanation, the talent agent can but mutter “and what are you called?” To which the family excitedly replies, “The Aristocrats!” Dwight’s performance was not the greatest, so I’d recommend looking up a proper performance.

So while we are all busy listening to Dwight, it turns out that Pam decided to do the firewalking and was able to make it across. So then, empowered by this, she came down and really laid into everyone. She brought up that most of us didn’t go to her art show months ago despite the fact that she tries to show up for everyone else. And she zeroed in on Jim and how they used to be such close friends and they don’t even talk anymore and she misses him. She sort of petered off after this because her feet started to hurt but that was the overall situation. And that sort of brought the rest of the day to a big of a standstill.

And that, everyone, was what happened at the office! You know understand a bit about how firewalking is possible, it is a combination of physics as well as psychology. So I do not recommend trying it unless you can speed through as well as be properly psyched up. We also learned about how Michael judges the qualities a manager needs to have. If you were designing a series of events to test people for such a job, what might you choose? And what about yourself with Michael’s challenges, how well do you think you would have done? Tell us in the comments!

I hope you call can get through your Friday, and until next week I’ll see you around the Breakroom!

  1. (2024, September 3). Top dog Joey Chestnut beats his archrival and his own hot dog-eating world record. NPR. Retrieved September 19, 2024, from https://www.npr.org/2024/09/03/nx-s1-5098967/joey-chestnut-hot-dog-eating-world-record#:~:text=And%20Chestnut%20did.,at%20Coney%20Island%20in%202021. ↩︎
  2. Konvalinka, I., Xygalatas, D., Bulbulia, J., Schjoedt, U., Jegindø, E-M., Wallot, S., Van Orden, G. & Roepstorff, A. 2011. “Synchronized arousal between performers and related spectators in a fire-walking ritual”, ‘’Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108’’(20): 8514-8519 ↩︎
Posted in Uncategorized

The Office: Season 3, Episode 22 “Women’s Appreciation”

Posted on by Nathan Westerberg

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! How we are all doing today? Did you survive the week? Let us talk about that struggle of life that many of us face. Sometimes life really just gets to be really hard to deal with, even when nothing is really wrong. I have a new house, we just got the new furniture set up today, and still I am struggling a bit. I started school again this week, hoping a new degree will expand upon my personal credentials and make me a more desirable hire and already I am facing new stress and angst over it, because I thought I was finally through that part of my life and I just want to drop it. Work was also a pretty exhausting one, seems every period people forget they have responsibilities if they would like to be paid, and I really just wanted to post something about being out sick or something. But I’m here, trying to push through my feelings and exhaustion so those 2 or 3 readers I have will have a new post. Life can really be a lot sometimes and I just wanted to share how it has been impacting me lately and hopefully this helps someone out there feeling like they are on the only one.

Lets try to focus on something a bit more fun and I can tell you what happened at the office this week!

The day really kicked off when our own Phyllis Vance was flashed in the parking lot! Evidently, a man was out there with a map asking for directions, and when she came over to help he had “it” out on the map. Jim reached out to the police department and evidently this wasn’t the first call this morning, so we have a serial flasher out there. Dwight is almost giddy because he gets to have a new task force to oversee and begins to implement new rules such as women cannot wear makeup, or they need Dwight’s permission to speak to strangers. Naturally, everyone is pretty upset that he is trying to treat them like second class citizens, forcing Michael to intervene. His own conference meeting results in him being very misogynistic, talking about how difficult it must be for them because they are not skinny like the women in the magazines. Plus he often asks them if they are on their period when they are upset to know if it is “real.” I feel like I do not have to say this, but no you should not be asking your direct reports or colleagues if they are on their period. With the office being “too masculine” Michael decides to take them someplace they can feel comfortable, the Steamtown Mall. Not going to lie, I was a bit jealous because I could have done with a few hours away from working shopping.

Although I wasn’t there, I did hear about it from Pam on how it went. Turns out, Michael had a pretty cathartic time because he used this trip to talk about problems he has been having with Jan. She does things like video tape them having sex and then critiques him after, or they roleplay and he wears the school girl skirt. For the record, if he was comfortable wearing it then who cares, whatever two consenting adults want to do, nothing wrong here. In the end he comes to realize that he is simply not happy when he is with her, and he decides to break up with her with their support. By break up with her, he leaves a voice message on his phone. For the record, this is a cowardly way to break up with something, although perhaps not as bad a a text message. The really awkward part was she showed up to the office and listened to the message while in his office. A delayed message is not the worst part of why this is a poor means to break up with someone, but it certainly doesn’t help.

So what did the rest of us do while Michael took the women to the mall? It was Kevin who said he wanted to know what the women’s bathroom was like; I knew that if it was anything like the men’s bathroom, it wasn’t anything special. Turns out, they have cultivated a nice little area so perhaps we could learn from them to embellish our own room. They have scented candles, various magazines, and even one of those Zen waterfalls. While we were chatting, I found out Jim and Karen have actually been dating for six months now. I don’t know about you but their relationship has never really screamed “sparks” to me, not sure if they will last too much longer. Our bathroom trip ended when Creed came in because evidently his one weird thing is to go Number 2 in the women’s bathroom. I’m thinking it’s because the men’s room typically is pretty nasty in many offices because, let’s be honest, men can be gross.

In addition to these adventures, I will mention that the only ones who were off on their own were Andy, formally known as Drew formally known as Andy, and Dwight. They were tenaciously trying to track down the flasher to bring them to justice. Their big plan was posting pictures around the neighborhood that Pam had sketched based off a description from Phyllis. Interestingly enough, I would’ve sworn the picture was of Dwight, just without his glasses and with a tiny mustache. If I had to guess, I’m pretty sure Pam decided to do one of her classic Pam Pranks on Dwight. She could certainly teach Jim a thing or two because her jokes are often a bit more subtle.

And that, everyone, was the office breakdown! I will apologize as I know this breakdown wasn’t as long as usual. As I mention earlier, it really is one of those weeks for me and I’m really feeling it. I often ask for comments but instead I want to give you all a task, in the spirit of this breakdown and “appreciating” people, I want you to go out and tell them that you appreciate them. It doesn’t have to be a woman and it could be a family member, friend, colleague, or even the person at checkout at the grocery store. Sometimes being told that you’re appreciate makes all the difference in the world, so let us try to spread that feeling. I’m thankful to all of you who read this because it does help me feel like these posts are contributing to the world somehow and that I am accomplishing something.

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

Posted in The Office

The Office: Season 3, Episode 21 “Product Recall”

Posted on by Nathan Westerberg

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! Thank you for understanding me being out of the office last week, there was so much to do that final week that I needed the extra time. But we are officially settled into our new house and each day making dents in unpacking our boxes. And our goal is to get our old house on the market next week and we will be one step closer to the entire process being completed! Plus we have some new furniture coming this next week, plus perhaps looking for an island this weekend to round out my giant, beautiful kitchen. I have officially have the sort of kitchen to host a proper family event so fingers crossed we can convince my family that we should host a big holiday, like say Thanksgiving?

But enough about my amazing house, I know what you are all dying to know is what happened at the office this week? Since I was actually in the office, I have the whole scoop!

So the day started pretty standard in that Jim decided to pull a prank on Dwight. While I am not always a fan of his little jokes, this was certainly one I could get behind. Turns out that while out at the store, Jim found a copy of Dwight’s glasses for sale. Upon looking around, he was able to put together his entire ensemble so he decided to come to work pretending to be just like Dwight. He even talks like him by talking about topics like bears, such as “Bears eat beets. Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.” Well, Dwight ultimately figured out what Jim was doing and then he flipped out citing that “Identify theft is not a joke Jim, millions of families are affected every year.” And he is right, it was found that in 2021 23.9 million Americans aged 16 or older had experienced identify theft in the previous twelve months. Now identify theft is actually a much broader term than many people realize, but each form can have last effects. This can include someone using your credit cards or opening accounts in your name, using your email or social media accounts, bank accounts accessed, or even attempted to access your government benefits. Identify theft is serious and really is not something to be taken lightly1. But in this case, I am going to give Jim a thumbs up because this was a good joke. Should you want to dress up light Dwight yourself, you can find entire costumes readily available.

And that was the high of the week because it quickly went down from there when it was discovered hundreds of reams of paper went out with a watermark on the paper. Turns out, a disgruntled employee at the paper mill had included an image of a cartoon duck having intercourse with a cartoon mouse. We have been doing damage control since this came out because we have a lot of upset consumers. Not going to lie, I assumed more people would have had a bit of a laugh over the issue and been okay with the refund that we provided everyone. Yes the situation is serious, but I if a company has already done everything reasonably in their power to correct the issue, you do not need to call in just to yell and complain. But Michael is certainly taking it seriously, even calling us all in for his task force to address the issue due to it be Threat Level Midnight (not a real threat level, but you will recall is the name of his screenplay). So what is Michael’s plan? First, Kelly is responsible to train the accounting department on how to handle customer complaints and assist with phone calls. Second, Jim is to personally head down to the high school with Andy to personally address the situation with the principal. I guess they sent the invitations to their prom so he wanted this handled directly. Finally, Michael is calling for a press conference of the situation to publicly apologize to one of our clients in front of them. His logic is that company problems do not start to formally resolve themselves until an apology has been issued. Well, if you thought that this taskforce would result in an interesting day, you would be right!

Turns out Angela in accounting is not very good at apologizing, and it didn’t help that she has never had any patience towards Kelly. Despite her best efforts, Angela cannot keep her cool with talking to the clients, not even being able to simply listen to their problems. Regardless of your profession, you are almost assuredly going to need customer service skills. One of the most difficult scenarios is to listen to an upset customer. First, it is important to know that you do not need to put up with being swore at or yelled at in such a demeaning manner. Just as you need to keep your calm, the caller also needs to maintain a certain level of decorum. But the key is you need to be able to remain calm while they complain, often they will lose steam after they have vented for a bit. Plus, by maintaining a level voice you are helping set the tone of the conversation and might make the other person realize how silly they are being so loud and vocal. Another tip, sometimes you cannot provide a proper resolution for the other person especially when they are so upset that they are asking for more than reasonable. What I do is state that I cannot offer that resolution at this time but if you are okay with me giving you a call back, I can speak with my team and/or leader. This lets you buy a bit of time to allow them to cool off a bit more by disengaging from the confrontation, and they will often be more receptive when you call back with a solution.

While this was happening, Jim and Andy had gone to the high school to meet with the principal to smooth things over. Well, Jim let it slip to me that it turns out Andy had been dating a girl that was revealed to be a high school student. Andy quickly spiraled with this, but oddly enough it wasn’t to try to get out of there but instead of was upset with her for leading him on. Thank goodness that Jim was there to help him disengage but that was very much a scenario you do not want to be stuck in.

Then, of course, we have Michael’s press release to process a public apologize. He put Dwight in charge of bringing in a reporter and preparing the office. Now Dwight is surprisingly wise when it comes to this sort of thing which he attributed to sales techniques associated with his roadside beet sales. When you want to attract someone you want to place the best-looking ones in front to draw them in, these are known as the “money beets.” In addition to a reporter for the local paper, we invited in Barbara Allen to present an oversized check to and a formal apology to look good for the paper. Turns out, Barbara is one of those customers who was very upset over the incident and needs more than an apology and free paper. She even calls for Michael to step down from his position, and this prompts him to quickly spiral out and tell her she needs to leave. Now he also needs to apologize for the fact that he upset her, but this time he enlists Dwight and Pam to assist with crafting an apology video to put out on Youtube. Turns out, whenever he is in trouble he prefers to create a formal video to give out whether it is to his condo association, or even to his mother. Did it fix everything? I wouldn’t necessarily go that far, but I would argue that I don’t truly feel it made things worse. I will admit this, seeing all his video did make it seem really fun to write and craft apology videos. Just an idea that the next time you screw up and need to apologize, maybe make it into a movie?

In the end this crisis has a bittersweet ending in that we found a conclusion to this ordeal. Our head of quality control, Creed Bratton, was able to do some sleuthing and tracked down the source of this incident to Debbie Brown, a floor worker at the the paper mill, and that her absence one day contributed to this issue. She has been terminated and the hope is this will appease some of our costumers who want a more fitting end to the story. Good going to Creed, what would we do without someone who takes his job so seriously?

And that is what happened this week! We dealt with a terrible event at work, went into crisis control and ultimately had to do a product recall. I did give some advise on how to deal with difficult people at work, the key is maintain your cool and keep the conversation calm. Most importantly, we learned about the seriousness of identify theft.

I hope you all have a great weekend, especially since we only have a couple weeks left of summer! Any big plans for these next couple weeks before the leaves start changing? And as always, I’ll be sure to see you around the Breakroom.

  1. (2023, October 12). Victims of Identity Theft, 2021. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Retrieved September 5, 2024, from https://bjs.ojp.gov/press-release/victims-identity-theft-2021#:~:text=WASHINGTON%20%E2%80%95%20In%202021%2C%20about%2023.9,Victims%20of%20Identity%20Theft%2C%202021. ↩︎