Category: Party Planning Committee

Posted in Party Planning Committee, The Office

An Office Thanksgiving

Posted on by Nathan Westerberg

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom. The big topic at hand this week is the impending holiday this next week, Thanksgiving Day! While it may not have the same level of decor and festivities as Christmas or Halloween, many offices still see this holiday come up in a myriad of ways. I am here to help navigate through the often murky etiquette and protocols that go into them.

Food Drive
Perhaps one of my favorite events that some offices do is holding a food drive, with those items then being donated to a local shelter. The question comes down to what to donate, as some people have issues with this topic. Some of you may be aware that Dunder Mifflin once tried to host one, and that clip can be found here. The main issue they came across was the donated some pretty terrible items including a dented can of water chestnuts, expired beans, racket balls, and something called “brown.” Darryl and Toby were so appalled they decided to force everyone to eat these disgusting contributions. The goal of a food drive is to provide food for those in need, not for you to clear your pantries of old and disgusting food.

So what should you donate? The best recommendation is simply go to the website of the shelter you wish to donate to (or call them) and they will typically have a list of things that can be donated as well as things they are in need of. Non-perishable is key so typically items that are canned but they will sometimes accepted things that are bagged and boxed. According to Feeding America1, their most common items are:
Peanut butter
Canned soup
Canned fruit
Canned vegetables
Canned stew
Canned fish
Canned beans
Pasta (most prefer whole grain)
Rice (most prefer brown rice)

Again, it does not hurt to specifically check with the organization you are donating to. But there are other ways you can give back. Besides physical items, most organizations will accept money donations so you can organization a fundraiser and donate the proceeds. You can also look into local shelters, churches, and similar organizations that might be hosting Thanksgiving meals for those in need and could use food donations to serve as well as volunteers to assist with the event. It is worth mentioning that we should be striving to give back more than once a year so perhaps this holiday event will urge your office to do this throughout the year.

Holiday Potluck
After a food drive or fundraiser, the other common occurrence is you might do an office potluck and if you are new to these, it is smart to be prepared. It is worth mentioning that these tips can certainly help with even a friends and family potluck-style event.

The key to a successful potluck is the organization of the event. The date and time needs to be made clear so everyone can coordinate around and if it changes, make that known to everyone. Next is the potluck menu which should involve a shared document that people can sign up with what their dish is going to be. This is done so people know what is already being brought and reduces the likelihood you end up with three potato salads, five pies, and several trays of deviled eggs. Some might have a rule that you must bring something to take part in the event but none of the ones I have been to have had that. Not everyone might have the time and resources to contribute and many people are like myself who tend to bring more than enough. I will mention that one rule people should stick to is if you put yourself down for something, you should stick to it. I have seen people who say they will bring on thing but change their mind and end up bringing something that someone else did and it throws of the menu. And please know that it is perfectly okay to buy something instead of cooking if you are not much of a chef. Cookies, salads, beverages, frozen appetizers; these are all great and no one will judge you for not cooking.

A few things to keep in mind, however. If you have a dish that needs to be frozen/refrigerated or kept warm, take that into consideration. Do some recon ahead of time to ensure there is a place that you can store your cold food and you will like need a crockpot if you are doing a hot meal. Another important one is I feel it is good to talk about dietary restrictions, especially allergens. I know people who cannot eat gluten and despite knowing the people for over a decade, no one bothers to try to cater to such allergens. Another big one might be someone who doesn’t eat meat, it is not hard to help cater to such restrictions to ensure everyone can enjoy a proper meal. I cook a meal every week that is gluten free and no meat for people so I can assure you, it is not that difficult.

So you are taking part in a potluck meal and want to whip something up but you have no idea what you an do, I am here with some good recommendations. I am including some recipes for the foods, some I have tried and some I have not, these are meant to give you a starting point.

Barbecue Meatballs
I have done these for a number of events because they are easy to make ahead of time and then just store in a crockpot. They also make create leftovers and can be eaten at any meal, I have even done them for a brunch. Basically you take your favorite meatballs and then get them into your favorite barbecue sauce, easy! My tips include using saltine crackers instead of breadcrumbs in your meatballs, and then I use Sweet Ray’s barbecue sauce but I like to spice it up with some cayenne pepper. I very much appreciate the sweet and spicy combination.

Sweet Potato Chili
Have not done this but it sounds great. Sweet potatoes of any form are a staple at Thanksgiving and by turning them into a chili we have a fun and tasty vegetarian option. Don’t forget to grab some toppings to go along with it!

Mashed Sweet Potatoes
My preferred method of sweet potatoes is mashed. Here is a nice starting recipe, but I will be honest that I throw mine all together. Additionally, I make mine extra sweeet with brown sugar, cinnamon, and topped with marshmallows. Needless to say it’s my husband’s favorite side at the holiday.

Charcuterie Board
Sometimes rather than cooking you an just organize! We all know plenty of people who load up on the pre-dinner snacks so while not get out a board of cheeses, meats, crackers, and vegetables for those snackers.

Pumpkin Pie
You can never go wrong with pie and pumpkin pie is one of the easiest to whip up and can be made a couple days in advance. Here is a standard recipe but almost any can of pumpkin puree will have a recipe as well so no worries. Tip: it is no big deal if you use a store-bought crust. Pie crust is notoriously tricky (no matter what Martha Stewart says) so if you use a crust from the store, you are fine. I recently found gluten-free version that I will be using and because of it, I feel more keen on making my pies extra pretty since the crust is already done.

Stuffing/Dressing
Along with mashed potatoes and gravy, the dressing is my favorite part of a turkey dinner. The difference between stuffing and dressing is stuffing has been inside the bird and dressing is made on its own in a dish. Dressing is the way to go, allows the bird to fully cook and it develops a slight crisp. Use your favorite recipe (this link is close to mine) but the key is that you want to let your bread to sit out a couple days so it gets very dry to soak up the flavors. And it has to be warm so I will say if you cannot use a crockpot or something to get it hot for serving, you can skip it. And I will go to the mat on this one, boxed items like Stouffer’s stuffing are terrible and you should stay away from them. Same goes for instant potatoes, they are not worth it so stay away!

And this, my friends and colleagues, are my hot tips for Thanksgiving in the office this year! I will say that I love being able to talk about food, cooking, and I would say I love talking about planning an event but it is more deciding what it will be. I never feel more seen than watching Angela having to deal with the people assigned to help her in the Party Planning Committee.

Have more tips, please share with us and our readers! Have questions or maybe need some Party Planning or cooking advice, let me know! Email me, message me on Facebook or Instagram or simply comment away and I will be all too happy to help you however I can!

I wish you all good luck this Thanksgiving and as always, I’ll see you around the Breakroom.

  1. Morello, P. (2020, January 14). What to donate to a food bank and what to avoid. Feeding America. Retrieved November 20, 2025, from https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-blog/what-donate-food-bank-and-what-avoid ↩︎
Posted in Party Planning Committee, The Office

The Office: Season 5, Episode 20 “New Boss”

Posted on by Nathan Westerberg

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! Well I do not know about you but this is the week that does not seem to end with people and their never-ending problems, not to mention endless issues on my end simply trying to resolve some of them. And just in general I have found myself not necessarily “on edge” but almost angsty. Just an odd feeling, sort of like when you were in school and it was the last day before summer vacation and you had this tingle in your bones and you were bored yet vibing. Might have to do with knowing that we are officially into August so summer is over halfway over. Might be because Excalibur Con is coming up in two weeks (get your tickets here) and that will be a fun yet busy weekend. Or maybe it was because we started off the week Monday night having a good time with friends with drinks, food, and a boat ride and that just set the tone for the rest of the week. Am I the only one with some odd feelings this week or is that all around?

Certainly still carrying on into today so I better get into today’s Breakdown while I still am in the headspace to not deviate into a tandem!

The morning started off with Michael in the conference room planning out his impending 15 year anniversary party with the Party Planning Committee (PPC). With Angela and Phyllis out it has now been reassembled as Dwight, Jim, and Pam to work with Michael. Despite my campaigning, they have still not chosen to let me into the PPC despite the fact that I could do it so much better than anyone else. Michael’s focus (at Jim’s behest) is try to make this a formal affair, classy being the word of the day. Despite Dwight offering some solid ideas like a string quartet or an ice sculpture of Michael covered in chocolate strawberries, Jim keeps messing with him and drawing his ire. Although, considering Dwight also suggested to lead with a 15 minute round of applause, followed by a 15 minute moment of silence, I would have been annoyed with Dwight myself. Jim’s main focal point today is that after Dwight released a memo last week as a reminder of the company dress code, Jim chose to dress up in a full tuxedo. I know that Jim tends to make fun of Dwight for all sorts of reasons, but I am going to say this is a little ridiculous because if you are not properly abiding by the dress code then yes, you should be called out for it. My personal hot take on dress codes is that companies should do gender neutral rules when possible. I feel they tend to put more power in the employee hands and they get rid of ridiculous gendered based rules towards hair and jewelry. My own company, is a surprise twist, switched to such a policy several years ago and I was very impressed that a healthcare organization would do such a change. It seems small but I feel like it is a major step forward in regards to trying to treat the genders equally, but is much more supportive towards trans and non-binary individual who do not fall into the puritanical norms that people try to associate to a binary system. While I might support someone trying to protest an unfair dress code, Jim is just trying to be funny when Dwight was trying simply remind people of company policy. Along with Jim’s examples of classiness he did cite the French language (I will admit I do find it classy) as well as Mr. Peanut. Dwight, interestingly, is adamant he is nothing more than a normal peanut and it is his attire makes him look classy, which is precisely why Jim says he is classy. Where do we stand, is Mr. Peanut classy or not? My opinion is yes, he is classy.

While taking a break from that (and actually working) we had a random visitor, someone named Charles Miner. Michael rushed out to introduce him as our new Vice President of the Northeast Region. An absolutely surprise, especially because Michael knew he was coming and didn’t bother to let any of us know. Jim is particularly embarrassed because he is now in a tux when he is set to meet the new boss. We also know for a fact that Michael knew he was coming by introducing a breakfast spread in his honor. He cut bagels into the shape of a ‘C’ (for Charles) along with some cream cheese and lox. Yes they were tasty and it really does feel pretty lackluster compared to some of other fantastical spreads Michael has put together before. Could have done a larger variety of bagels and fillings, and perhaps could have skipped the cutting of the bagels.

It is during this time that Jim gets in there to try to introduce himself to Charles and I have to tell you that he is not doing a great job. As soon as Charles asks about the outfit, Jim sort of panicked and revealed it was a prank against Dwight. This keeps happening the rest of the day because Charles always walks past Jim when he is hanging at reception or not working. He even tries to reset and talks about his capacity as the number 2 in the office. Charles claims to not about this position and Jim very poorly explains how it used to be a fake position and altogether sort of spirals. This entire situation really does bring about two strong opinions. First, Jim really dropped the ball here because his role as Number 2 actually is a real position, set with duties and a pay increase, and has been documented in memos. Second, I feel this instance really reveals the type of leader that Charles is. It is not uncommon for new leaders to come in and try to shake things up and so they try to judge everything in an effort to figure out what can be done. With his level of scrutiny here, I think it shows that he is one of those leaders. And most people can fall into one of two types of decision makers, they make quick decisions with their gut or they gather lots of information to make a calculate decision. If he was the latter, I feel he would have read up on all of the employees here and would therefore know that Jim, although a goof, is one of the best salesmen in the company and truly is the Number 2. Because he didn’t research the branch in advance, I am inclined to believe he is the type who goes off his gut instinct believing he is always right and that is why he has latched onto Jim as a means of potential waste. That being said, I will admit that Jim is getting some just desserts for making fun of Dwight uniform memo.

Jim is not the only one having a hard time with Charles because after what started as a harmonious relationship quickly soured when Charles started to flex is authority at the branch. It seems Michael was expected to reveal certain pieces of bad news after a meeting at corporate last week, including: overtime requests go through corporate, no longer matching 401k contributions, and putting an end to certain discretionary spending like parties. Michael was clearly trying to hide this information from the office to not sour their moods, but these are some pretty major changes that I find hard that Michael expected to keep secret. That being said, I feel this news should have come from senior leadership rather than making Regional Manager’s tell their branches for them. But this prompts Michael to start spiraling, even attempting to find assurance from David Wallace in corporate that he isn’t be replaced or losing authority. As he puts it, “I feel I thrive with a lack of accountability.” A very bold claim, and I feel he should get some mad props for being so honest and bold. He attempts to even connect with Charles, but it is pretty clear that Charles is very much a business first type who does not want to bring any of their personal life into the workplace, which I feel only triggers Michael more. For the record, there isn’t really anything wrong with wanting to keep your personal life out of the workplace. There is plenty I don’t bring in and I don’t often implement such discussions, but I have coworkers who could be seen as Michael Scott-level of wanting to share their personal lives at work. But I will say that if you have a colleague who really wants to keep those worlds separate, that should be respected because some people are perfectly content at just being colleagues.

To clear his mind from the stress of this, Michael calls upon the PPC to reconvene in the conference room. It is pretty clear that Jim and Pam are enjoying this time because they are pitching some obviously joke ideas. Pam suggested a stripper inside a cake, carrying a cake with a smaller woman inside while Jim thought up a two-way petting zoo where the animals pet you back. Charles finds out what “PPC” stands for and being the no nonsense guy he is, he comes in to call an end to this meeting so the others can do real work. This was the tipping point for Michael in being told the event to celebrate all his years at the company and he lost it. He started making fun of Charles and then snapped and starting yelling that he will not get away with this, and he left to head to the corporate office. For the record, no one else (aside from Jim) really had a problem with Charles, and even all of the female workers seemed to be infatuated with him.

Not too long after this happened that Charles also left, as like he said he was only in town to get a feel of the office. It is an interesting topic on whether Michael was justified in his reactions to Charles. While he wasn’t here long, I do feel his management style was pretty evident and it is not the preferred method for everyone.

What happened with Michael you might ask? Evidently he began roaming the offices until he finally tracked David Wallace down coming out of the bathroom and demanded him to talk with him after dodging most of his calls. Michael was upset and more than anything he felt that he didn’t deserve this sort of treatment. Yes it is true that Michael makes plenty of mistakes and can be a bit of an idiot. It doesn’t change the fact that Scranton is the highest performing branch, which is why David actually had a sit down with him to figure out why, not to mention having him go on a lecture circuit. He even assigned Michael tasks like spying on another paper company for which he was commended. And technically David loved the idea of the golden ticket and if he had simply accepted responsibility for it, maybe he would have been promoted. It seems like David likes the work that Michael does (when he succeeds) but still wants more of an executive type at corporate, someone who fits the usual mold. David ultimately promises him that he will make sure his anniversary party occurs and he will personally attend, but doesn’t really address the other concerns. In response to this, Michael says “I quit. You have no idea how high I can fly.” And with that, he walks out.

Is Michael really going to leave Dunder Mifflin? What will he do and what will come of the office?

We will have to wait until next week to see what comes from this sudden development.

Until then I hope you all have a great weekend, and continue to take care if you are in the areas affected by the air quality warnings from the smoke up north. And anyone who can be available August 16 -17 should head on down to Excalibur Con 2025. Should I dress up? Still debating and if I do I just might dip into my costumes from the Renaissance Festival rather than a character. But for an event named for a sword wielded by King Arthur, I’d say it’s perfect, so I hope to see you there and be sure to invite your friends!

As always, I’ll see you around the Breakroom!

Posted in Party Planning Committee, The Office

The Office: Season 5, Episode 17 “Lecture Circuit Part 2”

Posted on by Nathan Westerberg

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! This week we are unfortunately falling into the traditional summer pattern where the work days drag on yet the season seems to be passing by. I hope you all were able to enjoy your holiday weekend this last week whether it was grilling, spending time with family, or what have you. As I had mentioned we decided to run off to see Jurassic World: Rebirth which I am going to highly recommend as the dinosaur film of the year. Between all of the fun dinosaur scenes and Jonathan Bailey in his “slutty little glasses” I think there is something for everyone. And I’ve been rocking the new Jurassic Park hat and t-shirt since then to show my appreciation for the franchise. Afterwards we hosted a barbecue and mini bonfire so all-in-all it was a great time. We did skip the fireworks as our dogs do not like them, and honestly they’re nothing super important so I’d rather relaxing after a busy day anyways. The rest of the weekend was brought to us by Costco as during our weekend trip we decided to go through all of the summer products and we decided to get this badminton set that sets up fast, plus a pool for the dogs. I think we had more fun than they did and we finally got our summer sunburn. Nothing of note this week aside from my husband heading out for the weekend back down to Kansas City for his final requirement before he can begin teaching as a Lanza educator. And I’m going force myself to be productive and work on a couple of projects I have going on. So that is my recap, I’d love to hear from my reader(s) of anything fun you did over the holiday weekend when you were not in the office!

And while you think back, let us jump into the continuation of what has been going on in the office. Where we left everyone, Michael and Pam were out on a lecture circuit visiting the other branches while Jim and Dwight were attempting to throw Kelly her (belated) office birthday.

After Pam had a cathartic moment visiting Karen, Michael realized that perhaps this was why he is still so upset over Holly. They left so much out in the open that they need to have some sort of conclusion to that moment in their lives. So they decide to head up to the Nashua branch and include them in their lecture circuit and Michael and get some face time with Holly. Unfortunately, this does not go as expected when they arrive only to discover that she is out of town on a retreat and is unavailable. Not only that, they discover she already had a boyfriend who works in the sales department, AJ. I find it very interesting that after being transferred for dating someone in the office, she is already dating someone again. Yes, AJ is not management like Michael was but it is very odd that she continues to date people she works with. Are we sure that perhaps the reason she had to leave her last job wasn’t because she ended up dating too many coworkers? Guess we will never know, but probably. Pam was still able to talk Michael into putting on the lecture to save face, and maybe be a special story everyone will talk about when Holly returns. And it was sort of working, unlike the other branches Nashua seemed genuinely excited and interested in his performance. Until Michael began to spiral by fixating on AJ, Holly, and just the fact that they are no longer together. Pam attempts to take over the presentation to salvage a bit of self respect but Pam by no means has the same level of showmanship that Michael brought to the lecture.

While Pam was doing this, Michael strolled to the back of the office and was able to find Holly’s desk. In his weird headspace, he decided to cut a sleeve from her sweater to remember her by. I’m just going to say, he could have just taken the whole sweater because losing a sweater is much more plausible than misplacing a full sleeve. That wasn’t even the worse part, though, as Michael noticed Holly’s computer was still on and he copied a document titled “Dear Michael.” Holly is gone for a few days and she just left her computer unlocked? Being in human resources, she will have certain access on her computer that other people do not have and in companies like mine you could get in trouble for leaving a computer unlocked like that. Michael did recognize how inappropriate this was because he admitted it to Pam, seemingly hoping for permission to be able to read it. Pam was adamant about it being a breach of trust and that he could not read it, but she certainly could since she wasn’t in love with Holly. Pam wouldn’t reveal the exact details, but she seemed very confident that Holly was not over Michael and there may still have been a chance. Not exactly a perfect ending to their story, but perhaps it gave Michael a bit of hope in the sense that Holly still wasn’t over him.

Back at the office, you will recall that after everyone forgot Kelly’s birthday (aside from Phyllis who still chose not to say anything) Jim and Dwight need to make up for it with a special party. Despite being such creative individuals with so much passion for things, they are potentially the worst party planners I’ve ever seen. Dwight was doing research to verify Kelly’s age and discovered that she was in juvenile detention when she was a teenager and decides to harass her about it. Turns out she stole a boat that she thought belonged to her boyfriend at the time. Pretty serious but she was just a teen back then and really has no bearing on her current life. Jim tries to make her forget about this by showing off the ice cream cake he got from the store. I do not know why the store sold this, but it was literally just a blank sheet cake with no color, toys, or decorations. It did not represent the theme of the party because Jim and Dwight did not pick a theme. There should always be a theme to a party, and it doesn’t even need to be that complicated. My barbecue last week? It was a 4th of July party with barbecue, drinks, and I made a white chocolate cheese cake and homemade compotes of raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries to be the red, white, and blue. They literally could have made the theme “birthday” and get some flashy colors on the cake of balloons and fireworks and that would have covered it. I am not saying that throwing parties are always easy, but I am saying that there is a difference between putting in little effort compared to Jim and Dwight’s putting in no effort.

But they cannot comprehend how simple a theme can be and start breaking down what they would want to see in a party. Dwight doesn’t celebrate parties in his family so he pitches ideas like “horse hunt” because he doesn’t see the appeal. I loved Jim’s favorite birthday memory when his father took him to the Natural History Museum in New York and then bought him a triceratops toy which was always one of my favorite dinosaurs. Unfortunately, Kelly doesn’t seem like the type who would be wowed by a dinosaur party as much as I would be. In a surprise twist, they are ultimately able to put together an idea for Kelly. Using a rectangular piece of gum on her cake, it represents either a pillow to take a nap for an hour, or a television to watch for an hour at work. After some debate, she settles on taking a nap (I pry would’ve taken television). Not my idea of an office party but Kelly seemed to love it so they did succeed at this endeavor.

There was still one big event at the office which would explain why Angela wasn’t passing off judgement on Jim and Dwight, and that was Angela got a new cat! She decided to get a new cat related to the cat from Meet the Parents and is a third generation show cat named Princess Lady; all for the small price of $7,000. Where did she get this? She decided to sell Andy’s engagement ring because “he wouldn’t have wanted it returned.” There seems to be some debate online over what would normally be done in the situation. You would think that the ring should go back to Andy since the wedding didn’t occur, but there are those who see the ring as a gift and should belong to Angela. When it comes to engagement rings, particularly valuable ones, I have my own personal opinion on how it should be worked out. I believe the fate of the ring should come down to the circumstances of the breakup. Typically, whomever is the one who chooses to call off the wedding should give up ownership of the ring. However, if the person calling off the wedding is doing so not because they have changed their mind but because the other person committed a betrayal serious enough for a breakup, they should be entitled to it as compensation. To walk through their scenario, Andy was the one who formally broke up with Angela so he called off the wedding. But he did this because Angela was cheating on him and because she betrayed their relationship, I believe she ring should have been retuned to Andy because she betrayed what the engagement ring represented. Do you all agree with me or do you have a different opinion? I would love to hear from a lawyer on if there is some sort of precedent when it comes to the fate of a valuable engagement ring after a broken engagement.

Semantics aside, Angela is thrilled to have a new cat at home, and is devastated that she has used all her personal time and that “pet maternity” is not currently a thing. I did look it up, and there is a trend of “Pawternity” where the company allows employees time to take off for a pet. Glancing at the examples provided, they were predominately pet-related companies like veterinary companies or pet insurance. I would love to see this as the wave of the future; I may never have human children but I’ll certainly have fur babies needing my attention. Unable to take time off, Angela has resorted to the use of a pet cam so she could watch them all day. That sounds cute but obviously the purpose is to watch for ay problems, and that is what happened. While Princess Lady is a sweet feline, some of her other cats couldn’t resist the chance to climb all over her. This prompted Angela to rush home to get them sorted out and in their respective corners. Unfortunately, she forgot to turn off the camera so she didn’t realize that a few of us were able to see her on camera taking care of her cats. This wouldn’t be weird, except she was actually licking Princess Lady to clean her. Evidently this is a thing, but it is usually done with young kittens who do not have a mom to take care of them. They even have fake tongues to use so people do not need to lick them directly, but it is meant to help show them affection. If Princess Lady was a young kitten it might not be as weird, but it makes me question how much licking is actually going on. None of us said anything but she better watch herself in the future to not get on our bad side.

And that, everyone, was the conclusion to this Breakdown! Michael didn’t really get his ideal conclusion with Holly, but he is walking away with a sense of hope. Jim and Dwight were somehow able to pull off the party, but I still agree they are two of the last people who should ever be in charge of planning a party. And Angela has a brand new cat at home, which I always adore a happy ending involving pets. I hope you all have a fantastic weekend and can get away from work, not thinking about your job, and just enjoy the summer vibes. Until next time, I’ll see you around the Breakroom.

The Office Lecture Circuit
Posted in Party Planning Committee, The Office

The Office: Season 5, Episode 16 “Lecture Circuit Part 1”

Posted on by Nathan Westerberg

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! I don’t know about you all but I really am glad this week is coming to close. Every so often you have those days or even a full week where work is just not cutting it and you just are sort of miserable with it and that was unfortunately this week. We had a couple chilly days in comparison to what it has been so perhaps that was part of it. This has also been a week of dealing with pretty ridiculous employees so I cannot tell you how low my patience has been. Not wanting to dwell on that too much, as I am adamantly opposed to people stressing over work when they are off the clock, let us get right into the Breakdown!

A bit of good news for the office, Michael Scott is currently out of the office out on a lecture circuit! Scranton continues to have the highest sales in the company and corporate is desperate to try to spread those numbers along to the rest of the branches. So Michael has been asked to go to the branches (except Nashua, where Holly is at) to teach everyone his secret recipe to making it all work. And he is not alone out there as he recruited Pam to be his assistant, by offering her time and a half pay for 24 hours a day for three days. I think she agrees it is worth it to be his chauffer and be in charge of hauling around his many props. This does also mean that Pam will need to come face-to-face with Karen at the Utica branch where she is still the manager at. That happened to have been the branch they were at most recently and she had to face her fears in an attempt to bury the past with her.

Most of the other managers have likely not spent as much time with Michael as Karen has so she was pretty quick to shoot down some of interesting methods. He begins his lecture with pretending to have received a phone call letting him know that his father was dead, so he pretends to be upset over the news. He then has Pam throw out some mini Mounds bars to the audience; all of this is to sell an experience. I will agree with that statement because if you are attempting to sell a product or service, you need to be memorable and form a bond with that customer. He then moves on to talk about how he is able to memorize people’s names using a mnemonic technique. He takes a memorable feature about them, such as being bald, and finds a means to tie it to their name. Such as: Bald – No Hair – Head is Reflective – Like a Mirror – M – Mark. Naturally he tends to pick aspects about people which are a bit insulting but it is only truly insulting when you say the train of thought outload. Again, I would argue this could be a handy tool to try because I also struggle to remember names of people I meet for the first time. A lot of his tips do seem a bit more designed for new sales staff but they are certainly still interesting. And if anything, this trip did allow Pam and Karen to see each other again and move past everything that happened with Jim. Karen is actually married now and she is pregnant, so needless to say she has been able to move past everything and said she was very happy for Pam and Jim.

This actually sparked something in Michael in how he really wants that for him and Holly. He is very conflicted on what to do but, in a surprise twist, Pam convinces him they should travel up to Nashua so he can try to find resolution with Holly. This requires them to blow off their lecture at Rochester, but no one really cares about those guys so Nashua it is!

You may be wondering what all was happening back at the office while Michael and Pam were having fun on their lecture circuit. Perhaps the most awkward part was in that Stanley brought in one of his clients to do a sales call at the office. This girl happened to be pretty attractive and caught the eye of Andy, so much so he spent the entire day trying to work up the courage to ask her out. He went so far as to peak into her car to find out what music she listens to, then traded two of his clients to Stanley to take on her account, and then spent the entire meeting trying to flirt with her. In the end he tries to kiss her (because that was how Creed got Squeaky Fromme back in the day) and she is mortified at this abruptness and smoothly exits the situation. Not only did Andy then lose that account, but wasted the two he gave to Stanley and didn’t get a date. I’m just going to throw this out there for who needs to hear it, you should not be trying to date your clients/customers and many companies do have policies against this. Some people do but they certainly choose better moments than how Andy handled this situation. He came on too strong, was unprofessional, and you should certainly not initiate the moment by trying to kiss her at your work place. For those out there, do not take love advise from Andy; or Creed for that matter.

At the same time, we were having some major Party Planning Committee (PPC) drama at the office. To recap, Angela Martin had been the head of the PPC for years but then Phyllis was put in charge after she discovered Angela and Dwight’s affair and was blackmailing them. Once everything came out, Michael decided that neither of them could be trusted to run the PPC and he should put two people in charge because one person becomes too powerful. So he put both Jim and Dwight in charge of the committee (I’m still bitter I wasn’t considered) and they are both livid over the whole notion of having to plan parties. They are already doing poorly at this role because they did not realize the previous day was Kelly’s birthday, and she came in today yelling at them over their thoughtlessness. It was actually Phyllis who pointed this out to Jim and Dwight, so I will point out that even though she knew it was Kelly’s birthday she still chose to not say anything. That is some stone cold bitterness over being taken off the PPC, but I do respect her bitterness. They are finally able to calm Kelly down by assuring her they are going to make up for this with throwing her a birthday party and it will be amazing.

It is now we get to see how Dwight and Jim can rise to the challenge of planning an office party. Now I do enjoy planning an event and I do put a lot pressure on myself, but an office birthday really should be pretty simple and not require the level of stress they suffered. Jim first had ask Kelly what sort of cake she wanted, and she asked for an ice cream cake. The majority of the employees here have been around for years and I would have thought there would be binder someplace which lists the favorite cake flavor and similar questions on employees. That being said, if anyone had such a book it would be Angela Martin who is likely withholding it out of her own spite for having the position taken away. Jim also was in charge of collecting the party dues from people ($3 per person) and is struggling very hard to get anyone to cough up the money. I did find this interesting because most of the time it would be the company which pays the cake and party. In my current job, when we still worked in an office our leader would go out and get cupcakes or a cake for the birthday person and she would put it on a company card. Of course, Angela Martin is also head of Accounting so is possible she neglected to tell them about the party fund they could draw from.

While Jim is working on the cake, Dwight was put in charge of decorating for the party so he is working tirelessly on getting the conference room to look nice. For signage he settled on printing a sign which says “It is your birthday.” He also is blowing up balloons to hang around the office, which he is barely filling up. I cannot tell if he doesn’t have the lung capacity, or maybe he decided these balloons are not worth his breath. He also choose to use grey and brown because they would accent the conference room best, and is hanging them up masking tape. He dated Angela for a long time, I would have believed that some of her party planning should have rubbed off on him. Or perhaps he is ignoring everything he did learn because he misses Angela too much; or he is just bad at it. Much like keeping a record of the cake flavors, I would have imagined favorite colors should have documented as well. I know that Angela keeps records and minutes from everything with the PPC, so I am not sure if she didn’t share all of that information, or if Jim and Dwight simply didn’t use any of it.

Now they are not done with the party yet, they are still trying to keep on planning so make it the highlight so stay tuned for second party of this. Do we think Jim and Dwight can actually throw a good party for Kelly? Will Michael and Holly be able patch things up and become friends? Will Andy ever find a girl who wants to be with him? You’ll have to wait until next week back here at the Breakroom to find out. I hope you all have a great weekend, and until next time I’ll see you at the Breakroom.

Posted in Party Planning Committee, The Office

The Office: Season 5, Episode 11 “Moroccan Christmas”

Posted on by Nathan Westerberg

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! I am using up all the strength I have to be present today to ensure you get a proper Breakdown. Unfortunately, after a week of my husband being sick I have officially gotten the bug myself. Primarily it is weakness/exhaustion and my throat is so sore I don’t want to speak or swallow. Needless to say, it is not very fun and my sympathies to anyone else currently sick, especially heading into a holiday weekend. I was originally hoping to do some sort of barbecue get together but I’m leaning towards just getting rest and a movie marathon.

So I can get back to trying to rest, let us get down to the Breakdown this week!

You’re in for a festive treat this is the day of Dunder Mifflin’s Christmas Party! Naturally, such an event would be incomplete without one of Jim’s classic jokes. To really mess with Dwight, Jim decided to wrap his desk and all of his desk items in wrapping paper. He was able to get this done quickly because he is a black belt in gift wrapping, which Dwight shuts down as impossible because they do not give out black belts for things that are stupid. For the record, formal black belts are really only given out in martial arts although essentially the phrase would mean you are an expert at what you do. The closest example is Six Sigma which is a certification for various business leaders focusing on quality improvement. There are different levels of certification, each named after one of the belts seen in martial arts. I have long been critical of Six Sigma given that these certifications can get very expensive, not to mention very time intensive in comparison to others. And there has been criticisms that Six Sigma tends to stifle creativity or freedom to use concepts outside of the program. It is also much more focused on short term achievements rather than long term goals, and tends to breed the concept that leaders know what is best an their staff should simply follow suit. If I ever meet someone who lets me know they are a Six Sigma black belt, I would be sorely tempted to not respond with Dwight’s “They don’t give out black belts for things that are stupid.”

I would certainly give Jim’s prank a gold star over a black belt as while I find many of them ridiculous and mean, this particular one had creativity. As Dwight sat down at his desk to begin unwrapping it all, the entire mass collapsed into a heap. Turns out, Jim actually created a fake desk and chair from chicken wire that would fall apart as soon as Dwight sat down.

A Jim prank was about the most work-related thing we had going today because the majority of the shift really was dedicated to our Christmas party. With Phyllis the head of the Party Planning Committee (PPC) this was her first chance to host the holiday, and she went out all out. She went with “Night in Morocco” theme and completely transformed our office into a Moroccan Christmas. We have talked about doing Christmas parties before and Phyllis has really set the bar because rather than just going with a theme of Christmas, she has set up an entire other layer with Morocco. So what sort of details did Phyllis pay attention to?

Themed Decor
All around the office Phyllis arranged for Moroccan decor to be used; I am seriously wondering how much she spent on all of it. Makes me wonder if she is either renting it, or perhaps she has a Moroccan room in her house that she borrowed from. The floor is littered with ornate rugs as well as decorated pillows. I personally loved the magic lamp Jim was rubbing when he and Pam were hanging out at the reception desk. And, of course, some unique lighting can really add to the atmosphere.

Authentic Food
Rather than just traditional foods found in offices at Christmas, Phyllis made sure that we had food that would be found in Morocco. We had pita bread and hummus, and she even arranged for there to be Halwa Chebakia cookies which are often eaten during Ramadan. Do we think she made them herself with a book with Moroccan recipes or did she get it catered?

Music
At any party, the background music and sounds is absolutely key to maintaining the atmosphere. In additional to festive music playing, she also arranged for various instruments to be around the office such as hand drums and a sitar that Andy became obsessed with.

Stocked Bar
While this is not Moroccan, I do think having a fully stocked bar was a smart idea because it means there are a variety of options when it comes to drinks. Most interesting was how Michael took to being the bartender so quickly, and I think he may have have missed his calling. Perhaps his main fault was not knowing the names of existing drinks, such as how he thought he invented orange juice and vodka.

So Phyllis put a great deal of time and resources into making this one of the best Christmas parties I have ever seen. But if I was going to point out one error, it is how Phyllis claimed this would be just like your grandmother’s Christmas if she was from Morocco. Morocco is a Muslim country, so they do not actually celebrate Christmas there. Just a fun little factoid that I’m not sure many were aware of.

But no one seems to have noticed this inaccuracy and they are partying pretty hard. Andy is learning the sitar, Michael is making drinks for everyone, Jim and Pam are being all obnoxiously cute together, and Meredith is drinking just a bit too much. It is Dwight who stands out because he has a huge collection of a doll called Princess Unicorn. Turns out that each Christmas he figures out what the most popular toy is, buys the stock in the area, and then resells to desperate parents for an enormous profit. I have known about toy reselling for awhile, the big thing is for people to buy toys and other items for cheap from big box stores and then flip them on Amazon or Ebay for more than what they bought it for. Personally, I feel there was a time where this very lucrative but online shopping is so prevalent these days, with too many people trying to do this, that it is now much too much work. I think you’re better off looking for other options to make some extra money then having to sink everything in a toy that you hope you can flip.

But all good things come to an end, and this party came to a shocking end when we suddenly saw Meredith get her hair on fire on a candle while dancing in the breakroom. Thank goodness Dwight was in there within seconds with the extinguisher to put her out. It is hard to get back to a party after someone was set on fire but Michael was determined to find a way. His idea? To do an impromptu intervention for Meredith, what he describes as “a surprise party for people who have addictions.” This is mildly true, an intervention is when family and friends sit down with a person who is dealing with an addiction in an attempt to get them the tools to fight it. Most often the goal is to get them into some sort of recovery center to work licensed professionals. Michael attempts to kick one off and while most of the office agreed that Meredith has a drinking problem, we couldn’t come up with scenarios in which she hurt us with her drinking. And it didn’t help that Michael’s list he found online of what to look for in a drinking problem seems to have come from a Mormon church. Meredith is incredibly apprehensive until she and Michael spend some time along chatting and he is able to convince her to go with him and he drives her to the center. Or so we thought; it turns out Michael told her they were going for a drink and he was going to try to trap in a treatment center. That is the thing with these types of facilities, you do have to willingly go in because that is usually the first step; being able to admit you have a problem and need help.

Back at the office there was the argument between Phyllis and Angela. Leading the charge on the party, Phyllis had been barking orders at Angela all night long. In her defense, Angela often treated many of us the same way when she was head of the PPC so Phyllis got a bit power mad and wanted to get her revenge. But turns out there was another piece to it because something snapped in Phyllis, and she told the office that Angela and Dwight have been sleeping together. Considering that Angela is engaged to Andy, this is by no means a good thing. And as Andy was not in the room at the time, he is still completely unaware of this development. This did make it very awkward when he came out to give us a rendition of “Deck the Halls” that he figured out on the sitar. Angela quickly got them out and now we are all sort of trying to determine what we are supposed to do with this knowledge.

And that, everyone, is this week’s Breakdown! Thank you for bearing with me while I put this one together while ill and I hope it is still up to our high standards here at Breakroom Breakdown. Given the holiday coming up, feel free to share what your plans are for this weekend! Until next week, I’ll be sure to see you around the Breakroom.