Office Ladies - Conflict Resolution

Episode Date: May 6, 2020

This week we're breaking down Conflict Resolution from the comfort of our own closets. The baby poster returns, Jenna shares some amazing insights on the talking heads, both ladies talk about the magazine photoshoots with their cats, and we discover whose names are on those plaques hung all around Dunder Mifflin. Then the ladies wonder if 'save the dates' are worth the trouble, and we get into Michael's conflict resolution style, and we get 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"!

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 rewatch 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 are 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 we get 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 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? It sounded like a toot. It sounded like you tooted. What? It wasn't a toot. It sounded like a toot. It's good that you're claiming that you unzipped your hoodie. It is. 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. 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. Right. 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 BDB, 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 butt 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? No, 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. Ba-da-da-da-da-da-da. 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. What? 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. Yes. 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-a-ling 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 ping-a-ling, ping-a-ling,

ping-a-ling, ping-a-ling, ping-a-ling, ping-a-ling, ping-a-ling, ping-a-ling, ping-a-ling, ping-a-ling. 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 Jim Pam talking heads in front of the outside window, but neither Pam 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. Now 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 Preggs, Little Preggs.

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, which was really the only possible future for Pam outside of the office. Wow. That's so deep. I think, you know, 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 Facts number three, Angela, it's a Fast Facts flashback. What are you doing?

Why are you drunk? So, here is this Fast Facts. 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. What? Do you know what I wrote in my journal? This is the week of May. What? In 2006, I did a photo shoot with my cat, Andy, for People Magazine. I'm not joking. I'm not joking, lady.

Lady, how did we not know that we did photo shoots with our cats at this cute time? What is going on in the world? I feel like we probably at the time knew, but it's hilarious to me for us to both share our journal entries 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 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 center fold.

Oh, you are the center fold 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. So Lucy just laid there. And I mean, Lucy, I love her. R.I.P. Lucy, she had a great long life, but she really just loved to lounge. She was a lounger. 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 semifaral 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. 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 going to 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 Kirk'sville, 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 fact 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 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. 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 shut. 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 because

the copier was 100 years old or they wanted that light that's like pans across the copier. Maybe they liked the effect, but it was a thought out thing. I'm sure of that. But it wasn't like Angela Martin's character choice. That's not her way. I only photocopy with a blinding light in my face. Exactly. 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. Anyone that walks up and starts tapping a table or thumping on something, I want to 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 oblivious. You can 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. People who walk around just whistling. Yeah. Yeah. I can't. Yeah. Sorry whistlers. 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. At 45 seconds, you seem like you are really eating. Were you hungry? Guys, 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 Olympic promos we did. It has the accountants, the webisode

series, which won an Emmy. Yeah. So it's got, this is a very good disc. Jenna 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, what's wrong? Dad, what's wrong? Dad, what's wrong? 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 going to 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 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 going to 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. 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 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. 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, 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. Yes. 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 win. I win 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 a, 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. It just goes off. Was that improvised or scripted, Angela, or a mixture? It was a mixture. It was a mixture. And I think that was mostly scripted, but his stuff with 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. 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 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 eight by 10. 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 eight by 10. 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. 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 her 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 in someone's hand safety meeting. 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. 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 it. 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 Ms. 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 the 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 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. The 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. The save the date is pointless. Yeah. It's a waste of time. It's a waste of money. Kind of like their wedding. Oh, no. Can I get an Angela sass, please? I did. I did. I did. 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 a waste of time. It's because it was like etiquette 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 date 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 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

you. For a big event like a wedding, I don't need 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... What's the word I'm looking for? Proper? I feel like if you're giving like... Yeah. The significance of a wedding gift deserves the significance of a handwritten thank you card. 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 finding some common ground here. Yeah. We're really resolving things. So there you go. We're on brand. All right. Let's take a break. I'm going to get a snack. All right. We're going to 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 going to 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 them and he is going to start resolving conflicts. He's just going to stir the pot. That's what he's going to 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, Ange, 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 his bit was, I like the tangy zip of Miracle Whip. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. 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. The discovery moment. Yeah, exactly. We also find out some interesting information about Dwight and Angela, 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 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.

Pam first volunteers to save Angela because it seems like it's going to be revealed to the office if anyone thinks real hard on this that, hmm, why did Angela redact all of her complaints? 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 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, oh, I don't know. He doesn'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 she'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. Angela and I are friends. 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! Phyllis! Phyllis! 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 like an S to an S. It's a lot of S's. This is when we're going to 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 death. 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. 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 I say here right now. She's just a woman talking to you from her closet. Well, 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 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, we have been tracking Kevin's purveness. Is that a sting? Kevin Perve. Our whole podcast is just going to be stings. It's going to be like Angela Sass, Kevin Perve. Pam 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, 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? And he put Dwight's middle name as fart. Yep. And he says he's a security threat. Well, we had a fan catch by Molly Torres. 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. 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. 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 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 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 Dunderpedia 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 Stanford, 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. Like 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 talk about. We never 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 Daryl 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. 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. For real. There were scenes where he'd be like, listen, Dwight. And he'd 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. 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 head. It 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 hit sort of the phone, it would be super light. That is brilliant. That is brilliant. Greg Daniels. Yeah. Clap. That is brilliant. And that's the greatest. That is Jim doing the slow play. That is, that's I think why I like it, is the patience required for that prank. All right. There's more. Go. The next one is 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. Yeah. I was 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 Kurt. 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 chose 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 going to tell you. 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? 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 Carly Mitchell. 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. Dwight, what are you doing? Fan catch by Carly Mitchell, 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 photo shops the group photo. He says it's amazing what you can do with Photoshop and 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 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 that 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. I think he's, 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 going to 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 and 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, Cole 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 going to 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. 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 Devon 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 don't have a memory of that, 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? 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? You know it. I always wear my office ladies hoodie when we record office ladies. It's like a uniform. It's my little uniform. 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. You like 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, you know, we're sending you our love. We're sending you our love. Thanks, guys. Next week, we are going to be back with, oh, Ange. 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 Fisher, and Angela Kinsey. Our show is executive produced by Cody Fisher. Our producer is Cassie Jerkin. Our sound engineer is Sam Kiefer. And our associate producer is Ainsley Bubicoe.

Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton. For ad-free versions of Office Ladies, go to StitcherPremium.com. For a free one-month trial of Stitcher Premium, use code Office.