History Headscratchers / TheOfficeUS

*** As stated in the episode, it was an ethics violation which was a fireable offense per the companies own policies. The reason why she wasn't fired is because Dunder Mifflin felt it was more beneficial to look the other way because they were getting a good discount on product. It was also established that the company as a whole played fast and loose with ethics when it benefited them and Michael in particular was allowed to get away with a lot due to both his branch's success and the incompetence of upper management (Ryan was rehired by Michael following his arrest and Dwight nearly ''burned down the office'', and the only consequence was that Michael got yelled at by David Wallace).

** Causing the panic in the second incident was the whole point. Dwight doesn't really care as much about the office's fire-preparedness or lack thereof as he's making out, because being safety manager is just a way of fulfilling his self-centred desire for power and authority over the office rather than ensuring the health and welfare of his coworkers. Standard office fire drill procedures under the extreme-worst-case circumstances he set up -- communications cut, fire surrounding the building, all exits blocked and obstructed, etc. -- probably wouldn't have helped much anyway. The whole thing is really because he's steamed (pun intended) that the office didn't pay attention to his -- almost-certainly overly dry, overly rigid, overly bureaucratic, overly eccentric and mostly useless -- presentation on the subject, and the whole "fire drill" is just an excuse to get revenge, humiliate them all, and give himself an excuse to smugly strut around crowing about procedure and how he told them so. He even contradicts himself at one point; he mockingly demands why no one is calling 911 at one point despite having himself ''sabotaged the phone lines'', as made clear when Pam initially tried to do just that. As noted above, he deliberately stacks the decks against his co-workers, but not out of concern for their preparedness (there are better, safer and more effective ways of raising the issue, which a good safety manager would employ), but because he's an officious, pedantic, short-sighted and resentful idiot lashing out at people he views as beneath him for not taking him as seriously as he thinks he deserves.

** Causing the panic in the second incident was the whole point. Dwight doesn't really care as much about the office's fire-preparedness or lack thereof as he's making out. Standard office fire drill procedures under the extreme-worst-case circumstances he set up -- communications cut, fire surrounding the building, all exits blocked and obstructed, etc. -- probably wouldn't have helped much anyway. The whole thing is really because he's steamed (pun intended) that the office didn't pay attention to his -- almost-certainly overly dry, overly rigid, overly bureaucratic, overly eccentric and mostly useless -- presentation on the subject, and the whole "fire drill" is just an excuse to get revenge, humiliate them all, and give himself an excuse to smugly strut around crowing about procedure and how he told them so. He even contradicts himself at one point; he mockingly demands why no one is calling 911 at one point despite having himself ''sabotaged the phone lines'', as made clear when Pam initially tried to do just that. As noted above, he deliberately stacks the decks against his co-workers, but not out of concern for their preparedness (there are better, safer and more effective ways of raising the issue, which a good safety manager would employ), but because he's an officious, pedantic, short-sighted and resentful idiot lashing out at people he views as beneath him for not taking him as seriously as he thinks he deserves.

** This is partly the joke; Dwight, for all the lionising he tends to get from certain quarters, is basically a KnowNothingKnowItAll idiot with some unshakeable oddball convictions and a tendency to value the individual and material (i.e. what he can acquire and how he can win what's best for him over others) over the interpersonal (i.e. how we can form mutually beneficial and satisfying relationships with one another). The idea that he might somehow get the idea that cats are useless merely because they don't produce a foodstuff and stubbornly hold on to it in spite of 20,000-odd years of evidence otherwise is entirely consistent with what we know of his character.

** It's not just in that one episode; it's a common thread throughout the series that Michael has terrible spending habits and is bad with money. It's a thread throughout the series, it's just that the situation finally reaches a nadir at that point.

This is more of an observation than a question because the answer it going to be RuleOfFunny but isn't it odd that Dwight callously dismisses cats as not as important as cows because they don't provide meat or milk? He runs an old fashioned farm that still has an outhouse, surely he would appreciate having some cats as ratters.

Stanley has been pretty protective of his sales territory. He doesn't care about anything at work but business. Why would he voluntarily tank a sale just to teach him a lesson? Aren't there economic consequences?

Tobey would have filled out an HR form about a relationship if he really thought that Nellie was in a relationship with him. Wouldn't that have led to the conversation where Nellie would deny that? Instead Tobey held her hand out of nowhere in one episode.

Why would Michael only have debt in that one episode? Why wasn't this a thing in the episode before?

[[folder: How did Tobey not know that Nellie didn't consider them to be dating in S9?]]
Tobey would have filled out an HR form about a relationship if he really thought that Nellie was in a relationship with him. Wouldn't that have led to the conversation where Nellie would deny that? Instead Tobey held her hand out of nowhere in one episode.

** This is partly the joke; Dwight, for all the lionising he tends to get from certain quarters, is basically a KnowNothingKnowItAll idiot with some unshakeable oddball convictions and a tendency to value the individual material (i.e. what he can acquire and how he can win what's best for him over others) over the interpersonal (i.e. how we can form mutually beneficial and satisfying relationships with one another). The idea that he might somehow get the idea that cats are useless merely because they don't produce a foodstuff and stubbornly hold on to it in spite of 20,000-odd years of evidence otherwise is entirely consistent with what we know of his character.

** This is partly the joke; Dwight, for all the lionising he tends to get from certain quarters, is basically a KnowNothingKnowItAll idiot with some unshakeable oddball convictions. The idea that he might somehow get the idea that cats are useless merely because they don't produce a foodstuff and stubbornly hold on to it in spite of 20,000-odd years of evidence otherwise is entirely consistent with what we know of his character.

** This is partly the joke; Dwight, for all the lionising he tends to get from certain quarters, is basically a KnowNothingKnowItAll idiot with some unshakeable oddball convictions. The idea that he might somehow get the idea that cats are useless merely because they don't produce a foodstuff in spite of 20,000-odd years of evidence otherwise and stubbornly hold on to it is entirely consistent with what we know of his character.