Tag: The Office

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.

1. 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 ↩︎

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.

1. 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/ ↩︎

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom. As most of you know this has been truly a rollercoaster of a week. It kicked off with the murder of Minnesota state Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, and the attempted murder of Minnesota state Senator John Hoffman and his wife. While the suspect in these shootings has been apprehended, it is further evidence in the danger that is facing this country due to political discord. These shootings occurred on Saturday alongside hundreds of “No Kings” protests which occurred across the country to protest President Trump’s selfish attempt at throwing a military parade just in time for his birthday. The cornerstone of this country is to be able to voice concerns and protest against acts you disagree with, but these murders go beyond any sort of protest are blatant attacks. And I hope the families are doing okay in light of these vicious assaults. These are scary times in this country and I hope all of my readers are being mindful and safe out there.

With nothing in my personal life being able to top what has gone in this country this week, let us get into today’s Breakdown! This is a continuation from last week where you may remember Michael is attempting ease the stress in the office after Dwight’s botched safety training resulted in Stanley having a heart attack. In the end, Michael realizes that the source of this office’s stress is at his own hands. So now Michael is wracked with this knowledge and doesn’t know how he can address it. The problem lies in he is seeing the stress having to do with his position as the boss rather than anything having to do with his personality or his actions.

He finally does come up with a solution in a method to address what he believes to be the issue, and that is everyone is too intimidated with him so naturally they cannot feel relaxed at work. The solution? He is going to set up a roast of Michael Scott so everyone can poke fun at him. For those unfamiliar, a roast (made very populate through Comedy Central roasts) is where a guess of honor is made fun of by his friends and colleagues. Having grown up during these roasts I can confirm they were very popular. I have seen clips of them since then and I’ve come to realize that they really are not all that funny. Besides the fact that my sense of humor has changed since then, as a former theatre major I do believe that there are trends and audience opinions which come and go. My biggest problem with the roasts of old are that they can get very mean and quite insulting, to be honest. While these are most professionals in the entertainment industry, I do believe that many of us think we have thicker skin that we really do. I can honestly say that I would not feel comfortable to have people roasting me like that, nor would I feel good about myself in roasting them back. Does everyone else agree with me in how comedy changes over time, or is this more my personal opinion and these roasts are still funny?

Only hours later we are downstairs in the warehouse, some of us having invited our significant others to come in, and Michael is on stage preparing to be roasted. Perhaps what was most interesting was getting to hear all of the different jokes people had because it really shines a light into the type of humor each person has.

Angela: Had a whole bit of “If you have ever done blank you might be Michael Scott. Certainly came off like a standup comedian.
Kelly: Went through a list of people she would rather make out with over Michael.
Meredith: Talked about how he has ruined her life and is the reason she drinks
Oscar: Vented at him entirely in Spanish, so I think we lost a bit in translation.
Jim: Broke down the many vocabulary deficiencies that Michael has such as not knowing what words mean or gets the phrase wrong.
Dwight: Tried to defend Michael but after being told how stupid he was just simply lost it and criticized him as a weak man.
Pam: Certainly tried to ham it up like a comedian in breaking down how Michael always falls for internet scams, never works, and said he had a small penis, “If it were an iPod it would be a shuffle.”
Darryl: Pointed out that while Michael always calls them a family, he couldn’t even remember the name of one of the guys in the warehouse. His name was also Michael.
Andy: Our musical entertainer, wrapped a song making fun of him.

As far as a roast being put on by a paper company could go, it was actually pretty good and people were genuinely having fun. Everyone, that is, except for Michael. He got up for his finale and he ended up choking up and had to run out. Like I said earlier, those roasts might look fun but most of us don’t have the skin for those types of jokes meant to be mean and personal. Even into the next day, Michael hadn’t shown up and called in citing a personal day.

Finally, at the end of the day, Michael did show up (in a really great turtleneck, I might add) and he had a few things to say. In response to all of the jokes thrown at him, he was ready with comebacks to everyone (I think to try to make himself feel better). We were all surprised by his sudden appearance, until Stanley started laughing. With that, we all began to leave and it really helped make up for everything that had happened. And that is how roasts typically end in the roastee gets up to roast everyone else and it is meant to end in an overall celebration of them.

So doing a roast of yourself as the boss is technically one way of handling stress in the office. But what other ways are there? I think it is important in recognizing the source: is the company causing unnecessary stress, or is the general stress that everyone experiences? While we should expect workers to be able to self diagnose when they are getting too stressed out at work, it does help to have a supportive leader on the lookout to ensure people are not getting burnt out, so here are few things that can be done:

Take your time off. One of the key culprits behind stress is not taking your time off you are owed. This is in two parts, your daily break as well as taking a vacation. If you feel you have so much work that you cannot take your breaks or vacations, there is a problem that you should bring to your leader. Europe is famous for mandating people to take their vacations, so don’t you dare work yourself so hard that you get burnt out.

Workload. It is possible to take on more than you should, maybe you are short staffed or you are among those who believes that the raises and promotions go to those who work harder than anyone else. Your job is entitled to only so many responsibilities and duties, so do your fair share and acknowledge that you are done. Doing just what is expected has been called “quiet quitting” and I am going call that out as moronic because those who use that term want their staff to do more work than their job is expected to. And for the record, unless you own the company, you shouldn‘t be thinking about work when you are done. I work from home and even I don’t think about work when I’m off the clock because it is not my responsibility or problem any more.

Take yourself out of your head. Sometimes it helps to clear your head. When on break, get away from the desk rather than spending it at your desk. If you can get away with it, put on music or even a tv show while you’re working to set the tone to something a bit more interesting. I can confirm this definitely helps when you’re doing things like data entry or just plugging away through work assignments.

Grab a distraction. Sometimes it helps to do something with your hands, so consider a fidget toy (which became really popular for awhile). If you want something more productive, why not try a Zen garden? Gives you an actual task to focus on, taking your mind off whatever is bothering you with work that day. You can also take a page out of Stanley’s book and take puzzles like crosswords.

Grab a snack. Sometimes it helps to grab a snack, maybe you are more hungry than stressed. I have also heard that sour candy can clear your mind when having stress or anxiety so I can recommend starting there with some sour gummy bears (a personal favorite) or some hard candy because you have to take the time to suck on them. These are good for a special treat but be careful around heavy snacking since poor nutrition certainly would not help your stress.

Get active. I mentioned earlier about getting away from your desk, well why not move around. I have had colleagues who take regular walks on their breaks or if you have an under the desk cycling machine like I do you can do that for a few minutes. They do say that exercise helps release hormones to make yourself feel better, and perhaps burn off a little steam.

If you have any additional recommendations on how to manage stress at work, by all means feel free to share with us!

I hope these techniques might help out the next time you are having a rough day at work, and if nothing else perhaps reading this blog helped distract you just long enough as well. Until next time, I hope you have a great weekend and I’ll be sure to see you around the Breakroom!