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Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! I hope you have all had a great week because around here it really feels like a rollercoaster. We have been busy looking at houses, officially above twenty and still trying to find the right one in this high-priced market. It also seems to be a week where everyone still has holiday brains because I can’t tell you how many people I’ve spoken to with problems that seriously make me wonder how they can function as a person, let alone be allowed to leave their house each day. But, I think we all have those weeks where we would rather bang our head against a wall. It has thankfully been incredibly warm and sunny like a properly summer, although we are officially less than two weeks away from August so autumn will be here before we know it, I’m afraid. But August and September will bring plenty of fun events with Teeb Con in August here in Duluth, along with the Duluth Superior Pride Festival over Labor Day weekend. And then the Minnesota Renaissance Festival down in Shakopee over the next couple of months is a must attend! Now that I’ve vented, brought myself down, and brought myself back up again why don’t we jump into what has happened at the office!

For starters, Michael was busy earlier this week with a huge project. Not work-related, of course, but it was because of a near-death experience he had. He had shocked himself and it made him realize that he could die at any moment, and he was worried that he would not be there for his son (who presently only exists in his mind). He enlisted Dwight to assist him making tapes for his future son, most likely because he saw this done in some sort of movie or television show. The premise is simple, you film educational pieces so that if you should pass away before you can teach it to them, they can simply watch the video. I didn’t catch all of them but Michael did cover the most important ones such as how to jumpstart a car (which he didn’t do right) and how to take off a women’s bra (grab the clasp and twist until something breaks). I cannot guarantee Michael Jr. will walk away having learned a whole lot, but I’m sure he will enjoy Michael and Dwight’s bickering.

Now for the real news coming up, we are officially only a week away from the wedding of our very own Phyllis Lapin! He was so excited to celebrate the union between her and Bob Vance (of Vance Refrigeration) that he has arranged for wedding showers be thrown for them today. To initiate the festivities, he announces that he is instituting “prima nocta.” For those who have seen Braveheart, I have not but my husband has been trying to for years, this is when the king proclaims his right to deflower a bride on their wedding night. In reality, there is not a lot of evidence of this being as widespread as they claim. I had learned from listening to the podcast, Office Ladies, that Angela Kinsey found that it was created as fake history where countries would tear down other countries (such as the French claiming the English imposed this during the Dark Ages) to make them look barbaric. Thank you Jenna and Angela for looking this up because I think it’s pretty cool that the majority of this occurrence in history has simply been fabricated and was not nearly as prevalent as history has made us believe. Sort of like how many of us are still waiting to come across that random patch of quicksand that popular culture said would be so prevalent.¹ If you’re interested in their entire episode, feel free to listen here. To be clear, Michael evidently has a very difference understanding of what this was so he was not trying to sleep with Phyllis. He backpedaled really fast, I do wish he would have mentioned what he had thought it was.

We were all pretty excited for the parties since it gave a nice break to the day from 2:30 to 3:45 since that was all that Bob had available. And they most likely would have been nice if it wasn’t for the fact that Todd Packer had to show up and ruin everything. It seems he put it into Michael’s head that the men’s shower needed a stripper to make it more exciting. And as long as he gets one for the women’s shower, then it couldn’t be considered sexual harassment since it’d be separate but equal (that is not what that means). What Todd is referring to are common with bachelor and bachelorette parties, but these were intended to be tasteful showers which are very different. But because Michael thought that this was expected, he decided to move forward with bring some naughty fun to the parties and tasked Jim and Dwight with hiring the strippers. Dwight was able to hire a dancer named Elizabeth, while Jim decided to instead contact the Scholastic Speakers of Pennsylvania, and hire Benjamin Franklin.

And just like that, our parties which are very inappropriate for the work day are officially underway. The ladies are in the office’s conference room with dainty finger sandwiches, champagne, and cake. I feel we had a nicer spread at my friends recent wedding shower but I’m not trying to say that I should be in charge of the Party Planning Committee (or maybe I should be). And in comes our former Founding Father (he was not actually president) to recall tales of his life for the ladies. It was pretty obvious they were all disappointed when they realized they didn’t actually get to have a stripper, although Michael didn’t seem to catch on. Right up until the end of the day he was convinced he was a Benjamin Franklin stripper because evidently he assumed women were into that (I don’t think many of them are). They do end up having a good time though, they had fun teasing him with naughty questions and even he got into the swing of things and did things like tying a cherry stem into a knot with this tongue. Perhaps the only thing funnier than Michael thinking he was a stripper is that Jim tried to convince Dwight that he was the real Ben Franklin and was almost positive that he wasn’t. For this wondering, it is possible to buy a Ben Franklin costume in case you want to do a similar party for someone.

Down in the warehouse we are enjoying steak (made with Michael’s George Foreman Grill) along with attempting to enjoy a game a poker when he brings in Elizabeth. She certainly is professional and tries to get the party going when it is pretty obvious that no one is really interested in a dance from her. Michael takes the bullet and accepts the first lap dance but he has a weird reaction and sort of freaks out and then calls the entire thing off.

It seems in the middle of the dance he started to feel guilty that he was having a girl dance up on him and was worried about what Jan would think, so he actually tries to get some advice from our visitors. Ben Franklin tells him to “not bother the womenfolk” and Michael sort of realized he wasn’t all that great. Sorry to disappoint a lot of you who might not realize this, but many of our Founding Fathers were sexist, philanderers, and had slaves so they were not necessarily paragons of virtue. Elizabeth (aka. Stripper) actually gave him so pretty good advice in the form of: “Secret secrets, are no fun. Secret secrets, hurt someone.” This actually convinces him to go and be honest with Jan about what happened (she was more upset about arranging these parties at work, which I feel is the bigger deal). For the record, this quote is actually part of the song “No Secrets” from the band No Secrets so if you were a fan of that quote, check them out!

And that brought us to the end of the work day! Oddly enough, this was a relatively tame day in that things did not spiral out of control too much. So what did we learn? Perhaps do not arrange for strippers to attend a party at work, and to also recognize the difference between a wedding shower and a bachelor/bachelorette party. And perhaps if you need advice, maybe consider going to a stripper instead of one of our Founding Fathers. Remember that next week will be Bob and Phyllis’s wedding day so I hope you don’t try and miss it. And in the meantime look up Breakroom Breakdown on Facebook and Instagram, not to mention catch up on our past posts if you haven’t done so. Please follow us, comment, or shoot us ideas on future topics.

And as always, I’ll see you around the Breakroom!

1. Fischer, J. and Kinsey, A. (Host). (2020, September 2). Ben Franklin (No. 43) [Audio podcast episode]. In Office Ladies. Audacy. https://officeladies.com/episodes/2020/09/02/episode-43-ben-franklin ↩︎

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! As I was wracking my brain to come up with an excellent topic for this week, it fell into my lap as as I received my reminder for the 2024 Prime Day Sale. I have been wanting to do a collective list of some of my favorite office supplies for awhile, so this was the perfect chance to do so since this is the perfect time to stock up! So, in no particular order, here are some of my office supply recommendations to stock up on this year.

Coffee Supplies

No office would be complete without your morning coffee, and the Keurig name has certainly been synonymous with brew what you want for many years and is found in offices all over. I personally do not have one at home as I am very much the type who will have a copious amount of coffee each day but for those you might like just a couple cups to watch their caffeine intake will love this Keurig Single Serve. Although the many flavors available are one of the purposes to use this product, not everyone might need that many options. For them, I can also recommend the Keurig Reusable K-Cups as a slightly more ecofriendly alternative.

Entertainment

I am sure everyone remembers the rise of the e-reader, we suddenly had the ability to access millions of books at our fingertips. Well, I am a personal fan of the Kindle Fire HD which is Amazon’s tablet so not only can you use this as a reader, I personally love to also use it when I want to stream television or movies. Need some white noise at your home office but do not have a television to situate there? Grab your Kindle Fire, flip on The Office and get to work! When we went to France last year, we thought ahead and actually downloaded not only books ahead of time, but several movies and television shows to watch offline in the event we needed to be able to kill sometime and this was a lifesaver! Plus, it’s a much larger screen than our phones.

Standing Desk

Still the rage, we have the standing desk which has slowly began to replace our desks of old. This is on my list of products I do what and need because I have certainly gotten a little lax give the fax that I only sit. One of my old colleagues would schedule specific times where she would stand to help stay in shape, and keep the blood flowing. Plus, they are much cheaper than standard desks which can be very pricey, and very cumbersome to move and put together!

Stationary Supplies

I think we all have at least one friend who wouldn’t even need to think if you asked them if they had a spare notebook or binder and I am one of those friends. I always have a pretty nice stock of binders because I always have cool ideas that I think of so I make it a point to have them on hand. I used a binder to create my interview prep book, so it would be something to study leading up to a job interview. I also created one during the beforementioned trip to France where I had details listed for our dog sitters to know the ins and outs of the house and dogs. I have also used them for printing off PDF dungeon and dragon homebrew guides, so the options are endless. Plus they have so many colors and designs that you can really customize them.

We all grow very attached to certain tools and I have certainly grown attached to the Black n’ Red brand which does some pretty top notch notebooks. They come in a variety of sizes and an be both hardcover (as seen above) or they can also be softcover with rings. Both add this unique sense of professionalism to meetings, and are pretty solid and not quick to fall apart like some notebooks. I’ve loved this brand for close to a decade and is my go to.

Dry Erase

No office would be complete without a magnetic dry erase board, and that’s the truth! The precise size you will want varies, but this particular one is my ideal size for even a home setting because I do enjoy a nice sized board. It’s excellent for notes, presentations, post its, or even just fun doodles when waiting for a meeting to start. I am sure there are some out there who are still no sold on dry erase, and perhaps you just need a board for pictures or post it’s and so I’d recommend this corkboard option as a great alternative like I have in my own office.

Storage and Organization

After binders and notebooks, my other great obsession is different forms of storage and organization. Of course, the more binders and notebooks I get the more storage I need so it becomes a vicious cycle. A solid printer cart not only creates a designated spot for your printer and related supplies, but does typically have more room for etcetera other items. Perhaps your printer is good where it is at and you might have more of an obsession with different types of paper, folders, an notebooks and this paper organizer is more up your alley to declutter your deskspace.

What happens when you start to run out of room horizontally? You go vertically but expanding your office with some floating shelves. I currently have a set in my office and have been contemplating more because I love how they look, as well as the options they give you to decorate your office with personal effects like a Zen garden, incense burner (if at a home office), and your favorite Funko Pop or plushie.

Decor

And finally, no office would be complete with those personal touches to make yourself feel at home, as well as provide some personal joy, for which there are many options available. As seen above, we could have a copy of a great art showcased in our office. Perhaps we are big fans of logos and would love a stickable copy of the The Office logo to set up in our own office or cubicle. Perhaps you are the motivational type, then you might be interested in motivational posters depicting quotes from great philosophers like Dwight Schrute and Michael Scott.

And for those collectors out there, how about a Funko of your favorite character like Casual Friday Meredith to give you a little something that makes you smile. Now I will admit, while I do have a few different Funkos, I do not own one from our staff at Dunder Mifflin. I have a few from Supernatural, Dungeons&Dragons, and Fantastic Beasts floating around the house other my office model is this Dilophosaurus from Jurassic Park in case you want to copy me.

And that, everyone, are my big recommendations for this Prime Day sales. I hope I was able to help with your decision making my giving some of my personal choices. Or, if anything, I hope I reminded my fellow Prime members that it was Prime Day (as if you hadn’t been aware already).

Otherwise I look forward to seeing you all on Friday, eagerly awaiting our Amazon purchases to arrive! Until then, I’ll see you around the Breakroom!

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! I hope you have all had a great week. On my end, I feel like I am starting to sense that people are very anxious to go into summer. Everyone is out the moment there is a little bit of sun and remotely warm, my dogs are shedding their coats all over the house, and I’m seeing plenty of out-of-towners in town with their giant vehicles taking up parking places. But what is a better way to countdown to summer than in office breakdowns, right? After today, we will officially hit summer in eight more breakdowns. Let us get this number going, and jump into everything that happened this week at the office.

Well, the biggest event really happened on Monday, first thing in the morning even. As you might recall, Michael has come up with a new idea on how to prevent those nasty cases of “the Mondays” by setting up videos for us to watch Monday morning. This particular Monday, we are picking up with Varsity Blues since the best cure for Monday Blues is Varsity Blues. Originally this idea started with us watching through the different training videos that Dunder Mifflin offered, followed by a medical video (thinking the ones they showed in school on our changing bodies). Since then it has been segments of movies each Monday, with the exception of an episode of Entourage that he had us watch six different times.

This topic certainly brings up the fact that many of us who work Monday through Friday jobs do get to feel that “case of the Mondays” when we come in after a nice weekend. Mind you, I feel many people might have their own version of a weekend depending on how their schedule works (my husband’s weekend would be Sunday and Monday) so many of us are familiar with this sensation. So reaching out to the experts, what can we do to help shake of those cobwebs that infest the work side of our brain?

Calm offers a full breakdown of the Monday Blues, including talking about the main symptoms which can include a lack of energy, anxiety, and just simple moodiness. So what causes us to go through these symptoms? There are a few reasons, certainly the biggest is simply going from a period of freedom and doing whatever we want back to our job where we have duties that are not necessarily fun, simply gets to us. It can certainly be a sign that you are unhappy with your job but for many people their job isn’t necessarily their life’s passion they’ve dreamt of doing their entire life, so it is understandable they’d rather being doing one of their hobbies. Additionally, it could have more to do with they actually did on the weekend. It is pretty easy to want to do so much over the weekend that sleep and rest becomes such a low priority, that you make up for it starting Monday when you need to go back to a routine. That last one is my biggest issue when I take days off for long weekends, I end up staying up too late because I don’t need to sleep right away and I pay for it later. So what does Calm suggest we do? Well one of them is exactly what Michael is trying to do and that is creating a ritual or tradition on Mondays. Just like we have a tradition of looking forward to the weekend, having a Monday routine assists in that transition back into the work week. Perhaps you do a weekly trip to your favorite coffee place for a special drink to start out the week or perhaps you schedule listening to the latest episode of your favorite podcast. Similarly, they recommend starting the week with a meditation or workout routine which can good to maintain your mood and energy levels. Rather than the start of the work week, you can focus on the days throughout it. You can take some time to focus on some self-care like a bubble bath or treat yourself to a special dessert. You can also focus setting up evening to do activities such as a movie night or perhaps you spend an evening on your favorite hobby like crocheting or blogging¹.

Forbes also discussed the phenomenon of Monday Blues, and they want to call out the fact that these rough Monday’s are not necessarily about the fact that you are transitioning from weekend to work week. They talk about how it could be a serious indicator that one is unhappy with their current job, since if you love what you do then going to work Monday just means you get to continue to do what makes you happy. I do personally want to disagree with this statement a bit. First, it is certainly possible to love your career but it doesn’t change the fact that you would love to have a nice long weekend without having to think about work. Second, not everyone is in a situation where they can “do what they love” and it is best for them to stay in a job that they just simply do not like. Maybe there are just not great job opportunities around or perhaps their ideal career is not one they can focus on full-time. Careers in the arts can take a great deal of time to achieve the ability to do it without a “day job.” So for those of you out there working a job that you just don’t care about, there is nothing wrong with working for the weekend because your job is simply a means to focus on your hobbies and personal time. So remember, not everyone gets to work a job that they look forward to every Monday morning. I think we all remember how long Chandler Bing had to work in his boring job before he finally found something he could be excited about. And for some people, it really is about making money to focus on your what makes you happy outside of work. So what are some of Forbes’s tips for preparing for Monday? They do recommend remembering to get proper rest over the weekend, so try to refrain from that excessive sleeping in. I usually split the difference and sleep in one day while getting up at my usual time the other day. Another they mention which I liked was about positivity and how it can help to keep yourself in a positive attitude. I typically do this by either listening to my favorite podcast or playing with my puppies for a bit always cheers me up. Another is to make someone else happy; working in human resources there are those instances where I am able to help someone and actually feel good afterwards. I find that verbally saying “they were really nice” or “that was actually a good call” helps to cement the fact that I was able to walk away happy. Additionally, much like how Calm talks about setting up plans throughout the week it can be as simple as having a plan for after work and give you something to look forward to. Today, for instance, my husband and I decided to order from OMC Smokehouse (a local favorite here in Duluth) and the thought of their famous brisket and beef fat fries definitely put me in a good mood. more importantly, it helps act as a goal or reward for being able to get through your work day². So while we might all have some serious Monday Blues, that doesn’t mean we can’t try to combat them with focusing on other aspects of our lives besides work.

Unfortunately, upper management is not always so keen about employees doing these sorts of activities while they are on the job and Jan Levinson is no exception. She had chose to swing by Monday morning for a visit and she went ballistic with Michael when she found out that this is what he has been doing Monday mornings with everyone. While I personally think it is one of his better ideas, Michael doesn’t always translate his reasoning very well so it came off as a poor idea. Interestingly enough, Stamford also has their own tool to mix up the day. Jim explained to me they all like to play Call of Duty in the office. Seems it started as a team building exercise but they now have designated times during the day as a motivational tool. Jan is aware that they do this and really supports the idea. This really makes me start to think it’s more the fact that Jan simply has a problem with Michael and is just looking for reasons to criticize him.

Well, as it turns out there was one other person who was looking for a reason to tear Michael down. Dwight suddenly had to disappear for an emergency dental procedure, he needed to get a crown put on. Michael didn’t think anything of this, but he would soon find out that his trusted Assistant (to the) Manager was planning a coup of his position. Dwight actually set up a meeting with Jan after she left the office to convince her that Michael was inept for his job and that Dwight held the key to rebuilding the branch. Now Dwight is a bit of a loose cannon and can be very odd, much like Michael, but he is potentially the only person who takes this company more seriously than Michael. Jan went right around and actually passed this information to Michael, so he actually chose to set up a trap to get Dwight to admit to us all of his treachery. Michael informed us all that Dwight was selected to replace him and that we needed to respect his loyalty (since that is all it takes to be manager) and he wanted for Dwight to break. Michael wasn’t able to last as long, however, and began to reduce Dwight to a crying mess in front of us all because of how he betrayed him. We definitely lost a bit of respect for him that day, for more reasons than one.

But Michael still chose to forgive him since he is such a great guy. That, and Dwight is to do his laundry for the next year and he decided to publicly shame him with a “Liar” sign he had to wear. What I do not get is why Jan was so quick to turn Dwight in rather than consider him for a higher role. It is no secret that Jan has problems with Michael, and was went off at him just that morning for being poor at his job. We’ve spent over a year trying to prevent downsizing and although Dwight is an odd duck (to say the least) he does take his job and the company very seriously. He is even the top salesman of the entire company, so you’d think Jan would want to use him to help save the branch. Certainly makes you wonder what is going through Jan’s mind when she is so hard on Scranton but is through the moon for the Stamford branch.

And that was the craziness that happened on Monday in how we went from an early morning movie to finding a traitor in our midst. I personally have never had an instance where I tried to replace my boss, but I have to say it takes a special type of person to try to do that to a boss you actually adore and look up to. On the brightside, we do have some new ideas for how to combat the Monday Blues. I like the idea of developing a Monday morning tradition so I will think on fun things that I can do. Perhaps doing a “doughnut Monday” where I have a nice pastry waiting for me as a breakfast treat. Do any you out there have your own methods of dealing with your case of the Mondays? Please comment below and let us all know!

Until next time, I hope you have a great weekend and I’ll be sure to see you around the Breakroom.

1. (n.d.). 8 ways to beat the Monday blues and have a better workweek. Calm. Retrieved April 25, 2024, from https://www.calm.com/blog/monday-blues ↩︎
2. Smith, J. (2013, February 25). 11 Ways to Beat the Monday Blues. Forbes. Retrieved April 25, 2024, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/02/25/11-ways-to-beat-the-monday-blues/?sh=8d8ecd423f5c ↩︎