Office Ladies - A Look Back on Conflict Resolution

Episode Date: August 25, 2021

This week we’re taking a look back on Conflict Resolution. This is the episode where Oscar and Angela feud over the babies playing jazz poster, Jenna shares some amazing insights on the talking heads, both ladies talk about magazine photoshoots with their cats, and we discover whose names are on the plaques hung all around Dunder Mifflin. The ladies also wonder if ‘save the dates’ are worth the trouble, and then we get into Michael’s conflict resolution style, along with some major Pam sass. Finally, we talk about all the hilarious pranks Jim has played on Dwight, and discuss that office group photo. This episode is definitely a “win, win, win”!

Hello! Jenna, I cannot believe summer is almost over. I know. I was just thinking, before we are knee-deep in school projects and homework assignments, we kind of need to take one last vacay. I completely agree. Angela, what is your dream vacation? Oh my gosh. You know what? Right now, I think it would be a home vacation because I have so many projects that I want to get done before the end of the year. Does this mean that you would actually stay home and clean out your shed? How dare you? How dare you? Yes, maybe. Well, folks, while we take one last week of summer vacation and maybe Angela cleans out her shed, we wanted to make sure that you got a great Office Ladies episode. So this week, we will be

re-listening to Conflict Resolution. This is such a good one. Okay, Baby's playing jazz poster is back. There's some real pamp sass. Remember, she thinks Angela complained about her wedding planning? Yes. Listen, this whole episode is a win-win-win. So here is Conflict Resolution. I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey. We were on the Office together. And we're best friends. And now we're doing the Ultimate Office re-watch podcast just for you. Each week, we will break down an episode of The Office and give exclusive behind-the-scenes stories that only two people who were there can tell you. We're the Office Ladies. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Conflict Resolution. I'm talking to you from my closet

today. I know we're both in our closets today. What is happening? We're both talking to each other from our closets. And Sam and Cody are watching. I'm looking at Cody's cat. Love it. Sam's dog is somewhere there. This is where we're at now, folks. Angela, your shirts are very well folded. Are those Josh's shirts? No, baby girl. Baby girl. Are we doing that again this week? We are. Here's the thing. I started every morning by talking to my family in Texas and Louisiana. And then it just is kind of with me for the whole day. This is my closet. My own closet. I share it with no one. It is a personal life victory. Oh my gosh. I only get one side

of a closet. We have one closet, and I get one side, and Lee gets the other. Although, to be honest, I think I have encroached on about a third of his side. Well, Josh has his own closet, but one wall of it is my shoes. This is the riveting content that people tuned in for. I know. I know. Listen, but just bear with me one second. Here is a perk of not growing since like your junior year of high school. Maybe a little wider in some places, but I've had the same shoe size. Angela, you're describing most adults. I mean, most adults hit their peak height somewhere around their junior, senior year of high school. It's not like other people are continuing to grow four or five inches in their 20s and 30s. Do you have the same size foot as

like when you were a sophomore? Yes, of course. You do? Yeah. I've been a seven and a half medium since like, you know, junior year of high school. I was fully grown when I went to college. I was fully grown. It's true. Oh, I unzipped my hoodie. Could y'all hear that? You heard the zipper? It sounded like you tuned it. It wasn't a tune. It sounded like a tune. It's good that you're claiming that you unzipped your hoodie. I was. Oh my gosh. I see how it is. So we're here. It's Conflict Resolution Day if you can't tell. It's season two, episode 21, written by Greg Daniels and directed by Charles McDougal. Action! This was a really, really fun one for me. And I love Charles and he and I got to play a lot in this episode because guess what? Angela Martin has a

lot of conflicts. Should I give a summary? Yes. All right. So there are two main things that happen in this episode. One, everyone at Dunder Mifflin is being issued an ID badge. So one by one, people go into the break room and have their photo taken for their badge. And then secondly, Michael takes the stack of employee complaints from Toby and starts trying to resolve them one by one by forcing people to confront one another at work. Yeah. So I have one little thing about this episode. So Dwight is like going on and on about how horrible the security is at the office, right, at Dunder Mifflin. Yeah. We get these badges. We never wear them again. No. Well, you know, there's this deleted scene where it's supposedly the next day and we're all walking

in in the morning and we all have our badges on and Hank is in the scene and Hank keeps insisting that Dwight show his ID badge and he pretends like he can't read it and then Dwight misses the elevator. So I guess we wore them once for a tag that never aired. Right. But no, we don't ever. It's, you know, it's sort of the casual Friday of it all. It is. It really is. Yeah. It really is. It really, look, Jen, I brought it back to casual Friday for you. I appreciate that. I really appreciate that. Are you going to hit me with some fast facts? You know I am. I'm going to hit you with some fast facts. Can I get my sting? Fast facts. Yeah. That's from DDB, by the way. I did not give him a shout out last week. So I wanted to do that this week. He's a sound engineer who

sent us that sting. Thank you so much for that sting. It does make me feel like I'm like in a 1980s game show or something. Fast facts. I love it. All right. Fast fact number one. We have a special guest star in this episode playing the ID badge photographer. It is Scott Atzit. Scott Atzit. I love this fella so much. I've known him a really long time. He's an improv bud of mine back from the Improv Olympic days and I was texting with him last night. I told him we were watching this episode and he had some fun things to say. Do you want to hear him? You know I do. Scott Atzit is an amazing improviser, performer, comedian. You might know him from 30 Rock. Also your children know him as Baymax. He's Baymax and Big Hero 6. Anyway, okay. That's my Baymax,

Scott. You do it much better. So here's a little behind the scenes tidbit that he shared with me that he remembers from filming this episode. He said he remembers that Ricky Gervais came to visit set this week and everyone was a buzz. He said that Ricky seemed delighted and surprised by the scale of the production of our set and everything compared to maybe what his production of it had been like in the UK and he said that Ricky was just very humble and sweet. Oh my gosh. I did not remember that Ricky visited during this episode. Yeah. I mean he popped by in and out those first couple seasons you know but Scott remembered meeting him and he just said that he was just really nice. Oh my gosh. That's like a fast fact within a fast fact. That's a double

fast fact. Did I help you get a double fast fact? You did. You did. Angela, I have a fun fact within this fast fact. Both you and Scott have appeared in two episodes of the TV show Monk. I was in one episode yes and I played the murderer. Well, Scott was on seasons three and four. So between the two of you you cover four seasons of Monk. Congratulations. That's my fun fact. Monk was so much fun to shoot and Tony Shaloub was the nicest. We sat on like a little bench in between scenes and he was throwing something to try to get it in the trash can and when it hit the trash can it made like a ping and I started laughing and he started laughing and I said I mean that was kind of a funny noise. And then the two of us sat there and did our impressions of the noises of

things going in the trash can like... We were such dorks and we cracked up. I don't know. He's just so fun. I just adored him. That fast fact was just chock full of fun and fast facts. That was a very full fast fact. It was a full fast fact. It was a full fun double fast fact. Fantastically fun full fast fact. Oh my gosh. Fast fact number two. Okay. Fast fact number two is a fan question from Zach Akers and here's what he wrote in to say. Why does Jim do his talking heads in front of the outside facing window while everyone else's talking heads are inside of the window that faces the bullpen of the office? He says in Boo's Cruise and some later episodes there are joint Jim Pamp talking heads in front of the outside window but neither Pamp nor anyone else normally

sits in front of that outside window and then he noticed because Jim has several talking heads in this one he was like it's really prominent in this episode that Jim is there. So I thought that was a great question and such a wise observation I had to investigate. No that is a great catch. It really is. So I emailed Greg Daniels and I asked him was this deliberate? Was this an accident? What does he have to say? And he said that it was something that Randall Einhorn our cinematographer suggested to Greg starting with the pilot and Greg absolutely loved it. He said Randall's intention here was that it didn't necessarily have to be only Jim but the idea was that any character that had a future outside of Dunder Mifflin or held some sort of internal optimism

would sit in front of a window leading out into the world but characters who didn't want to leave Dunder Mifflin or who maybe were in more of a position of being trapped would do their talking heads facing into the office. Wow. That's so deep. That's really deep. Yeah. I'm sitting here racking my brain to think of my character ever sat on that other wall with the window facing out behind her and the one that comes to my mind and I think it might be the only one. I'm trying to think if there's any other one. It was when you and I did big prigs little prigs. Yeah we did. I think it's the only time I ever sat there. Well for a very long time I only sat there if I was with Jim. Wow. Which was really the only possible future for Pam outside of the office.

Wow. That's so deep. Isn't that crazy but otherwise she was rather trapped in her, you know, bad decision of being with Roy. Trapped or content you know. I mean some of us were just happy with our lot in life. Yes. Well that is fascinating and I like it. Yeah. I thought that was a good one. So thank you so much Zach for pointing that out and writing in. Now finally fast fact number three Angela it's a fast fact flashback. What are you doing? Why are you drunk? So here is this fast fact. This episode was filmed during May 2006 and so Angela my question for both of us is what were you doing? Flashback now to May 2006 and what were you up to? Well I had a journal entry from May 3rd 2006. This is what I wrote. I wrote that I was doing a photo shoot

with my cat Lucy for Cat Fancy Magazine. Angela Kinsey. What? Shut the front door right now. Do you know what I wrote in my journal? No. For this week of May. What? 2006. I did a photo shoot with my cat Andy for People Magazine. I'm not joking lady. Lady how did we not know that we did photo shoot with our cats at this time? What is happening? I feel like we probably at the time knew but it's hilarious to me for us to both share our journal injuries from early May 2006 and we were both so tickled that we were taking photos with our cats. Oh my gosh. First of all this is why we're BFFs all right. This is why our life has very strange ways that it is parallel. So was Lucy on the cover of Cat Fancy? No Lucy was not on the cover because she was a rescue.

She was not a purebred cat but also Jenna. Cat Fancy doesn't let humans on the cover so that's like it's only cats on the cover. Okay. But the cool thing was is that Lucy and I got like I think I mean I saved the magazine. I think we got like four pages so Lucy and I are in the center I guess for the centerfold. Oh you are the centerfold of Cat Fancy magazine. So Lucy and I look amazing. There's some of the best pictures I feel like I have. How was she during the photo shoot? Well yeah I should probably give you some backstory about Lucy. Lucy loved to sleep. Oh so uh Lucy did okay. Lucy just laid there and I mean Lucy it's I love her she RIP Lucy she had a great long life but she um really just loved to lounge. She was a lounger. Oh. So I in many shots

I'm just laying next to her because that's like her favorite thing to do. But what about you? What was your people magazine shoot like with Andy? Okay well Andy was also a rescue but he was a semi feral cat. I had found him he was eating out of a dumpster back in Kirksville, Missouri where I went to college. I think he was about like five or six months old when I got him and he was just always a little we said he was always a little wild and he loved me and he snuggled me and he was so gentle and sweet but he didn't love strangers in the house and so when the people magazine guys came over not only were they all there kind of causing a ruckus you know and Andy was a little bit like I'm out of here they wanted to do the photo shoot outside and

they wanted me to hold him. Forget it mine was inside. Oh oh my gosh. Angela I'm in like full hair and makeup with this dress on they were like okay we're ready for you will you come out with Andy so I'm holding Andy and I think if you look in the photo you can see that he and I are both a little tense but I'm smiling super big as if I'm not tense and I wrote in my journal Angela I wrote in my journal that he clawed my stomach and I had like like bloody claw marks in my stomach from the photo shoot because he wanted to get away. Oh lady I can't believe that we both did cat photo shoots in May of 2006 and also that we both wrote about it in our journals and also that our experiences were so vastly different. I do remember like calling my mom and I was so excited

because I hadn't really been in any magazines ever obviously in my whole life and I was like mom I'm gonna be in cat fancy and my mom was like what? I was like me and Lucy mom. Anyway that is so cute I love that now I really want to see I remember you doing that but now I need to see the picture. Okay well I have a ton of makeup on just a ton of makeup and I'm smiling in a really weird maniacal way and I called my mom after that photo shoot Angela and my mom was so sweet she was like oh I am just so proud of you both just so proud of you both she's like just think about that little kitten that you found in that dumpster in Kirksville Missouri he drove all the way to Los Angeles with you onto the pages of People Magazine what a life you've given him. That is that is so

adorable that is such a mom moment oh my lord I know well that's it that's the end that was my third fast fact fast-back flashback I like it those were really fun all right guys well maybe we should take a break and then we'll come back to break down this episode of conflict resolution let's get into it Angela Martin I have a card for this episode and it's called the whole office sass oh I think I know the scene you're talking about I can't wait and we're back Angela you open up this episode I do this I I mean I don't think this happens very often with my character but it starts with me very quickly at like one second in I'm making copies on that copier and then the camera pans over to you and Kevin at reception Angela why

didn't you close the top of the copier when you're making the copy I'm not the only person who noticed this because Molly net also would like to know Angela um probably because that copier didn't work really there was always a catch to that copier one time I made copies and I had to hold the side of it like shut um I think that they didn't want me to shut it there that would have been specific that would have been Charles McDougal as a director he really had his eye on everything so there was definitely a reason to that either a if I shut it it wouldn't work uh-huh because the copier was a hundred years old or they wanted that light that's like pans across the copier maybe they liked the effect but it it it was a thought-out thing I'm sure of that all right but it wasn't

like Angela Martin's like character choices like I only photocopy with a blinding light in my face exactly um so after you copy with the copier open Pam is over at her desk and she's doing her wedding planning and Kevin asks if his band can play in the wedding but Kevin is doing something that is such a pet peeve of mine like anyone that walks up and starts tapping a table or something on something I want to like break their fingers it makes me crazy you don't like that I can't take it who likes that who likes that some people are like oblivious oblivious like you can like walk by and be like and they're like whatever but you do that around me and I'm like what is your problem you know what I don't love whistling oh people who walk around just yeah yeah I

I can't yeah sorry problem sorry whistlers all right so we find out that Pam did not invite Angela to her wedding and this is because she doesn't want anyone there who's called her a hussy Angela in the background of my talking head where I'm talking about you calling me a hussy you're eating in the kitchen mm-hmm at 45 seconds you seem like you are really eating were you hungry I remember check it out 45 seconds Angela is scarfing down whatever her food is in the background in the scene they let me eat a bagel I was really excited whenever I got to eat something like that I was like yeah I'll eat that whole bagel give me some cream cheese butter I'm here that's the cold open right we come back the episode opens with a Michael

talking head and Phyllis getting her photo taken and this is the scene where we find out that everyone's being photographed for their new ID badge yes and in the deleted scenes if you get the DVDs for this this is a particularly great DVD so disc four in the DVD set disc four has commentary it has deleted scenes it has a blooper reel it has fake PSAs we did it has a Olympic promos we did yeah it has the accountants the webisode series which won an Emmy yeah so it's got this is a very good disc Jen and I make no money off this I'm just telling you if you're an office fan this is a great disc but there was a deleted scene that I thought was really interesting it was a Michael talking head and it kind of sets up the whole episode yeah I know

what you're talking about in fact I also just want to say before you explain this I thought that the deleted scenes from this episode played like a mini episode did you find that because they start with this like what you're talking about they start with this amazing talking head for Michael exactly so Michael is talking about how well one of the things is he hates it when people have something wrong and they won't tell you what's wrong and he says my dad would do that all the time and I would look at him and I'd say dad what's wrong dad was wrong dad was wrong dad was wrong yeah I would do it over and over and he would just look at me like I was an idiot that's what he says poor Michael and then he also has a scene with Ryan where he is saying that it's

just another kind of boring day nothing's gonna happen and he's talking about how on big brother they tackle really important things you know every week but I guess that's not real life and he you can tell that Michael wants to feel accomplished in this day he wants to feel like he made a difference well I think that deleted scene is a great way that we motivate Michael's whole desire to take over the conflict resolution in the office for the day because now in the next scene Ryan is in Michael's office and he hears Oscar yelling from the conference room Oscar is going off I know the beginning of that scene the stuff that they're overhearing Oscar saying Oscar's improvising because they were like okay just make a big fuss they'll overhear it and it

will cause them to leave Michael's office right go see what the hubbub is about yeah and Oscar's a very funny improviser and he got he got to have some fun in this episode oh all those lines are amazing Michael goes into the conference room and he sees Oscar is with Toby and he is ranting about Angela's baby jazz poster mm-hmm that Toby gave her in the secret Santa exchange at Christmas yes she has hung it in accounting and Oscar doesn't want to look at it anymore it's furious and Toby's like listen you normally wouldn't hear this ranting normally we do it in the break room but they're doing the security badge photos in there so we're doing it in here instead and this is Michael's opportunity he has found his purpose and this is it he's so excited he decides he's

gonna resolve this conflict so he calls Angela and Oscar into the conference room and Pam apparently Pam had to attend Pam gets pulled into so many things with Michael it's like he needs her to document it in some way I don't know but I'm not writing anything down no you know and you hardly ever are no it's so true he just likes to feel important he likes to feel like he has a personal assistant yes I like how quickly he produced this uh poster board that says communicate this binder he's had this he has been waiting he has had this he's ready to go but you know what I think Angela I think corporate gave him this binder a long time ago to look through and study and he's never cracked it open until now oh yeah he he was like I can't be bothered with this binder and now

suddenly he's ripped it off the shelf we had a fan question from Aiden Magia you know we go through the different styles of conflict resolution and Aiden wanted to know did it ever mention in the script what the number two and number three resolutions were in the five different styles of conflict I don't know but I know what the five are the only one that's referred to in the script that isn't listed in this scene is compromise so the five types of conflict resolution are lose lose lose win lose compromise win win and win win win so they're really Michael's really keyed in on a win win win because then even he wins yes we know lose loses number one and then Angela just wants him to just skip to win win and he goes that's number four but then I love Steve's performance

so much when he starts to read number five and here's the thing that Steve is doing he's reading something and making it look like he's never read it before and that he's getting surprised as he reads it even though you and I both know he knew those lines backwards and forwards so he's like oh number five win win win oh I went I went too because I resolved it and it's just he's so good just in that very like small moment you see how great he is at finessing all of these these little moments I love it they should play that in acting schools as an example of moment of discovery all right so at four minutes 32 seconds they go over to quote look at the disputed poster Michael wants them to express their feelings and I say that the poster makes me happy because it makes

me feel like the the babies are the real artists that God has a funny sense of humor and Oscar at five minutes two seconds just goes off and he has this rant it was so fun to do this with Oscar I have known him for so long we performed together in sketch comedy so I knew when they told him he could uncork what that meant and it was just it was a delight for me when he was like you know what it's it's kitsch it's the opposite of art it destroys art it destroys souls like it just goes off was that scripted Angela or a mixture it was a mixture it was a mixture and and I think that was mostly scripted but his stuff with um Paul with Toby in the conference room at the top of that scene was improvised but but Oscar is just so funny in this and I just remember it was hard to

keep a straight face I remember that yeah I had you to my right and Oscar to my left it was very hard it was very hard for me because Pam doesn't have any lines and my direction was that I was not to react I was to remain very neutral as possible and so that was difficult to be neutral all right well we had a fan question from Zoe Kennedy what do you guys think a win win win solution to Oscar and Angela's dispute with the baby poster would be because you know Michael's win win win solution is that Oscar will turn the baby poster into a t-shirt t-shirt that he has to wear because then he won't see it but Angela will see it all the time yes and neither of them like no they're like neither of them like that so what would you make it be and what's your win win win I would say that

you could have personal items that could fit on your desk and as long as they weren't offensive they could stay on your desk I like that you shrink it down to like no bigger than an 8x10 and then she could put it on her desk and that would be my win win win Angela that is a great solution you yeah you set a new rule that personal items can be no larger than 8x10 just that's it that's it everyone you heard it here you heard it here all right so moving on what is next so Angela we got a really cool fan question about this scene from Marisela Cabuto and I loved it so much I reached out and I asked her if she would send me a recording of her asking the question so here it goes when Michael is trying to solve the Angela Oscar dispute they are all

standing in the accounting area on a column behind Michael there is a certificate of participation for a Mark Christie who is that I was so excited to get this question Angela so this moment happens at four minutes 32 seconds and right next to Steve's head on this pillar reception is behind the pillar you can see this plaque it's exactly what Marisela described it is a certificate of participation for Mark Christie this is one of my favorite things about our set okay so Mark was the best boy grip and the key grip for seasons one through three on the office and it's the art department that is ultimately responsible for any kind of card sign certificate or logo that's created specifically for the show so our art department created the Dunder Mifflin logo and they created all of the

little plaques and signs and certificates that hang around the office and in an effort to give just like a fun personal touch they would include the names of real crew members yes so for example we also had a salesman of the year and a humanitarian of the year plaque and those plaques featured our crew member names as well but really you can see them everywhere you'll start to notice them as you watch episodes I do now I look for them yeah there are tons that are just sprinkled throughout the whole office well let me tell you what my favorite one is okay okay so my favorite one involves our first ad Kelly Cantley you guys might remember Kelly her job is keeping all of the actors on schedule she makes sure that we arrive for our scenes when we're supposed to and she is also the

one who would run our safety meetings yes so Kelly Cantley was safety meeting lit candle on set that's Kelly Cantley we have a pair of scissors and someone's hand safety meetings exactly exactly but Kelly really had to keep the whole production on time everything happening on the set all of us working together and and getting our day done making our day she's by far one of the most important elements to running the show for sure mm-hmm well I guess that Kelly had gone around and looked at all the plaques and she noticed that her name was not on any of them I could kind of picture Kelly doing that actually she spent a couple of days sort of doing this bit where she was all like oh I see no no Kelly Cantley there's my name

is on a clock it was very funny and then all of a sudden one day a new plaque showed up it's on the pole over by Stanley's desk and here's what it said it said whereas it came to our attention that Kelly Cantley was whining that a lowly second assistant director had a plaque with her name on it and whereas Kelly Cantley made a comment on the air regarding that fact we have decided to give her this certificate because we love her and so and then they just waited for her to notice it and then it stayed there for the rest of the run of the show so guys something fun to do you can go through try to hit pause whenever you see these certificates and you can see some names of our crew members I think it's just a really really great way to

honor them and this is actually a very popular thing that happens on sets yes all right I love that question I love hearing the behind the scenes of our crew but Jenna it's time to get into the save the date yes six minutes 28 seconds we get a real bird's eye view of this well Pam has broken down and is giving Angela a save the date hand delivered we have a fan question from Miss lavender darling she said Pam's save the date invitations say place tba why did she bother making a save the date with a location tb tbd when I looked at this save the date okay first of all Angela's throwing shade she's like it's hand delivered but it's okay but it's also not my taste so she's throwing a lot of shade but I screen grabbed the save the date and it says save the date

and then written in hand so you know it's it's printed but then you've got to fill in everything by hand it says for the wedding Pam Beasley to Roy Anderson date June 10th place to be determined this save the date gives us nothing everyone in the office knew it was going to be June 10th because Roy announced it drunkenly on booze cruise we know it's between the two of you this save the date is pointless yeah it's a waste of time it's a waste of money kind of like their wedding oh my god can I get an Angela sass please Sam Angela sass there it is I agree with you Angela I think that these rather lame handwritten save the dates are a waste of time did you do save the dates for your wedding or did you just send an invitation well you know I did just an email save the date

yeah I did an email yeah that's a little bit where we are now I think I'll say I did a save the date a hard copy save the date thing I think why it's a waste of time I don't know it's it's a waste of because that was like etiquette back then back then way back then no but it's true I think there's a lot that has changed I remember getting in a huge argument with my mom about wedding planning because in her generation the bride planned the wedding with her parents because her parents paid for the wedding and it was like a party they threw for the bride and groom and I said I want to plan my wedding with my husband the person who's going to be my husband like my mom wanted to pick out our registry items with me and I was like that feels so weird to me that I would go with my mom

to pick out my dishes wouldn't I go with the person who's going to eat off the plates with me to pick them out but there was like a generational divide in like how these things are done and I feel like this is going to point to like another generational divide like remember when you used to send these papers save the day or even these paper wedding invitations nowadays I get invited to weddings all the time where it's all online I get an email and then I click on this website and the registry links are there and the RSVP is there and it's like all there and it's actually kind of awesome I like a lot of it that's online now it makes it very easy to find information but I still like getting a hand proper invitation I don't need to save the date I don't need a little

card with directions I don't need a little special card that lets you know if I want to eat chicken or the pasta but I like getting the paper invitation for some of my dearest friends I've saved them I don't know I also am a little bit of a packrat as we know I scrapbook so I like it so I like getting the actual paper invitation myself I can be with you on that I really like getting a paper thank you yeah like a thank you card in the mail that's nice as opposed to for a big event like a wedding I don't need like a paper thank you if I gave you a birthday present or something but if it's a big event like a wedding I think the process of a couple sitting down and writing out their thank you cards is a really nice tradition and I think it is hmm

what's the word I'm looking for proper I feel like you're if you're giving like yeah like you're the significance of a wedding gift deserves the significance of a handwritten thank you card I can I can go with that I can go with that well Angela I have to say that for being an episode about conflict resolution we just did not have a conflict about that we were in total agreement we talked that out and we agree you also liked my resolution for the jazz poster so we're we're finding some common ground here yeah we're really resolving things so there you go we're on we're on brand all right let's take a break I'm gonna get a snack all right we're gonna take a break and we will be back okay we are back from break we have discussed Pam's very

lame save the date yeah and now Michael fresh off his I guess his win win win with Oscar and Angela decides he's gonna demand from Toby that he be given all of the unresolved complaints all of them and he takes them from Toby forcibly he says quote I had to use win lose on that it was not pretty yeah but now he's got him and he is gonna start resolving conflicts he's just gonna stir the pot that's what he's gonna do at seven minutes and 40 seconds Pam is in the conference room with Michael and they're going through all the complaints and I have to say and in this scene I really liked the callback for Stanley with Miracle Whip did you hear that one yes the complaint that is from Kevin that Stanley keeps using his Miracle Whip without asking which is a callback

from when Jim was doing that Stanley impression during drug testing and he his bit was I like the tangy zip of Miracle Whip yeah yeah I love that um so also there's something else that I think was pretty fantastic if you love a really good eye roll you need to go to eight minutes 35 seconds Angela I wrote it down too there is a Pam eye roll to end all eye rolls it is substantial it is well Michael has gone into the bullpen to ask people if they feel like Toby really solved their complaints or if they were merely listened to and forgot about and he starts reading all the complaints out loud and that's when I wrote down major Pam eye roll sass some major Pam sass right there and so then there's this thing I remember laughing I remember like breaking in this at

eight minutes 53 seconds Michael says oh and there's a Phyllis Angela dispute and I say you already did me and he goes oh that's what she said and Jim mouths it as Michael says it yeah that was scripted that was not John improvising that was a scripted moment and the camera sort of pretends like it's going to find John doing that it's really great I think that's a great example of the choreography with the camera discovery moment yeah exactly we also find out some interesting information about Dwight and Angela yes which is we now have a timestamp because for six months Angela has been complaining about Dwight and that that was all redacted for the last six months yes all of Angela's complaints about Dwight were redacted six months ago six months I'd love to

read what some of those complaints were well we know we know one of them one of them has to do with safety officer I'm sure she filed a complaint about that I'm sure all of her complaints are just based on who is really in charge of this or that but now Michael just starts listing things off and he's one by one getting everyone pissed off at each other everyone is getting angry with each other him first volunteers to save Angela because it seems like it's going to be revealed to the office if anyone thinks real hard on right this that hmm why did Angela redact all of her only Dwight yeah against only Dwight so Pam volunteers but there's only one complaint against Pam and it's been withdrawn and this was the complaint does she have to plan her

wedding on office time can't she do that from home and Pam assumes that it was Angela who complained about her Pam totally glares at Angela and Angela's like what what like and I believe her I believe her well yeah she didn't complain about her no yeah but I think it's reasonable for Pam to assume that she did well true because Angela I think has the most complaints of anyone else yes in the complaint box this is true but you're right then Michael goes around and just starts throwing out all of everybody's complaints we have to point out that at 10 minutes 53 seconds we have an Angela Pam partition scene I love it these were some of my favorites and we we didn't get to do very many of them because we would laugh and we would ruin take after take but here it is

you and I over the partition having a heated conversation yes Pam goes right up to Angela and says thanks for ratting me out I know you're so ticked off oh I'm mad fan question from Colleen Keenan and Brittany Magart they both asked was Pam calling Dwight bobblehead Joe scripted because I say you and bobblehead Joe I know they want to know if that was scripted it was scripted it was scripted but guess what here's a little window into Pam when she gets mad she starts name calling I guess so can I get a Sam could I get a little Pam sass here Pam sass thank you yeah that's appropriate Pam sass because Pam keeps sassing she sasses right into the kitchen and is complaining to Jim about Angela and Jim's kind of like uh he didn't know you know what I

wish I wish we had a sting that said Jim shade because he gives you some shade he's like oh and what does Roy think about that and he's like well I don't really talk to Roy about this and he's like about your feelings and stuff yeah Jim shade I like it well now we move into the conference room Angela can you tell us about this scene with you and Phyllis with Michael this scene was really hard because Phyllis and I got tickled we got tickled but yeah so you know here Angela and Phyllis are at it again now in the bullpen when Michael calls out Phyllis for having a complaint on Angela she's like I don't know what you're talking about I Angela and I are friends but but then Phyllis just starts turning on everyone there's a deleted scene that's also pretty great so yeah so Phyllis

clearly I guess has been parking in the parking spot where Angela likes to park even though they're not named parking spots we don't have individual spots but clearly my character likes to park in the same spot every day and Phyllis has been parking in it and I'm ticked off so I complained and Phyllis is like I'm sorry I guess I forgot I parked in the spot you liked even though we don't have a signed parking but then at the very end she goes I don't like you I know Phyllis no and in the deleted scene she tells Dwight she doesn't like him I think that's some Phyllis sass Phyllis sass that one's hard it's a lot of it's a lot of s's this is when we're gonna find out that Ryan thinks Creed has an old man smell and Creed is like oh yeah oh yeah I know what he's

talking about I grow mung beans in my desk they're really nutritious but they smell like that I texted Creed last night about it and I said does he eat them in real life I said Creed you're on my tv right now talking about the mung beans in your drawer and he said I still talk to my mung beans oh Creed and he said yeah he said I was eating mung beans exactly that's exactly what it was wow I said how do they taste and he said they taste like grass and air mostly grass and air not really like death well Angela I looked up mung beans and it turns out that they are really good for you especially the sprouted ones oh the sprouted ones have fewer calories and more amino acids and antioxidants than unsprouted ones let me tell you some benefits to eating mung beans

because I know you're curious I can't wait so they've done some studies in animals that have shown that mung beans help to reduce cholesterol okay we're not doctors I'm just a woman on the internet so anything in her closet right now yeah she's just a woman talking to you from her closet little disclaimer but they also seem to be a good source of potassium magnesium protein and fiber but here's the catch if you are sprouting mung beans properly and you let them drain and then you rinse them off after you've let them soak they won't smell only neglected mung beans stink so creed was neglecting his had some neglected mung beans in his desk and that's why they smelled so badly so anyway I guess I just want people to know

that if you've ever been curious about sprouting and eating some mung beans they won't be stinky if you just care for them properly according to the internet I'm not an expert and according to creed they taste like grass and air so there you go all right kevin has been making sexually suggestive comments to angela that make her uncomfortable so michael suggests that the solution is for angela to make sexual comments about kevin that will make him uncomfortable first of all kevin gross once again yeah we have been tracking kevin's perviness is that a sting kevin perv our whole podcast is just going to be stings it's going to be like angela says kevin perv ham shade okay now we're back in the break room we're back to making our

ids and our badges right and at 13 minutes 11 seconds um my stepson jack it's one of his favorite talking heads where dwight said he would never smile in a photo because yeah that's a sign of weakness and so he's never going to smile in a photo which just cracked us up jim is making this oversized id badge for dwight he's playing a prank on him you guys this is classic jim right yeah and he put dwight's middle name is fart yep and he says he's a security threat well we had a fan catch by molly torrez she says at 14 minutes 42 seconds there is a close up shot of the prank id badge that jim made for dwight and his title is assistant to the regional manager but he had been promoted to assistant regional manager in season two episode six

this is another layer to jim's prank ah yes so it goes unmentioned in the episode but yes another layer to the prank badge is that he gives him his improper title that he loves to do yes that's right well it's at this point that dwight storms over to toby he's had enough and he finds out that toby has just been putting his complaints about jim in a box he has not been registering them with corporate the way he said now dwight is furious and he goes marching in to find michael yeah and he says a line that i love four years of malfeasances yes yes and he says i cannot work with jim anymore one of them has to go michael has to pick by the end of the day yeah he's he is officially furious and you know what this is all coming back to bite michael in the butt

because toby said just let him vent and then i file it and i never do anything about it and they they got to vent and that's that yeah and now it's all catching up with michael he realizes that toby probably had the right idea yes well dwight goes online and starts looking up jobs at other branches and dunder pedia had a really great list of all the jobs that are available at 14 minutes 56 seconds if you pause on the screen here are the jobs that are available within dunder mifflin are you ready mm-hmm at stampford there is a plant manager and a sales manager position the sales manager position requires three to five years of experience and a bachelor's degree and there is an it manager position available at stanford here's

my question isn't josh porter the oh is he the branch manager he's the branch manager well within our office i guess michael is the branch manager who's the sales manager of scranton probably i mean i don't know i mean i'm stanley i would think stanley because he's a senior yeah he's been there a while yeah but that's a job we don't ever really ever discuss yeah so i just thought that was interesting well in new york dunder mifflin they've got a position for maintenance engineer in albany they need a comptroller and two regional managers and in buffalo you can't read what it is but they need someone and scranton has two positions available well here's the thing for a company that's downsizing and on the verge of collapse why are all of these job openings

thank you what's up thank you that too but listen to the jobs that are available in scranton warehouse staff and warehouse manager but isn't darryl the warehouse manager is he looking to leave what's happening there what's the story i don't know i don't know because he is the manager after this michael calls dwight and jim into the conference room and he goes through a list of dwight's complaints and this is my favorite part of the episode this is it's so good and one of them made me laugh so hard all right here are the list of pranks that jim has pulled on dwight that dwight has reported ready okay yes ready jenna go number one number one he replaced all of dwight's pens and pencils with crayons number two he had everyone call him dwayne all day which by the way

jenna by the way guess who would sometimes call him dwayne who in a scene who oscar he did for real we for real there were scenes where he'd be like listen dwayne and be like dwight it's dwight and he'd be like ah crap that is so funny somehow it went into oscar's brain in real life okay well jim also placed a bloody glove in dwight's desk drawer and tried to convince him that he had committed murder yes uh number four jim told dwight there was an abandoned infant in the women's room he went in to save the child and saw meredith on the can yes this one is my favorite of all time of any prank ever written about on the office it's just a sentence we never see this play out but my imagination of it is so rich dwight says he hit himself in the head with his phone

and michael is like what how could that have been jim's fault and then jim in his talking he cuts to jim yeah he and john's reaction he laughs he says that he put nickels in dwight's headset over the course of a long time so that it got heavier and heavier and then one day he took them all out so that when dwight sort of the phone it would be super light yeah i just that that is brilliant that's brilliant greg daniels yeah clap that is brilliant and that that's the greatest that is jim doing the slow play that is that's i think why i like it is that the patience required for that prank all right there's more go the next one is um that every time dwight typed his name it would just say diaper diapers yeah and then the last one is that by the end of the day dwight

complains that his desk was moved two feet closer to the copier and jim admits that yes every time jim got up from his desk he moved it a little closer to the copier but then jim was like well when you when you put them all together like that it doesn't sound really cool like oh that sounds like maybe my life is kind of sad yeah maybe i suck that's what i spent my time doing at 16 minutes 39 seconds i have a card that it just says a montage of sass oh it's your montage of sass it's a montage of sass we see phyllis she slams the fridge door on angela pam is glaring eating yogurt angry eating yogurt and then you have like creed and he's looking crazy and he's holding a pencil like it's a knife and i mean then it just goes all through stanley and kevin and kelly and toby

everyone is ticked off yeah everyone's just mad it's a mad montage it's a sass montage really it's a montage of sass it is well at 18 minutes we have a fan catch from george felton okay dwight's id badge has been redone his middle name is correct it says curt but you know what if you look closely he's still listed as a security threat he didn't get that removed good catch george i liked that there is a deleted scene where pam shows jim her id badge and her clearance level is red yeah and jim's like what does that mean and dwight's like i'm not gonna tell you ha ha ha also pam doesn't seem to know what it means either which i thought was very funny all right so guys it's the end of the day and michael thinks that the way he could really boost everyone's morale after this hard

day of resolving conflicts is to get a group photo he wants a group photo stanley's like are you kidding me like seriously so he gets everybody to stand but a lot's happening like no one's smiling this is when jim tells pam that he's the one who made the complaint against her about the wedding thing and he said he was just venting oh my god so awkward how awkward he's having this conversation during a group photo of his co-workers and you're like sandwiched between phyllis and stanley and phyllis is listening to everything her reactions are amazing so good she literally says oh dear yes yes i have a fan catch another fan catch from carlie michael you know how earlier you were mentioning how your stepson jack loves that talking head where dwight says he doesn't smile

because it's a sign of weakness and primates yeah guess who's smiling in the group photo who dwight dwight yeah uh dwight what are you doing fan catch by carlie michael 18 minutes 50 seconds he's smiling you know what i feel like this is like layered like emotionally for dwight because he would not smile on his own but he will smile for michael and that is his weakness michael is his weakness oh yeah well i have a jenna catch okay for this group photo moment you know michael says it's really hard to get a photo of 15 people yeah he says that's really hard guess what there's only 14 people in the photo jenna catch jenna catch there you go i love it i love it well and it's true he never does get a photo so he photoshopped the group photo he says it's amazing what you

can do with photoshop and uh that's how he gets his group photo and as you guys know because we've shared with you greg then gave that photo to us all as a gift and i have it i will i will put it i will hold up the photo of it next to me and put it on the website so then this episode ends it's kind of sad pam is uh checking her voicemail and she gets this voicemail from jim saying you know what i'm not going to be in until the afternoon tomorrow because i have a doctor's appointment in the city but then we see what he's really doing he's meeting with jan at corporate yeah and you know he's probably going to apply for that job at the stanford branch he's he can't take it anymore he can't watch yeah yeah he can't watch her plan her wedding anymore it's getting to be too much

and it's heartbreaking yeah he's he's gonna move on the very end of this episode is an amazing little tribute to Raiders of the Lost Ark it is where we see toby putting this box of complaints in a wall of complaints like with the forklift and the whole thing it's very Raiders of the Lost Ark yes we had a fan ask col edwards wanted to know at the end of the episode when we see toby put that box of complaints in the warehouse was it an homage to the end of indiana jones it was yes it was and you guys just for fun if you're out there and you're gonna rewatch it go to 11 minutes 43 seconds toby's company id photo is my favorite what is it he sits down and he just says just take the picture and he gets up and walks away oh yes he takes it right as he walks away yes

yes it's pretty amazing angela before we wrap up we had a fan question from devin couch was there ever a baby poster shirt and did oscar ever wear it i went through all the deleted scenes and didn't see one but do you know no i don't believe there was i don't believe it and i would have loved it that would have been a fantastic callback years later if we had just seen him in that shirt one time or maybe like when angela had to move in with oscar maybe she found the shirt in his closet something but no i i don't have a memory of that um but that would have been fantastic i agree i wish that we owned the rights to that picture because i would buy that shirt would you buy it and wear it maybe why not why not why not why not it's such like a

it would be such a fun inside joke i think you are wearing a hoodie right now with your own image on it so office ladies it's no way i always wear my office ladies hoodie when we record office ladies it's like a uniform it's my little uniform i i like a uniform i went to a catholic girls high school yes you know i am kidding of course you like the structure you like uniform you like order how about that yes order love order yeah feel very safe in order there you go chaos terrifying to me terrifying all right you guys this has been conflict resolution we hope you enjoyed it thanks for listening in to us in our closets we hope you're staying safe and uh you know we're sending you our love we're sending you our love thanks guys next week we are

gonna be back with oh ang oh lady casino night lady lady lady and a special guest so tune in for that okay bye bye thank you for listening to office ladies office ladies is produced by earwolf jenna fischer and angela kenzie our show is executive produced by kody fischer our producer is kassie jerkins our sound engineer is sam kiefer and our associate producer is ainsley bubukko our theme song is rubber tree by creed bratton for ad-free versions of office ladies go to stitcher premium dot com for a free one month trial of stitcher premium use code office