The Office – Page 4 – Breakroom Breakdown

Michael Scott drinking a Scotch and Splenda during his final two weeks

The Office: Season 5, Episode 21 “Two Weeks”

Posted on August 8, 2025August 7, 2025 by Nathan Westerberg

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! This has certainly been quite the week, let me tell you. In a bit of working on ourselves, the husband and I have rejoined a local gym as of last Sunday to get back into working out. We last really worked out about two years ago but it was coming back from a three vacation that made it so difficult to get back into the routine. On top of that, work has been a pretty crazy week where there was just not a ton of time to stay on top of everything I was trying to do. Very much a “meeting heavy” sort of week which those times are pretty chill but the problem is you can’t really multitask during them. Then in regards to some personal/professional issues going it just has been a rough couple of weeks with being in an odd headspace with personal events going on, and just a whole range of emotions. Normally I would try to focus on my professional life but that has been difficult too in that it is nearly four years since I finished grad school and have still transitioned into a new position. The question was given me if perhaps because it is because I am not meant to be in human resources, which has been my focus of positions along with a variety of supervisor positions. So this leaves me with struggling to navigate other fields that not I would be interested in, but that my skills and experience could transition into. Marketing was one such field that came up but I feel that is another route which has become over saturated with employees, and is one which many businesses and organizations are attempting to replace with the use of AI. There is then also the option of going into an analyst role which although they often require experience and knowledge of business practices, it would require learning analytical hard skills. In a bit of good news that has been coming I can announce to all here that after talking about it for awhile, Breakroom Breakdown the podcast is on schedule to be released on August 15, 2025. This is obviously going to be a very rough version of what we are hoping to accomplish with our podcast but hope to ultimately produce a brilliant end result. As work towards getting weekly episodes up, we will be looking to our listener(s) to provide feedback, insights, and stories to help accomplish that goal. I do plan on blending the podcast with this blog so posts will continue to come, but I am still evaluating what they will look like. So no worries, all news and posts can still be found here and I look am incredibly excited to go on this journey with you all. I hope to have a more specified post this next week to talk a bit more on what I visualize this podcast to look like, but I feel that it is a greater medium in which to translate what I want to say. That being said this is officially an incredibly long paragraph in sharing everything going on my end so I want to let you all know that in exchange, please feel free to comment in and share some of your own challenges (good or bad) that you have been going through lately. But for every negative battle you have been going through, you will be expected to offer a victory you have achieved. It is impossible to ignore our battles, but as important it is to accept them it is just as important to remind ourselves that sometimes things do go right. And as you are all thinking about that, let us jump into this week’s breakdown!

As you may remember from last week, Michael Scott reacted terribly at the introduction of his new boss, Charles Miner, who he felt was taking away his ability to lead. We reached a climax as Michael confronted David Wallace at the corporate office and formally put in his resignation. While we all heard about it, we were incredibly eager to get all the details of how this happened. I have only ever left jobs on good terms so I have to imagine someone choosing to do so on the spot would give off some choice words. The one time Michael actually has a story we want to hear, he is almost attentionally choosing to drag it on as long as possible. He finally gets to the juicy details and his big reveal was that he left David with, “You have no idea how high I can fly.” Naturally most everyone else is pretty disappointed because they thought he would would go off at David at how he is a terrible boss, has been a pain their entire career, etc. I am pretty certain everyone was projecting onto Michael their own feelings and what they have fantasized about saying to their own boss.

So what does that mean for Michael now? Well, Dunder Mifflin does have a pretty generous two week policy in that once the resignation has been put in they do have a type of immunity so Michael can still finish out his two weeks. You’d think this is pretty standard but I have heard stories about companies where when an employee puts in their resignation, it is considered immediate because they do not want them around after they have chosen to leave. If a company can react like that, I would say you are not missing too much so you should consider it a good thing to be done with them. Interestingly, there actually is a pretty big difference between Michael trying to work and Michael not working. His most recent revelation was that he can just walk around the drinking a scotch and Splenda (tastes like Splenda, gets you drunk like scotch). His buzz gets interrupted as the rest of the office starts questioning what his plans are for after Dunder Mifflin. He admits to not having applied anywhere and assumes he will be headhunted, which he assumes the good ones already know he is available. He truly seems unbothered until a gentleman interviewing for his job is waiting in the office and starts chatting with him. That is when Michael starts to realize how different the job market is since he was last out there (more than 15 years) and he absolutely should not simply assume he will find a job. And so starts the spiraling as Michael attempts to figure out Monster.com (not Monsters) while trying to compile a job resume which I can assure you has only become more difficult in recent years.

You might be wondering what Michael ultimately settles on after he discovers there are no other local paper companies (since Prince Paper went out of business) and very few companies are hiring. Well if you were guessing he would choose to open up his own paper company, you would be right. He is incredibly confident that despite the industry being in decline and a horrible economic climate, his business will thrive off of his years of experience. His first goal was to try to poach Jim to come join the Michael Scott Paper Company. As confident as Michael was, he just couldn’t quite convince Jim to leave his steady job for a company that was only conceived of a couple hours earlier. This seems to be the main consensus from each person that Michael goes to, no one is convinced he can succeed and this will only result in him losing everything. Oscar, true to form, actually tries to convince Michael using actual facts in that most new businesses do not turn a profit for two years. According to a post at Coltivar, they estimate on average it takes 18 to 36 months to turn a profit, but there are obviously mainly variables including the industry. Based on a table provided, the standard estimation for a retail company (such as a paper company) typically goes for 18 to 30 months before seeing a true profit¹. Unfortunately, before Michael is able to get around to everyone he is discovered by Charles that he has been planning on opening a competing paper company and this does invalidate the two week immunity. Michael tries to give one last speech to everyone but Hank (from downstairs) escorts him out and unfortunately no one can hear him outside. And like that, the infamous Michael Scott was gone.

Perhaps the only person having a rougher day is none other than Pam. We finally got a new copier in the office, but the delivery staff failed to formally set it up or walk through the process, which means it is on her. Having had to set up such devices before, they can be surprisingly brutal; even worse in Pam’s case because the instruction book is written in German. Dwight attempted to help, but as his German is predominately pre industrial and mostly religious, it is quite clear he will be of no help. After a solid four hours, Pam is finally able to announce that the copier is ready and she has mastered the device and knows every aspect. She was certainly motivated given that she was repeatedly hounded by Kevin who seemed too impatient to wait for it to be finished and was not content when Pam said to come back “soon” because he didn’t know how much that could take. I did do some internet searching and yes, “soon” does typically refer to a short amount of time, but there is no specific measurement and it truly could mean any length of time.

We thought this was end of it when who came slinking through the office, but Michael Scott trying to do one last plea for people to come with. He is pretty impassionate in his plea, asking us if we truly felt are being the best we can be here. This is met with silence as we are terrified at giving up our steady job and benefits for Michael’s crazy idea that will more than likely fail. It was when he starts trying to drag Phyllis’s chair, that Charles sees this happening through the conference room window and comes out. Charles is a pretty cool and collected guy but he is seriously worked up by this point and I was convinced he was going to physically remove Michael from the office. I think he thought the same because he quickly drops the office supplies he was trying to swipe and leaves. Who else leaves? Pam apprehensively stands up and announces she is leaving too and heads out to meet Michael, with Jim running after her to make sure he understands what the heck is happening.

But it was no joke, Pam has officially left to join the Michael Scott Paper Company so I guess we will see what happens next. In the meantime, Charles is scrambling to get everything under control. I don’t know about you, but I would argue this doesn’t not look good for Charles that as soon as he arrives this entire branch is falling apart. To accommodate for these changes he tasks Kevin with taking over phones and the front desk responsibilities while Stanley is designated the productivity czar. I wish to point out that just like last week, I am convinced that Charles truly has not done much research to know how poor these decisions are. And to call back to my impression of those types of leaders who choose to be all business and not engage in getting to know employees, sometimes it is important to spend a bit of time just having small talk with staff. It is when they are not in business mode that you can start to get a clearer idea of the type of person they are and what they are capable of.

And that is the exciting Breakdown for this week. We absolutely have had some incredibly changes going on, not to mention the major recap I lead with on what all is going on in my life. And I was serious that I would love to from my reader(s) on the battles and victories that you have had lately in your life. For those who perhaps do not want to get too personal, how about you share some of your personal coping methods with when you need to take a brief reprieve from the world and need to silence your brain for a bit. I will admit that after coming across a few videos on Facebook Tuesday night, I proceeded to whip up a new playlist of “Emo Jamz” because I have always had an emotional response to music (as most of us do) and so I’m trying to tap into a genre that used to be my major coping device. In addition, the sudden urge to workout has certainly helped because when you are sweating profusely on an elliptical, you do not think about too much else.

Thank you (all) for joining me this week and for the last couple years of support and I look forward to moving into this next chapter of Breakroom Breakdown. Reminder to get your tickets to Excalibur Con 2025 and I hope to see you there. And of course, I’ll see you around the Breakroom.

Coughran, S. (n.d.). How Long Does it Take for a Company to be Profitable? Coltivar. Retrieved August 7, 2025, from https://www.coltivar.com/blog/how-long-does-it-take-for-a-company-to-be-profitable ↩︎

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

Posted on August 1, 2025July 31, 2025 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!

The Office

The Office: Season 5, Episode 19 “Golden Ticket”

Posted on July 25, 2025July 24, 2025 by Nathan Westerberg

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! Do you ever have those weeks where you look back and it feels like it was busy with a lot going on, but you keep coming up empty on what it was? I think with work there was some big topics coming up between a project I am working on relating to donation deductions and then a union strike that had been in place for a couple of weeks. Altogether these ended up being pretty mentally draining, mainly because I often build certain projects up in my head because I am trying to prepare for the worse case scenario. I took yesterday off and that ended up being a pretty good day. Got to sleep in which I do not get to do very often, ran some errands with my husband as we picked up various items for his salon space that is incredibly close to completion. And now here today I’m going in optimistic that although I have a couple of projects to complete, it will be a good day and I can get into the weekend. Now for my readers who are fellow Dungeons and Dragons players, I think you’ll understand the stress I incurred from our most recent session where my character was killed, brought back as a zombie, killed again before I could act as a zombie, resurrected back as a person, killed before I could do anything, and then brought back once more where I used my actions to simply try to heal to keep from dying all over again. Please know that the Eve of Vecna campaign is pretty serious. I will admit to feeling pretty upset throughout the whole interaction, which I believe most people would be, but am trying to not let it sour my enjoyment of the game.

With that recap out there, let us jump into the official Breakdown.

We started the day with some peak Michael Scott material all tied to him trying to be funny. He was eager to tell Pam a joke, so eager that he was bothering her during a phone call with a client. She was trying to provide contact info to the client in order to fax over some paperwork and Michael starts saying random numbers and talking over everything that Pam was really struggling. She pointed out how that made us look unprofessional but Michael assured her it was fine because they had no reason to know it was him who was doing that. I don’t know who needs to hear this but if someone is on the phone, at work or otherwise, do not bother them unless it is a life-and-death situation. Having a hilarious joke to tell is not a good reason. The breakroom is is on fire, now that would be an appropriate excuse to interrupt them. Michael’s killer joke?

Knock-knock. Who’s there?
Buddha. Buddha who?
Buddha this bread for me. (Michael has a slice of bread and stick of butter in his hands that he then puts on the desk).

Not the joke of century so I would be pretty annoyed and disappointed that the joke wasn’t even that good. To join in the fun, Dwight interjects with his own joke.

Knock-knock. Who’s there?
KGB. KG-?
(Slaps Michael) We will ask the questions!

Now this joke I like, I feel those questions that interrupt the usual structure of the joke are extra funny but in this case you should be careful of who you are slapping. Michael was so annoyed he actually called for an end to all knock-knock jokes, until Jim throws out a ding-dong (like a doorbell) to retell the KGB joke. Neither of them are falling for it but Jim is able to slap Dwight while declaring “The KGB will wait for no one.” Again, this joke is pretty solid but I would argue it is not one that you can do with just anyone.

The big event of the day was surrounding the anticipation of Michael’s most recent initiative called the “Golden Ticket Promotion.” Enthralled that he was the first one to come up with this idea to take the concept from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory he has hidden five golden tickets in random boxes of paper that were shipped out each offering a 10% discount. So eager with anticipation was Michael that he came in dressed as Willy Wonka and was dancing around the office, gloating about how he is the only one trying to offer up ideas on par with the golden ticket.

He attempted to do a brainstorming meeting in which he encouraged other employees to voice their golden ticket idea, but it didn’t go as expected. Jim’s were too wordy (truly good ideas should summed up in one or two words) while Andy was stuck on thinking the ideas needed to use the phrase “golden.” Michael tries to explain what are considered golden ticket ideas including Post-Its and that to get to the moon, NASA had to use use five or six golden ticket ideas. Now running a brainstorming session at work can be a great idea to get unique ideas and viewpoints that you would not have thought of. But there is more to running such a meeting than telling them to give your ideas. Tom Krieglstein goes into detail in an article he wrote on his LinkedIn with some tips including providing a clear goal of what these ideas should work towards, setting the right tone, and even recognizing that you need to address that most groups have a combination of introverts and extroverts. To give my own personal experience, when in a smaller group of perhaps 10 or less people I do find myself pretty vocal with giving ideas and insight into the question at hand and will usually feel pretty confident. Once you get into more people than that, you find yourself competing with (as Tom puts it) extrovert hijacks, the person who can somehow take over the entire meeting. Brainstorming should be a creative collaboration but that doesn’t mean there should be so some rules and boundaries in place, so I would recommend you do some research before throwing your staff into one¹.

Perhaps the most annoying aspect of this was how smug Michael was and how he feels he invented the golden ticket concept (basically just a coupon). He was, at least, until he first call came in from a recipient of the coupon. It was one of Jim’s clients and Michael was stoked until he found it was Blue Cross of Pennsylvania. Being one our of biggest clients, losing 10% is a pretty big deal. That is until it is revealed they received all five coupons which means we are losing a staggering 50% in their order. To make matters worse, Jim reports this all to corporate to explain to them why they will see a sudden drop in his sales following this incident. Typical Michael fashion, what started off with him in a good mood has now left him spiraling on how to handle this. Also true Michael fashion, he handles this spiraling very poorly.

He attempts to do some damage control and how he does this is by backpedaling his involvement with the golden ticket idea. This is pretty difficult to do while dressed up like Willy Wonka so he went ahead and changed out of the costume, even tossing it in the dumpster like it was never there. He then holds another meeting where he explains that he tends to take in all of our ideas so this golden ticket idea was really our idea and he wasn’t involved. It was then that Michael had to face the music and take a call from David Wallace at corporate who was expecting an explanation on how this happened. And Michael chose to throw Dwight under the bus as being responsible for the idea. This then motivates Michael to take Dwight away on a friendly stroll. He uses this entire time to convince Dwight to take the fall as it would be good because he could focus more on the farm and bed and breakfast, but Michael only has this job. That and the idea for a men’s shoe store (Shoe La La) where one could buy shoes for every moment in a man’s life. I did like learning more about Michael’s idea for his own store, I think it is very telling of people to ask what they would do if they could open their own business. I personally would love my own bookstore which would could also host classes and readings, along with coffee and baked goods. Simple and while it is not something I am working towards, if I was suddenly given a blank check to go out and open up my own storefront that is likely what I would do.

I have to hand it to Michael with this whole Wonka situation. As disgusting as he is in how he has completely flipped to hide that it was his idea, I would argue this is a true masterclass in how to do so. There are not many people who can show up dressed in a Wonka Costume, spend all morning bragging about how it was their idea, and then can instantly turn around and say they had no involvement. With that level of denial and deceit, I think he should consider running for president.

He will come to regret his decisions when David Wallace shows because just as Dwight seems ready to accept responsibility, David reveals the golden ticket idea ended up being a success! Blue Cross was so excited over the discount, they are committing Dunder Mifflin to also be their vendor on office supplies. Knowing how much office supplies can go for, and how quickly offices can consume them, this could be a big deal in the long-term. And Dwight is all too eager to take the praise for this idea, and Jim and Pam quickly rally behind him and insist Dwight deserves all of the credit. Yet again we see Michael spiral because now that it is praise, he really wants the recognition that he came up with the concept. Not only that, but David takes Dwight into a phone call with the Dunder Mifflin marketing team to brainstorm additional ideas. Well that has to be Michael’s dream to be asked for his ideas. He keeps assuming Dwight will reveal that it wasn’t his idea and when he doesn’t, Michael has to suddenly just let it slip out. Proceed to Dwight and Michael arguing in front of David to the point that he no longer cares and quickly leaves Scranton and just wants to forget about this whole incident.

While I might be in awe at how Michael was able to backtrack his way out of being tied to the golden tickets, one of the most important aspects of being out in the business world is to learn to accept responsibility for your actions. Too often we hear about those in leadership positions who attempt to find a “fall guy” for a situation so they do not have take the blame. I’m afraid that in my opinion, that just happens to be part of being in such a high position. You are overpaid because you need to take on responsibility for when something goes wrong, especially when it is your fault. But the same goes for us who are not in such positions as I have certainly made mistakes or made decisions that didn’t pan out right. The best thing to do is own up to the error so you can begin formulating a means of correcting the issue. No one wants to be in trouble, but I feel that your merit as an employee comes not just from your accomplishments but also from how you handle your failures.

And that is this week’s Breakdown, I hope you all found it incredibly exciting. I do want to call out that Excalibur Con 2025 is quickly coming up this next month. You can get all of the information, including purchasing your tickets in advance at https://mnswca.org/excalibur-con-2025 and I look forward to seeing you there!

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

Krieglstein, T. (2024, January 23). How to Run an Effective Brainstorming Session. LinkedIn. Retrieved July 24, 2025, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-run-effective-brainstorming-session-tom-krieglstein-gpxge/ ↩︎

The Office

The Office: Season 5, Episode 18 “Blood Drive”

Posted on July 18, 2025July 17, 2025 by Nathan Westerberg

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! I hope you have all had a great week, not thinking too much about the fact that we are already halfway through July. Personally I suppose I really do not have too much to report back for this week. Work was a bit hectic but nothing too unique to report back on, overall just ready for the weekend and figuring out how to spend it. We have been doing some great grilling this week between chicken legs and kabobs, I would love to know if anyone has some unique ideas of recipes with the grill. Obviously I know about foods like burgers or hotdogs, looking for some things out of the ordinary. The grill is such a seasonal device that I want to make sure we get as much out of it this year as possible! With that out there, let us get into today’s Breakdown!

Every so often we get some secret happenings where it is deemed necessary to keep Michael out of it, and we had one such instance. A salesman had came to the office and spoke with Pam about arranging a meeting with Michael where he was trying to sell him on moving into their new phone system. This sounds harmless but Pam is aware that their new phones offer aspects like outside callers being able to navigate directly to specific employees and departments. Since this is “basically 95%” of her job, they might start questioning if they still need her. She tries to point out that the phone system wouldn’t put candy out like she does, but people could just go to the vending machine and have money come in to the company. Certainly does feel a little similar to the AI debate going on these days where companies are trying to find roles that can be replaced with computer programs rather than actual people. Pam has been keeping him at bay for awhile, always acting like Michael is busy, but he is formally asking to schedule a meeting to ensure he has something on the books. As Pam is trying to come up with an alternative, Jim catches the whole situation and runs up and introduces himself as Michael Scott. He quickly explains they are not interested and he can take his business elsewhere. That seems to work, until the real Michael comes up asking what is going on. Before the salesman could say anything, Jim just blurts out “heyyy” and a couple thumbs up (like Fonzie from Happy Days). Pam then follows suit until Michael is copying them and then even Dwight jumps in, ultimately scaring away away the salesman and leaving Michael comfortably in the dark. Not sure this qualifies as a Jim prank, but I have to give them major props for orchestrating that.

The big news of the day is that it is Valentines Day and the office park is hosting a blood drive with the blood mobile collecting donations. Valentine’s Day sounds like it should be a happy time for everyone but unfortunately there is a large amount of people single and have been having some dating woes that people are not excited. Pam, for instance, has a planter of flowers from Jim and Michael keeps trying to set it on the floor so he doesn’t have to look at it. I do think it is obnoxious when people trying to throw their sappy romance in your face, but I feel Jim and Pam are actually pretty good most of the time. Just because you are single, doesn’t really mean it is fair of you to try to throw that on your colleagues. Fed up with having to put up with them, Michael decides the office will put on a Lonely Hearts Valentines Day party. The concept of these types of parties is to act as a boycott to Valentine’s Day and celebrate being single. While the office is busy decorating and planning, Michael went on down to get his blood donated.

They got the party in swing and unfortunately it started to sway towards the alternative form of Lonely Hearts parties and that is essentially a pity party for everyone. Michael insisted they go around and talk about everyone’s worst breakup story in an effort to move past it. While the sentiment might be nice, I feel like most of the people had already moved on and now they are simply choosing to relive a low point in their lives. After almost an hour of increasingly depressing stories, Michael suddenly decides it is time to turn this around and rebrand the party as a Singles Mixer. Rather than dwell on being single he wants to invite people from all over the office park to come in for the mixer. As well as try to find the owner of a lost glove, for some reason.

Before long quite a few people begin showing up that we hadn’t met before and it is actually pretty fun, even Kevin met someone who worked in the building. As a lover of a good party, I was more focused on the refreshments with the key being a red velvet cake. Red velvet is a classic for Valentines Day, besides being delicious the color lends itself to the theme of the party. There was also some sparking juice to drink as well as a few other sweets. That is always the problem when it comes to Valentines Day parties, it becomes very sweet heavy and not often a lot of savory dishes. I would say a little charcuterie board would be a good option at a party like this so an assortment of meets and cheeses to help counterbalance all of the sweetness.

We start to realize that Michael is transfixed upon the door, beyond just watching for new people and seems like he is expecting someone specific. Turns out when he was donating blood he met a woman who was donating at the same time. They seemed to hit it off and were joking together and he probably would have asked her out except he passed out after donating the blood. For those who never donated, it is important to eat the day because if can be very possible to pass out if not properly hydrated with the right blood sugar levels. When he came to, she was gone but she had forgotten her glove behind and that is why Michael was advertising that it had been found. Everyone was really moved by this story and I think because they were all so lonely as well, they really hoped someone could walk away in a relationship. We hung around till the end of the day but she never showed up. Michael said he’d just wait around but we encouraged him it was time to move on and that we should all leave together. It isn’t often we all side with Michael but he does have his moments where he can be a pretty decent person.

Now while we were doing this, we had some missing faces in that Jim and Pam were invited to a Valentine’s Dinner with Phyllis and Bob. Sounds like they had a great time in they were joking and laughing together, bonding over bowling as well as how annoying Michael is. Everything was great until Jim and Pam wondered why Phyllis and Bob had been in the bathroom for so long because they actually through they may have ditched. The food had been delivered while they were away and Pam brings up an interesting question in at what point is it okay to the meal dropped off if people are away from the office. I have a few opinions on this and I would say that it would be polite to wait for your dinner companions to return in order to eat together. I would say Jim is correct in that if you have ordered hot food, I would normally give them maybe 5 minutes before eating because if the food is hot you should be allowed to it eat it before it gets cold. Of course, if they are gone for reasons other than simply a quick bathroom trip then I believe the same rules do not apply. Jim and Pam actually went to look for them and realized they were having relations in the handicap bathroom. Now if the people I was out with were choosing to take their time with something like that or taking a phone call, I would say it is okay to begin eating. Again, I feel it is okay to give them a small grace period (5 to 10 minutes) but afterwards it is on them to get back to the table.

And that is the Breakdown today! While Valentine’s Day is not a major holiday in my life, I was excited to be able to weigh in on the restaurant issue at the end because I do find such rules about etiquette to be interesting especially because there are plenty of instances that can be up for debate. How do you feel about my interpretation of the scenario? Do you agree or do you have your own opinion?

I hope you enjoyed today’s Breakdown, and I hope to see you all again next week. As always, I’ll see you around the Breakroom.

Party Planning Committee, The Office

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

Posted on July 11, 2025July 10, 2025 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.