July 3, 2025 • 35 mins
When corporate orders Michael Scott to select the cheapest possible healthcare plan, his first instinct is classic Michael: delegate the responsibility and avoid the difficult conversations entirely. Unfortunately, he chooses Dwight Schrute – perhaps the worst possible candidate for this sensitive task.
What follows is a masterclass in workplace dysfunction as Dwight embraces his temporary authority with disturbing enthusiasm, slashing benefits with reckless abandon while demanding employees submit lists of their medical conditions. The result? A healthcare plan so stripped down that Oscar accurately describes it as "effectively a pay cut" for everyone in the office.
Meanwhile, the employees mount their own form of resistance. Jim and Pam lead the charge by submitting increasingly absurd fake medical conditions like "hot dog fingers" and "Count Choculitis," turning Dwight's benefits investigation into a farce. But beneath the humor lies a genuine workplace concern – what happens when your health coverage gets decimated overnight?
As the deadline approaches, Michael remains conspicuously absent, promising a mystery "surprise" that will somehow make everything better. His desperate attempts to avoid confrontation – hiding in his office, pretending to take calls, and ultimately disappearing altogether – perfectly capture the leadership avoidance that many of us have experienced in our own workplaces.
The episode brilliantly highlights how benefits decisions impact workplace morale, trust in leadership, and employee retention. It also demonstrates the stark difference between delegation as a leadership strategy and delegation as an avoidance technique – a distinction that resonates with anyone who's worked under ineffective management.
Whether you're in HR, leadership, or just someone who's lived through corporate benefits changes, this episode offers both laughs and uncomfortable recognition of workplace realities. Have you ever experienced a "Dwight" handling important decisions? How did your organization handle tough benefits conversations? Share your stories and join us for more workplace insights through the lens of The Office!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Had you actually read the email, you would know that
the podcast you are about tolisten to could contain explicit
language and offensive content.
These HR experts' views are notrepresentative of their past,
present or future employers.
If you have ever heard mymanager is unfair to me.
I need you to reset my HRportal password, or Can I write
(00:24):
up my employee for crying toomuch?
Welcome to our little safe zone.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Welcome to J-Date HR, the podcast by two HR
professionals who want to helpyou get through the workday by
saying everything you'rethinking, but say it out loud.
I'm Warren.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
I'm Cece and I don't know about you, Warren, but my
hot dog fingers are acting uptoday, hot dog fingers, yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
So this is our special Office Rewatch and we're
all the way up.
We've been doing this for a fewmonths now.
We're up to season one, episodethree.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
We're doing, great Doing great.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
So we're doing really , really well, and this is the
benefits episode.
So so far, each of the episodeshave really had an HR twang to
it or a component to it, andthis is no different.
But I was telling you all fairearlier, cece, I tried to cheat.
I did not think I was going toget to rewatch this episode and
(01:44):
I actually did not think I wasgoing to get to re-watch this
episode and I actually did notre-watch it.
I played the audio of it on mycar stereo as I was driving home
today and I got introduced tothe Superfan Edition.
I've never you know, I've neverknew it was there, but I
watched both the regular orlistened to the regular edition
and the Superfan Edition.
So I am as prepared as I'mgoing to be, and I've seen this
(02:05):
episode quite a few times, butthis is really an interesting
episode.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
It is.
I love this episode so muchbecause I love any episode where
Dwight has a power trip, and Ido love any episode that shows
Michael's ineffectiveness atleading and this is a big one,
with delegating and histransparency into his big
(02:31):
surprise.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Big surprise, yes, and that's well.
So the big surprise, but alsoone thing that stood out to me
like the very first scene.
He goes up to Pam and asks forhis messages and there aren't
any.
And he goes well, that's notwhat you said before.
And she looks at the camera Doyou want me to pretend to say
(02:54):
whatever?
Because the camera is here andhe just sort of doesn't know
what to say.
He's acting it up pretty good.
So the real opening scene, Iguess, is Jan in Michael's
office telling him he has topick a benefits plan.
(03:14):
Yes, and in the real HR world,why isn't Toby doing this?
Why isn't Dunder MifflinCorporate in New York City not
doing that?
You know they've got all theseoffices and branches.
They probably have a fullbenefits department, but anyway,
I got to be honest.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
That sounds extremely inefficient to have many
benefits packages floatingaround your multiple regional
offices.
That should be a corporatebenefits function.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
It really should.
But I can tell you multi-statebenefits are SOB and if you want
to have one package across allof your multi-state locations,
your options are very, verylimited.
Speaking firsthand experienceit's not a benefits expert or
anything like that, but firstthing and also A why isn't Toby
(04:05):
doing this?
But Toby is only in here liketwo brief scenes.
He's like any.
I don't think he has any lines,I think he's just seen in in
the background there and stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
So that is funny, yeah, I am not a benefits person
, so I know nothing aboutbenefits.
So fair point benefits person,so I know nothing about benefits
.
So fair point, fair point.
But at the very least Tobyshould be leading this and not
Michael.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
But it wouldn't be as funny with Toby, I know.
But anyways, jane wants him topick a benefits plan and he says
, oh, I want this one, the goldplan, that has acupuncture and
massages and you know everythingelse like that.
And she just looks I'm, I don'teven have the gold plan.
(04:49):
Your job is to just pick aprovider and then pick their
least expensive plan is what allshe says to them.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
So pick a provider, pick the least expensive plan
and let me just see we we see itlater.
But also also it seems likesuch a flippant way to look at
benefits, considering how muchbenefits really affects employee
morale and all of that stuff.
It's just like pick whatever'sthe cheapest.
(05:18):
That sounds so flippant.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Yes, I absolutely agree.
But on the other hand, I cansee a corporate entity telling
somebody to do that yes.
Yeah, it's very realthereabouts Now and on top of
(05:42):
that, two-thirds of them are onour former military and don't
even need our benefits.
But I did our benefitreconciliation for July just
this week and just seeing howmuch money we're paying Now.
Of course, employees contributeas well, but we pay a
significant portion.
The company pays a significantportion of the cost, but just
(06:04):
seeing how expensive it is,benefits are a big deal on
multiple levels Retention,engagement, recruiting it's huge
.
So, yeah, so Michael wants thisgold plan, that's out of the
question.
Jan says get the cheapest one.
And so what does michael do?
(06:26):
Calls jim and wants to delegateto him to do this, and I think
for all of jim's, jim is a funnycharacter, but if I'm looking
at it as an hr person he's in myoffice he's a bit of an a-hole,
he's a definite bully.
He's that cool kid that isabove everybody else and knows
(06:53):
it too.
But anyways, because Michaelhas a main crush.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
I would be such an asshole I'm like.
Isn't that all sales, though?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
It very well can be yes kidding we love sales.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Sales is the reason why we're here, so we love sales
.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
That was just a joke michael tries to delegate to jim
and jim pushes it off, says youknow who'd be really good at
this?
Dwight and and of courseDwight's.
You know Johnny, on the spot,wants to be there and take it
over.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Oh, eagerly, eagerly.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
And then we get into, like you said, dwight having a
power trip and I just love itbecause I can see that person in
real life.
I haven't worked with thatperson, I haven't had to anybody
, you know, I've had to dealwith in an HR manner.
Be that Dwight who gets off onthe power trip, but I've seen
(07:54):
them and things like that and Ijust, yeah, dwight does a very
good job of this job of this.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
So what's it?
Where?
Where to where?
To start with dwight?
Yeah, he really loves his newauthority, he embraces it and,
yeah, I love how he takes overthe office and makes it his
workspace his.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
He wants it to be an office, but he's told it's a
workspace, it's not an office.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Yeah, yeah, because he's not the assistant regional
manager.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
He's told it's a workspace.
It's not an office.
Yeah, yeah, because he's notthe assistant regional manager,
he's the assistant to theregional manager.
It's all about the semantics yes, to keep dwight happy and
occupied and and things likethat.
But dwight just goes in withnot even just a hatchet.
He's going in there with achainsaw, just cutting A
chainsaw the benefits and he'sgoing through.
(08:48):
And of course, what happens?
Nobody likes what Dwight isdoing.
He's cut everything out andspeaking as someone who has a
mild amount of experience withbenefits, you know this well.
I'll get to that later.
But he's cutting everything outto get this cheap, cheap
(09:08):
version of benefits and all theemployees are mad.
So what do they do?
They go to Michael and he saysand he plays off Dwight, what
are you doing?
Why are you doing?
This Plays it off, so you know.
So over dramatically and youfigure out how to give these
people what they want orwhatever Michael charged them
(09:31):
with.
So Dwight's next big idea wasto come up, have everybody
submit a list of all theirdiseases.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Sounds like a HIPAA violation, if I've heard one.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Yeah, exactly, but remember you don't put your name
on it.
Though he was writing, I don'tknow if this was in the super
fan edition or in the realedition he was like trying to
write people's names on theirsubmission.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Well, it wasn't that.
I think he was catching on tothe fact that some of them were
fake.
So then he was like who hasthis one?
So yeah, we're definitely inHIPAA violation territory.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
And of course Jim and Pam and other people go in and
make up these silly diseases.
Hot dog fingers and make upthese silly diseases Hot dog
fingers, hot dog fingers.
I did not know I was going toget a chance to watch this
episode or listen to it at all,so I tried to cheat and I used
Gemini.
And the question I asked Geminiwas give me a breakdown of the
(10:41):
highlights from the US comedythe Office, season one, episode
three, titled Healthcare.
And so Gemini, first thing itspits out is synopsis.
Synopsis is dead on Highlights.
First highlight it mentions isDwight's power trip, dead on.
Second bullet under highlightsis the disease list which we're
(11:03):
talking about now and it goes onfrom there.
But anyways, we're talkingabout the disease list which
we're talking about now and itgoes on from there.
But anyways, we're talkingabout the disease list.
So Jim wants to make sure,because what the idea of this
disease list is?
To make sure whatever you needis covered.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Yes.
So like Jim puts on there Greatidea on paper, horrible
execution.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Oh boy, jim puts on there Ebola and mad cow disease,
and then Pam puts on she's justmaking up diseases.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
What do you call it when your teeth turn to liquid
and explode in your mouth?
And he goes that's not amade-up.
Jim goes that's not a made-updisease, that's whatever.
And he comes up with a name forit and I guess she puts that on
and anyways it goes.
You know, the class clowns, ifyou will, are making this even
(11:57):
harder on Dwight.
So he picks up, as you weresaying, that some of these
diseases are made up, and hegoes who has hot dog fingers or
whatever it is?
And then he wants to have ameeting and he says he brings
everybody in to actually talk.
And Stanley says what aboutconfidentiality?
You lost confidentiality whenyou gave me these stupid made up
(12:19):
diseases and things like that,including the hot dog fingers.
Of course count choculitis, yes, including the hot dog fingers,
of course count choculitis.
Yes, that was a good one.
And then, of course, of allpeople, it's Kevin.
What about anal fissures?
Anal?
fissures and nobody here hasthat.
(12:41):
Kevin goes.
No, somebody here might.
And remember this is season one, kevin, before he has the
strange voice, he has the verymild meager.
He didn't change his voice yet.
Somebody here might have it andthings like that, and it just
goes on and on about it and it'sfunny.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
I do like when Meredith wants to ensure that
her vagina is covered.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Because one of the fake diseases someone put it was
an inverted penis disease.
And she goes do you mean avagina?
A vagina could be an invertedpenis, if you think of it.
And then Dwight's like youdon't have a vagina, you had a
hysterectomy, yes, and thingslike this, and she's trying to
(13:25):
explain.
I still I still have a vaginayeah, that is a classic dwight
not knowing these things, so I'mgoing to give you under the
disease list.
Ai gave me this.
Oh yes, so pan's car.
Pam's carpal tunnel syndromenobody mentioned carpal tunnel
(13:46):
syndrome in it.
I don't know where it comes upwith that.
Kevin's hot dog fingers Okay,we got hot dog fingers.
Okay, this is actually deephallucination on the AI's part.
Oscar's chlamydia and it sayswhich he makes up on the spot
just to mess with Dwight, thatwas not part of the show.
(14:07):
Stanley's spine-ritis andMeredith's Lyme disease, which
she genuinely has, but Dwighttries to dismiss as not a real
disease, not in the show.
I don't know, I don't knowwhere that.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Oh, gemini, you failed.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Yeah, that came from.
Yeah, it was really interesting.
But I was going to say, assomeone who knows a little bit
about benefits, it's really hardto get like I don't want to
cover, say, arthritis in myplant.
It would be hard to get a.
You can get what they call arider to either include or
(14:46):
exclude something from your plan.
You know a lot of likereligious organizations may have
certain riders about birthcontrol or other things like
that in their health plan, butyour M1A1 employer is not going
to go through the trouble to oh,I'm want to exclude hot dog
(15:07):
fingers for my benefits plan.
It's sort of all inclusive andsome plans may have better
coverage towards some illnessesthan others.
But it's not like an individualplan is going to necessarily do
that.
But I guess, speaking in thereal world, companies are
(15:28):
getting riders now for theirGLP-1s because insurance doesn't
want to cover it but employerswant it in their plans.
So they're getting riders addedto include GLP-1s if that's the
way the direction the companywants to go.
So that's pretty interesting.
A learning moment in Jaded HRlet's see here.
(15:51):
So back to the show, michael.
While all this is going on,what is Michael doing?
Speaker 3 (16:00):
He's trying to plan for his big surprise.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
And he's hiding.
He's like actively hiding inhis office himself and he he's
on the phone with.
He calls pam, how's everythinggoing out there?
And she's third talk to him andit's really bad and you, really
you might want to get out here.
And he tries to say, oh, I'vegot to go, I've got a call.
And she looks at the phone no,you don't.
And then at the end is he'strying to get off again.
(16:27):
He goes oh, I gotta take thiscall.
No, you still don't haveanother call.
No, but he's trying to he hasno backbone.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
He is the person who does not want to give deliver
bad news at all oh, and that'ssomething jan says at the very
beginning of the show.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Sometimes as a manager you have to have hard
conversations and she goes likeI'm having with you right now
and I did get a crack up out ofthat, because he's so oblivious,
he doesn't get anything that'sgoing on around him.
Like right now, like like thisyou have to do yeah, and it's,
(17:12):
it's, yeah, it's, it's michaelat his finest.
But and then michael goes onthis what do they call it when
they, like, just focus directlyin on one of the characters and
they're talking directly to thecamera?
I don't know, oh, like theconfessional yeah, yeah, that
type thing, these you know I'm agood manager.
I've decided to delegate this.
(17:32):
And now one thing michael saidI don't get the context to
dwight's already got one strike.
This will be strike.
If he fails at this, that'll bestrike number two.
And I don't know we're onlythree episodes in, so I don't
know what his other strike is onthat.
But if he succeeds, I had theauthority to and the confidence
(17:55):
in him to make this happen anddelegate this to him.
And if he doesn't succeed, hesucks.
Basically, I forget what hesays, but yeah, he sucks, and
that's I can.
So picture managers I've dealtwith in my life.
That would be the exact sameway.
I'm here for the glory, but ifthings don't go the way I want,
(18:19):
nope, that was all him.
I tried, I did my best.
And Michael, he leaves theoffice not once, but twice.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Twice he has meetings where he's trying to set up his
big surprise, and he realizeshe can't do a big surprise I
loved how he was researching, hewas doing the, the big ride,
the big ride, the elevator ride,and it was like a mine shaft.
And then it was like oh, do youguys do those things where you
(18:49):
get a bus and then you giveeverybody, drive everyone to the
casino and you give them freechips and everything's for free
and it's all comped, and thenyou bring them back and they're
like we don't do anything likethat either nobody does he's
trying so hard yeah, yeah, he'strying, he is very, he does,
(19:10):
like his employees, he does tryreally hard for the the good
stuff, but the bad stuff he'she's not too too good at.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
And so what does he do?
He comes back in the afternoonwith ice cream sandwiches for
everybody, and since ryandoesn't get benefits, he gets
two of them, and you have a highmetabolism.
So, and in stanley, this isn'tour surprise, is it?
Oh, no, no, no, this isn'ttheir surprise.
I've got something bigger andbetter.
(19:40):
And he goes, hides, runs andhides in his office and then he
comes.
I guess he comes back out againand Dwight has not made any
changes to the original, youknow, just butchered healthcare
plan.
And everybody's mad.
And Angela asks well, whatabout our big surprise?
And Michael goes into thelittle confessional mode I guess
(20:02):
you'd say and talk about howgreat of an improv he is.
He's along the greatest, likeDrew, carey and gosh.
Who's the other?
Ryan Stiles?
From Whose Line Is?
It Anyway, oh, yeah, yeah yeah,and how great he is and I would
have loved to work with RobinWilliams.
But he's sitting there, he'sstalling and trying to do the
drum roll.
Here's your big surprise he'sdoing it for a minute.
(20:23):
He's like doing it for like aminute trying to, okay, stall
out and everything, and peopleare just starting to leave.
And we didn't have a surprise.
And they're very demoralized andvery unhappy they are.
But I think they knew to expectthat from Michael, you know,
especially after he disappeared,Because the man doesn't spend
two minutes in his office, he'salways out and about.
(20:44):
You know, disturbinginterrupting his employees
versus actually helping them.
But it got me thinking.
Would you rather have yourmanager bring in ice cream,
sandwiches or pizzas for yourmorale?
Speaker 3 (21:01):
Oh my God, Actually at this point the ice cream
sandwich sounds delicious andquite different from the pizza,
so I guess I would welcome theice cream sandwich just a little
more.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Yeah Well, Speewich, how is it out there in your neck
of the woods, I know?
Today our heat index got up tolike 117 degrees at the bottom
of my screen, the heat warningin effect continuing through the
end of this week.
We're just sweating.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
We are sweating.
We are also in a heat warning.
I think we're tomorrow.
We're 94 degrees Holy F.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
I'm going to melt.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Tomorrow.
Oh, we're going down to 95.
So we're going to get some,some.
Really.
I don't know what the heat indexis going to be, but yeah, so
ice cream sandwich would soundpretty damn good and if anybody
who knows me knows, I am an icecreamaholic and these few weeks
with my son being home, oh mygosh, I'm gonna gain.
(22:01):
I've been to brewster's icecream twice.
Love my brewster's.
Now we've got milkshakes herethere, everywhere.
What else did we do?
We're just, yeah, we're beingcomplete, full-on gluttons.
You know, with him here and he'seating us out of house and home
on top of everything else, mywife is like he's like I've
never had to do this many dishes.
(22:23):
He's eating all the time,everything.
And he just turned 21 onsaturday.
So that's another thing.
My wife was very, a little bitnot very upset that our baby's
21 years old now and things likethat, and he wanted rum chata
for his 21st birthday.
Then he found a tiktok recipeyou just a dirty pina colada or
(22:47):
something where you just pouredpineapple Fanta and rum chata
together and it's a I think theycall it dirty pina colada.
I had it.
It wasn't bad, it wasn't great,it wasn't bad.
Definitely gave the pina coladataste to it.
But so we have, we bought himsome rum chata for his, his,
(23:09):
some coconut rum chata for hisbirthday, and yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
So rum chata, that's nice rum, chata and coffee is
great.
I don't know if he needs tolearn about morning drinking yet
, but he's.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
He's not inexperienced, that you know
know a couple of years I knowwe're way off time.
It's a couple of years ago wewent to Puerto Rico and first
place we go to dinner.
They're taking our drink ordersand they ask him, and, and he
just says I'll have what she'shaving.
Talk to my wife and and didn'tbad night.
He's 17 years old, bringing hima rum and Coke or whatever she
(23:47):
was having and things like that.
And then we're sitting on thebeach and these giant pineapples
with real pina colada in it andcarved out of the pineapple and
he asked for one and I justgave him some money and he
bought it and they didn't care.
We went to a drag king show thebest first of all.
We went to a Drag King show yes, the best first of all.
(24:08):
And second, in Puerto Rico wegot mojitos and I asked my
sister do you want these mojitos?
Do you want them the small orlarge?
And it was only like twodollars difference.
The large is like half a gallon.
We didn't even.
We got like three of them andwe didn't even finish one of
them in there, but it was.
It was really funny.
(24:28):
One of the drag kings actuallyspoke english and he came up to
our table so many times and hewas like translating, for he
made us part of the show andthings like that he was.
So now my brother-in-law who,who's from chile is, is in there
and he's doing somethingtranslated.
But this guy is just doing itfabulously translating for us,
(24:50):
and it was we.
we had absolutely anyways backto back to the the side.
So yeah, actually I think we'repretty much at the end of the
show, everybody leaves, oh, andthen when everybody's gone, he
says we're going bowling.
It was his big concern.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Let it go, Michael.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Yeah, it was very funny, I feel like.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Honestly, I feel like that should be a manager slash
leadership skill that no onefocuses on is the ability to
delegate appropriately and tochoose when it's appropriate to
delegate a task and who it'sappropriate to delegate that
task to, Because Michael failedon both accounts.
(25:41):
This is not Now not now a youshouldn't have delegated it and
you just again like act yourwage.
You're gonna have to make toughdecisions and deal with it and
also never choose dwight.
Dwight is like the shredder helike he goes on power trips oh,
(26:02):
and again, why not delegate itto toby?
Speaker 2 (26:05):
I know michael hates toby, but here, toby, have fun,
go do this, and toby would loveit toby would have been really,
really happy, like later one ofthe later episodes, when he gets
to bring out his notebook he'sdoing some real hr work.
You don't see Toby that happyever in any episode, unless he's
like thinking of Pam orsomething Exactly.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
Give Toby something to do.
He's bored back there.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Exactly, but I'm trying to.
I'm also looking at the otherAI things that got it wrong.
Okay, so this got me on the AIand it made me think, ooh, this
will be a fun discussion for theshow.
One of the bullet points itgave for the synopsis is the
great HMO versus PPO debate, andthe episode touches on the
(26:52):
different types of planes andthe general confusion
surrounding them.
And I'm like I was like, ooh,this is something I would like
to really hit.
But AI, you got it wrong.
They didn't mention any of this, but I wonder, did they end up
with that Butchered plan?
Because at the end, oh, thiswas due at 5 o'clock and it's
(27:15):
5.15.
Oh, too bad, we can't changeyeah.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
I think they got the Butchered plan.
We can't change, yeah, I thinkthey got the butchered plan
which, if we're going to followreality, I'm surprised no one
put their resignation shortlyafter and found a new job,
Because benefits are such a hugepart of the compensation plan
that if they were to butcher itthey would have lost people for
sure.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Well, even Oscar, in the middle of the episode, says
something along like this isactually a pay cut for us.
Right, when you, when youbutcher the benefits, like that,
you're you're forcing people totake a pay cut and that's you
know whether it's a pay cutbecause they're they're paying
probably the same amount or morefor less service, or they're
(27:57):
paying more for the same lousyservice.
Yeah, it equals a pay cut.
So, yeah, that was prettytelling.
I appreciated that portion ofit.
Let's see here.
But yeah, ai really failed.
So I think every episode I'mgoing to try and see what AI
gives me for the thing.
(28:20):
But something does tell me in afuture episode Meredith does
have Lyme disease, but it's not.
I think it's blurring episodesthe rabies episode maybe she
gets rabies.
Or is it when she gets, whenMichael hits her with a car and
she's in the hospital andthey're discussing her medical.
So much happens to Meredith.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
I honestly do think she had Lyme disease.
Like I feel like that was realand she's in the hospital and
they're discussing her medical.
So much happens to Meredith.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
I honestly do think she had Lyme disease.
Like I feel like that was real.
Yeah, I think somewhere inthere she got Lyme disease.
So I think AI is sort ofblurring their episodes together
.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
Meredith has everything.
She's just a hot mess.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
She is the definition of hot mess, and so is her
family.
I think we'll find out a littlebit later as well.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
But let's not forget, during the entire filming of
the series, she was supposedlyworking on her doctorate.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Oh really.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
No, no, no, that was like spoiler alert at the very
end of the series, when they'retalking about reflecting back on
the documentary crew that wasthere.
She claims that she was editedwrong and that she was working
on her doctorate in education.
Why didn't they show any ofthat?
Oh, okay, I don't remember thatpart of it Meredith's, like I
(29:32):
got a bad edit.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Oh man, but no benefits in the real world is so
important and I think there wasa lot of opportunity here.
So maybe some things theymissed on.
But giving Dwight just thecarte blanche to butcher
everything and be Dwight aboutit, you know the opposite thing
(29:57):
you could have given it toreally given it to Jim Pam and
gotten some thing out of theworld as well.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
So it's honestly, I'm going to be like I think Jim
and Pam, If I was, if I wasgoing to delegate, I would
probably delegate to a groupfirst, like a small, like a or
maybe a trio, because one personshould not be in charge of
making that important of adecision.
(30:25):
And I feel like Jim and Pamlike their hearts in the good
place.
They like, like they.
I mean, yes, Jim's a bully, butI think at the end of the day
he really does care for thepeople he works with.
I think them together wouldhave come up with a way better
solution than Dwight alone.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
See, if I weren't going to choose Toby, I would
have chose Oscar.
Oscar would have been great, themost level-headed.
He'd be better than Tobyprobably.
He'd be so level-headed andhe'd plan it out really well.
I don't know, oscar.
Oscar would have probably beenif you're going to a committee,
(31:05):
he should be the committee chairof that committee and if not,
just give it to him and he wouldcome up with the best plan.
But you know another, give itto creek.
Oh gosh, we got.
We got free, everything, everymedicine you want, no
prescription, we're getting it.
We're not getting it fromcanada, we're getting it from
(31:25):
this island you've never heardof in the somewhere.
That's where we're getting ourmedicines from creed signed them
up for.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Like what is it?
Speaker 2 (31:32):
medical coverage of psychedelics yeah, exactly legal
and I'll be microdosing thewhole office every day, in our
coffee as well.
You know what?
Speaker 3 (31:43):
That would boost morale.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
So there you go Well okay, there was somebody out
there that was trying to makemicrodosing your employees as a
good thing.
We'll have to do this on.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
another episode is this consensual microdosing or
like secret microdosing a womanthat put laxative in someone's
coffee or something at work.
What was that it was?
It was something like that afew years ago here.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Here's something from Sherm.
Microdosing may become a moresignificant leadership issue.
I guess that's more aboutwhatever, but it's a lot more
widespread than you had.
This person, alex Atwood, apsychedelic coach that's the job
I want helps design protocolsfor people to integrate
microdosing into theirday-to-day lives.
(32:39):
That's funny.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
I mean, I guess it's no different than Wall Street in
the 80s, it's just differentvibes.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Everybody's coked up in the 80s and things like that.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
Everyone in this day and age is just really mellow.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Yeah, everybody's on Prozac or not.
Ambien, that puts you to sleep.
I don't know my drug drugsnames or anything like that, but
I don't work in pharmaceuticalsyeah, imagine, imagine if
cocaine was widespread now, asit were, in the 80s and 90s,
early 90s.
That'd be interesting.
(33:14):
So, anyhow, we've gone down acouple of different rabbit holes
.
We didn't intend to we've been.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
We've been a little loopy.
We recorded our.
We recorded episode before thisand I've I lost my mind doing
that episode.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
So yeah, exactly, but we do have.
We're going to do a normalepisode next week, but we're
going to continue.
I think we're still going to godown.
I think we're going to gostraight to episode four, which
is the alliance.
Rumors of Dwight downsizingspurred Dwight to ally with Jim
for survival and things likethat.
(33:50):
I think all the episodes inseason one have an HR twist we
can put on it.
The alliance would be a goodone.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
When have we not worked in an environment where
rumors were swirling?
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Oh, never.
Hr has never had to deal withpeople and their rumors and
things like that.
So, yeah, this will be sounrelatable, so unrelatable.
So, anyhow, join us in anotherweek from this episode, we will
have our regular episode.
My goal is that this episodethat early week in July, that
(34:29):
July 10th episode, is going tobe a really, really good one.
I'm really going to be workingmy butt off on this.
One is and it's cc's idea it'sgoing to be awesome.
She showed me something andI've just went down too many
rabbit holes and it it justkeeps getting worse and worse
(34:51):
and worse the more I I work on.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
It gets worse in the best way oh yeah, in the
absolute best way.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
it gets worse, and I'm going to take it a whole
nother direction as well.
So, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm diggingdown rabbit holes big time, so,
but we'll wrap it up and landthe plane right there.
So, as always, I'm Warren.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
I'm Cece.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
And we're here helping you survive HR one.
What the fuck moment at a time.
Had you actually read the email, you would know that
the podcast you are about tolisten to could contain explicit
language and offensive content.
These HR experts' views are notrepresentative of their past,
present or future employers.
If you have ever heard mymanager is unfair to me.
I need you to reset my HRportal password, or Can I write
(00:24):
up my employee for crying toomuch?
Welcome to our little safe zone.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Welcome to J-Date HR, the podcast by two HR
professionals who want to helpyou get through the workday by
saying everything you'rethinking, but say it out loud.
I'm Warren.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
I'm Cece and I don't know about you, Warren, but my
hot dog fingers are acting uptoday, hot dog fingers, yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
So this is our special Office Rewatch and we're
all the way up.
We've been doing this for a fewmonths now.
We're up to season one, episodethree.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
We're doing, great Doing great.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
So we're doing really , really well, and this is the
benefits episode.
So so far, each of the episodeshave really had an HR twang to
it or a component to it, andthis is no different.
But I was telling you all fairearlier, cece, I tried to cheat.
I did not think I was going toget to rewatch this episode and
(01:44):
I actually did not think I wasgoing to get to re-watch this
episode and I actually did notre-watch it.
I played the audio of it on mycar stereo as I was driving home
today and I got introduced tothe Superfan Edition.
I've never you know, I've neverknew it was there, but I
watched both the regular orlistened to the regular edition
and the Superfan Edition.
So I am as prepared as I'mgoing to be, and I've seen this
(02:05):
episode quite a few times, butthis is really an interesting
episode.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
It is.
I love this episode so muchbecause I love any episode where
Dwight has a power trip, and Ido love any episode that shows
Michael's ineffectiveness atleading and this is a big one,
with delegating and histransparency into his big
(02:31):
surprise.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Big surprise, yes, and that's well.
So the big surprise, but alsoone thing that stood out to me
like the very first scene.
He goes up to Pam and asks forhis messages and there aren't
any.
And he goes well, that's notwhat you said before.
And she looks at the camera Doyou want me to pretend to say
(02:54):
whatever?
Because the camera is here andhe just sort of doesn't know
what to say.
He's acting it up pretty good.
So the real opening scene, Iguess, is Jan in Michael's
office telling him he has topick a benefits plan.
(03:14):
Yes, and in the real HR world,why isn't Toby doing this?
Why isn't Dunder MifflinCorporate in New York City not
doing that?
You know they've got all theseoffices and branches.
They probably have a fullbenefits department, but anyway,
I got to be honest.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
That sounds extremely inefficient to have many
benefits packages floatingaround your multiple regional
offices.
That should be a corporatebenefits function.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
It really should.
But I can tell you multi-statebenefits are SOB and if you want
to have one package across allof your multi-state locations,
your options are very, verylimited.
Speaking firsthand experienceit's not a benefits expert or
anything like that, but firstthing and also A why isn't Toby
(04:05):
doing this?
But Toby is only in here liketwo brief scenes.
He's like any.
I don't think he has any lines,I think he's just seen in in
the background there and stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
So that is funny, yeah, I am not a benefits person
, so I know nothing aboutbenefits.
So fair point benefits person,so I know nothing about benefits
.
So fair point, fair point.
But at the very least Tobyshould be leading this and not
Michael.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
But it wouldn't be as funny with Toby, I know.
But anyways, jane wants him topick a benefits plan and he says
, oh, I want this one, the goldplan, that has acupuncture and
massages and you know everythingelse like that.
And she just looks I'm, I don'teven have the gold plan.
(04:49):
Your job is to just pick aprovider and then pick their
least expensive plan is what allshe says to them.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
So pick a provider, pick the least expensive plan
and let me just see we we see itlater.
But also also it seems likesuch a flippant way to look at
benefits, considering how muchbenefits really affects employee
morale and all of that stuff.
It's just like pick whatever'sthe cheapest.
(05:18):
That sounds so flippant.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Yes, I absolutely agree.
But on the other hand, I cansee a corporate entity telling
somebody to do that yes.
Yeah, it's very realthereabouts Now and on top of
(05:42):
that, two-thirds of them are onour former military and don't
even need our benefits.
But I did our benefitreconciliation for July just
this week and just seeing howmuch money we're paying Now.
Of course, employees contributeas well, but we pay a
significant portion.
The company pays a significantportion of the cost, but just
(06:04):
seeing how expensive it is,benefits are a big deal on
multiple levels Retention,engagement, recruiting it's huge
.
So, yeah, so Michael wants thisgold plan, that's out of the
question.
Jan says get the cheapest one.
And so what does michael do?
(06:26):
Calls jim and wants to delegateto him to do this, and I think
for all of jim's, jim is a funnycharacter, but if I'm looking
at it as an hr person he's in myoffice he's a bit of an a-hole,
he's a definite bully.
He's that cool kid that isabove everybody else and knows
(06:53):
it too.
But anyways, because Michaelhas a main crush.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
I would be such an asshole I'm like.
Isn't that all sales, though?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
It very well can be yes kidding we love sales.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Sales is the reason why we're here, so we love sales
.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
That was just a joke michael tries to delegate to jim
and jim pushes it off, says youknow who'd be really good at
this?
Dwight and and of courseDwight's.
You know Johnny, on the spot,wants to be there and take it
over.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Oh, eagerly, eagerly.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
And then we get into, like you said, dwight having a
power trip and I just love itbecause I can see that person in
real life.
I haven't worked with thatperson, I haven't had to anybody
, you know, I've had to dealwith in an HR manner.
Be that Dwight who gets off onthe power trip, but I've seen
(07:54):
them and things like that and Ijust, yeah, dwight does a very
good job of this job of this.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
So what's it?
Where?
Where to where?
To start with dwight?
Yeah, he really loves his newauthority, he embraces it and,
yeah, I love how he takes overthe office and makes it his
workspace his.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
He wants it to be an office, but he's told it's a
workspace, it's not an office.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Yeah, yeah, because he's not the assistant regional
manager.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
He's told it's a workspace.
It's not an office.
Yeah, yeah, because he's notthe assistant regional manager,
he's the assistant to theregional manager.
It's all about the semantics yes, to keep dwight happy and
occupied and and things likethat.
But dwight just goes in withnot even just a hatchet.
He's going in there with achainsaw, just cutting A
chainsaw the benefits and he'sgoing through.
(08:48):
And of course, what happens?
Nobody likes what Dwight isdoing.
He's cut everything out andspeaking as someone who has a
mild amount of experience withbenefits, you know this well.
I'll get to that later.
But he's cutting everything outto get this cheap, cheap
(09:08):
version of benefits and all theemployees are mad.
So what do they do?
They go to Michael and he saysand he plays off Dwight, what
are you doing?
Why are you doing?
This Plays it off, so you know.
So over dramatically and youfigure out how to give these
people what they want orwhatever Michael charged them
(09:31):
with.
So Dwight's next big idea wasto come up, have everybody
submit a list of all theirdiseases.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Sounds like a HIPAA violation, if I've heard one.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Yeah, exactly, but remember you don't put your name
on it.
Though he was writing, I don'tknow if this was in the super
fan edition or in the realedition he was like trying to
write people's names on theirsubmission.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Well, it wasn't that.
I think he was catching on tothe fact that some of them were
fake.
So then he was like who hasthis one?
So yeah, we're definitely inHIPAA violation territory.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
And of course Jim and Pam and other people go in and
make up these silly diseases.
Hot dog fingers and make upthese silly diseases Hot dog
fingers, hot dog fingers.
I did not know I was going toget a chance to watch this
episode or listen to it at all,so I tried to cheat and I used
Gemini.
And the question I asked Geminiwas give me a breakdown of the
(10:41):
highlights from the US comedythe Office, season one, episode
three, titled Healthcare.
And so Gemini, first thing itspits out is synopsis.
Synopsis is dead on Highlights.
First highlight it mentions isDwight's power trip, dead on.
Second bullet under highlightsis the disease list which we're
(11:03):
talking about now and it goes onfrom there.
But anyways, we're talkingabout the disease list which
we're talking about now and itgoes on from there.
But anyways, we're talkingabout the disease list.
So Jim wants to make sure,because what the idea of this
disease list is?
To make sure whatever you needis covered.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Yes.
So like Jim puts on there Greatidea on paper, horrible
execution.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Oh boy, jim puts on there Ebola and mad cow disease,
and then Pam puts on she's justmaking up diseases.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
What do you call it when your teeth turn to liquid
and explode in your mouth?
And he goes that's not amade-up.
Jim goes that's not a made-updisease, that's whatever.
And he comes up with a name forit and I guess she puts that on
and anyways it goes.
You know, the class clowns, ifyou will, are making this even
(11:57):
harder on Dwight.
So he picks up, as you weresaying, that some of these
diseases are made up, and hegoes who has hot dog fingers or
whatever it is?
And then he wants to have ameeting and he says he brings
everybody in to actually talk.
And Stanley says what aboutconfidentiality?
You lost confidentiality whenyou gave me these stupid made up
(12:19):
diseases and things like that,including the hot dog fingers.
Of course count choculitis, yes, including the hot dog fingers,
of course count choculitis.
Yes, that was a good one.
And then, of course, of allpeople, it's Kevin.
What about anal fissures?
Anal?
fissures and nobody here hasthat.
(12:41):
Kevin goes.
No, somebody here might.
And remember this is season one, kevin, before he has the
strange voice, he has the verymild meager.
He didn't change his voice yet.
Somebody here might have it andthings like that, and it just
goes on and on about it and it'sfunny.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
I do like when Meredith wants to ensure that
her vagina is covered.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Because one of the fake diseases someone put it was
an inverted penis disease.
And she goes do you mean avagina?
A vagina could be an invertedpenis, if you think of it.
And then Dwight's like youdon't have a vagina, you had a
hysterectomy, yes, and thingslike this, and she's trying to
(13:25):
explain.
I still I still have a vaginayeah, that is a classic dwight
not knowing these things, so I'mgoing to give you under the
disease list.
Ai gave me this.
Oh yes, so pan's car.
Pam's carpal tunnel syndromenobody mentioned carpal tunnel
(13:46):
syndrome in it.
I don't know where it comes upwith that.
Kevin's hot dog fingers Okay,we got hot dog fingers.
Okay, this is actually deephallucination on the AI's part.
Oscar's chlamydia and it sayswhich he makes up on the spot
just to mess with Dwight, thatwas not part of the show.
(14:07):
Stanley's spine-ritis andMeredith's Lyme disease, which
she genuinely has, but Dwighttries to dismiss as not a real
disease, not in the show.
I don't know, I don't knowwhere that.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Oh, gemini, you failed.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Yeah, that came from.
Yeah, it was really interesting.
But I was going to say, assomeone who knows a little bit
about benefits, it's really hardto get like I don't want to
cover, say, arthritis in myplant.
It would be hard to get a.
You can get what they call arider to either include or
(14:46):
exclude something from your plan.
You know a lot of likereligious organizations may have
certain riders about birthcontrol or other things like
that in their health plan, butyour M1A1 employer is not going
to go through the trouble to oh,I'm want to exclude hot dog
(15:07):
fingers for my benefits plan.
It's sort of all inclusive andsome plans may have better
coverage towards some illnessesthan others.
But it's not like an individualplan is going to necessarily do
that.
But I guess, speaking in thereal world, companies are
(15:28):
getting riders now for theirGLP-1s because insurance doesn't
want to cover it but employerswant it in their plans.
So they're getting riders addedto include GLP-1s if that's the
way the direction the companywants to go.
So that's pretty interesting.
A learning moment in Jaded HRlet's see here.
(15:51):
So back to the show, michael.
While all this is going on,what is Michael doing?
Speaker 3 (16:00):
He's trying to plan for his big surprise.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
And he's hiding.
He's like actively hiding inhis office himself and he he's
on the phone with.
He calls pam, how's everythinggoing out there?
And she's third talk to him andit's really bad and you, really
you might want to get out here.
And he tries to say, oh, I'vegot to go, I've got a call.
And she looks at the phone no,you don't.
And then at the end is he'strying to get off again.
(16:27):
He goes oh, I gotta take thiscall.
No, you still don't haveanother call.
No, but he's trying to he hasno backbone.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
He is the person who does not want to give deliver
bad news at all oh, and that'ssomething jan says at the very
beginning of the show.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Sometimes as a manager you have to have hard
conversations and she goes likeI'm having with you right now
and I did get a crack up out ofthat, because he's so oblivious,
he doesn't get anything that'sgoing on around him.
Like right now, like like thisyou have to do yeah, and it's,
(17:12):
it's, yeah, it's, it's michaelat his finest.
But and then michael goes onthis what do they call it when
they, like, just focus directlyin on one of the characters and
they're talking directly to thecamera?
I don't know, oh, like theconfessional yeah, yeah, that
type thing, these you know I'm agood manager.
I've decided to delegate this.
(17:32):
And now one thing michael saidI don't get the context to
dwight's already got one strike.
This will be strike.
If he fails at this, that'll bestrike number two.
And I don't know we're onlythree episodes in, so I don't
know what his other strike is onthat.
But if he succeeds, I had theauthority to and the confidence
(17:55):
in him to make this happen anddelegate this to him.
And if he doesn't succeed, hesucks.
Basically, I forget what hesays, but yeah, he sucks, and
that's I can.
So picture managers I've dealtwith in my life.
That would be the exact sameway.
I'm here for the glory, but ifthings don't go the way I want,
(18:19):
nope, that was all him.
I tried, I did my best.
And Michael, he leaves theoffice not once, but twice.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Twice he has meetings where he's trying to set up his
big surprise, and he realizeshe can't do a big surprise I
loved how he was researching, hewas doing the, the big ride,
the big ride, the elevator ride,and it was like a mine shaft.
And then it was like oh, do youguys do those things where you
(18:49):
get a bus and then you giveeverybody, drive everyone to the
casino and you give them freechips and everything's for free
and it's all comped, and thenyou bring them back and they're
like we don't do anything likethat either nobody does he's
trying so hard yeah, yeah, he'strying, he is very, he does,
(19:10):
like his employees, he does tryreally hard for the the good
stuff, but the bad stuff he'she's not too too good at.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
And so what does he do?
He comes back in the afternoonwith ice cream sandwiches for
everybody, and since ryandoesn't get benefits, he gets
two of them, and you have a highmetabolism.
So, and in stanley, this isn'tour surprise, is it?
Oh, no, no, no, this isn'ttheir surprise.
I've got something bigger andbetter.
(19:40):
And he goes, hides, runs andhides in his office and then he
comes.
I guess he comes back out againand Dwight has not made any
changes to the original, youknow, just butchered healthcare
plan.
And everybody's mad.
And Angela asks well, whatabout our big surprise?
And Michael goes into thelittle confessional mode I guess
(20:02):
you'd say and talk about howgreat of an improv he is.
He's along the greatest, likeDrew, carey and gosh.
Who's the other?
Ryan Stiles?
From Whose Line Is?
It Anyway, oh, yeah, yeah yeah,and how great he is and I would
have loved to work with RobinWilliams.
But he's sitting there, he'sstalling and trying to do the
drum roll.
Here's your big surprise he'sdoing it for a minute.
(20:23):
He's like doing it for like aminute trying to, okay, stall
out and everything, and peopleare just starting to leave.
And we didn't have a surprise.
And they're very demoralized andvery unhappy they are.
But I think they knew to expectthat from Michael, you know,
especially after he disappeared,Because the man doesn't spend
two minutes in his office, he'salways out and about.
(20:44):
You know, disturbinginterrupting his employees
versus actually helping them.
But it got me thinking.
Would you rather have yourmanager bring in ice cream,
sandwiches or pizzas for yourmorale?
Speaker 3 (21:01):
Oh my God, Actually at this point the ice cream
sandwich sounds delicious andquite different from the pizza,
so I guess I would welcome theice cream sandwich just a little
more.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Yeah Well, Speewich, how is it out there in your neck
of the woods, I know?
Today our heat index got up tolike 117 degrees at the bottom
of my screen, the heat warningin effect continuing through the
end of this week.
We're just sweating.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
We are sweating.
We are also in a heat warning.
I think we're tomorrow.
We're 94 degrees Holy F.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
I'm going to melt.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Tomorrow.
Oh, we're going down to 95.
So we're going to get some,some.
Really.
I don't know what the heat indexis going to be, but yeah, so
ice cream sandwich would soundpretty damn good and if anybody
who knows me knows, I am an icecreamaholic and these few weeks
with my son being home, oh mygosh, I'm gonna gain.
(22:01):
I've been to brewster's icecream twice.
Love my brewster's.
Now we've got milkshakes herethere, everywhere.
What else did we do?
We're just, yeah, we're beingcomplete, full-on gluttons.
You know, with him here and he'seating us out of house and home
on top of everything else, mywife is like he's like I've
never had to do this many dishes.
(22:23):
He's eating all the time,everything.
And he just turned 21 onsaturday.
So that's another thing.
My wife was very, a little bitnot very upset that our baby's
21 years old now and things likethat, and he wanted rum chata
for his 21st birthday.
Then he found a tiktok recipeyou just a dirty pina colada or
(22:47):
something where you just pouredpineapple Fanta and rum chata
together and it's a I think theycall it dirty pina colada.
I had it.
It wasn't bad, it wasn't great,it wasn't bad.
Definitely gave the pina coladataste to it.
But so we have, we bought himsome rum chata for his, his,
(23:09):
some coconut rum chata for hisbirthday, and yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
So rum chata, that's nice rum, chata and coffee is
great.
I don't know if he needs tolearn about morning drinking yet
, but he's.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
He's not inexperienced, that you know
know a couple of years I knowwe're way off time.
It's a couple of years ago wewent to Puerto Rico and first
place we go to dinner.
They're taking our drink ordersand they ask him, and, and he
just says I'll have what she'shaving.
Talk to my wife and and didn'tbad night.
He's 17 years old, bringing hima rum and Coke or whatever she
(23:47):
was having and things like that.
And then we're sitting on thebeach and these giant pineapples
with real pina colada in it andcarved out of the pineapple and
he asked for one and I justgave him some money and he
bought it and they didn't care.
We went to a drag king show thebest first of all.
We went to a Drag King show yes, the best first of all.
(24:08):
And second, in Puerto Rico wegot mojitos and I asked my
sister do you want these mojitos?
Do you want them the small orlarge?
And it was only like twodollars difference.
The large is like half a gallon.
We didn't even.
We got like three of them andwe didn't even finish one of
them in there, but it was.
It was really funny.
(24:28):
One of the drag kings actuallyspoke english and he came up to
our table so many times and hewas like translating, for he
made us part of the show andthings like that he was.
So now my brother-in-law who,who's from chile is, is in there
and he's doing somethingtranslated.
But this guy is just doing itfabulously translating for us,
(24:50):
and it was we.
we had absolutely anyways backto back to the the side.
So yeah, actually I think we'repretty much at the end of the
show, everybody leaves, oh, andthen when everybody's gone, he
says we're going bowling.
It was his big concern.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Let it go, Michael.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Yeah, it was very funny, I feel like.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Honestly, I feel like that should be a manager slash
leadership skill that no onefocuses on is the ability to
delegate appropriately and tochoose when it's appropriate to
delegate a task and who it'sappropriate to delegate that
task to, Because Michael failedon both accounts.
(25:41):
This is not Now not now a youshouldn't have delegated it and
you just again like act yourwage.
You're gonna have to make toughdecisions and deal with it and
also never choose dwight.
Dwight is like the shredder helike he goes on power trips oh,
(26:02):
and again, why not delegate itto toby?
Speaker 2 (26:05):
I know michael hates toby, but here, toby, have fun,
go do this, and toby would loveit toby would have been really,
really happy, like later one ofthe later episodes, when he gets
to bring out his notebook he'sdoing some real hr work.
You don't see Toby that happyever in any episode, unless he's
like thinking of Pam orsomething Exactly.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
Give Toby something to do.
He's bored back there.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Exactly, but I'm trying to.
I'm also looking at the otherAI things that got it wrong.
Okay, so this got me on the AIand it made me think, ooh, this
will be a fun discussion for theshow.
One of the bullet points itgave for the synopsis is the
great HMO versus PPO debate, andthe episode touches on the
(26:52):
different types of planes andthe general confusion
surrounding them.
And I'm like I was like, ooh,this is something I would like
to really hit.
But AI, you got it wrong.
They didn't mention any of this, but I wonder, did they end up
with that Butchered plan?
Because at the end, oh, thiswas due at 5 o'clock and it's
(27:15):
5.15.
Oh, too bad, we can't changeyeah.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
I think they got the Butchered plan.
We can't change, yeah, I thinkthey got the butchered plan
which, if we're going to followreality, I'm surprised no one
put their resignation shortlyafter and found a new job,
Because benefits are such a hugepart of the compensation plan
that if they were to butcher itthey would have lost people for
sure.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Well, even Oscar, in the middle of the episode, says
something along like this isactually a pay cut for us.
Right, when you, when youbutcher the benefits, like that,
you're you're forcing people totake a pay cut and that's you
know whether it's a pay cutbecause they're they're paying
probably the same amount or morefor less service, or they're
(27:57):
paying more for the same lousyservice.
Yeah, it equals a pay cut.
So, yeah, that was prettytelling.
I appreciated that portion ofit.
Let's see here.
But yeah, ai really failed.
So I think every episode I'mgoing to try and see what AI
gives me for the thing.
(28:20):
But something does tell me in afuture episode Meredith does
have Lyme disease, but it's not.
I think it's blurring episodesthe rabies episode maybe she
gets rabies.
Or is it when she gets, whenMichael hits her with a car and
she's in the hospital andthey're discussing her medical.
So much happens to Meredith.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
I honestly do think she had Lyme disease.
Like I feel like that was realand she's in the hospital and
they're discussing her medical.
So much happens to Meredith.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
I honestly do think she had Lyme disease.
Like I feel like that was real.
Yeah, I think somewhere inthere she got Lyme disease.
So I think AI is sort ofblurring their episodes together
.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
Meredith has everything.
She's just a hot mess.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
She is the definition of hot mess, and so is her
family.
I think we'll find out a littlebit later as well.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
But let's not forget, during the entire filming of
the series, she was supposedlyworking on her doctorate.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Oh really.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
No, no, no, that was like spoiler alert at the very
end of the series, when they'retalking about reflecting back on
the documentary crew that wasthere.
She claims that she was editedwrong and that she was working
on her doctorate in education.
Why didn't they show any ofthat?
Oh, okay, I don't remember thatpart of it Meredith's, like I
(29:32):
got a bad edit.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Oh man, but no benefits in the real world is so
important and I think there wasa lot of opportunity here.
So maybe some things theymissed on.
But giving Dwight just thecarte blanche to butcher
everything and be Dwight aboutit, you know the opposite thing
(29:57):
you could have given it toreally given it to Jim Pam and
gotten some thing out of theworld as well.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
So it's honestly, I'm going to be like I think Jim
and Pam, If I was, if I wasgoing to delegate, I would
probably delegate to a groupfirst, like a small, like a or
maybe a trio, because one personshould not be in charge of
making that important of adecision.
(30:25):
And I feel like Jim and Pamlike their hearts in the good
place.
They like, like they.
I mean, yes, Jim's a bully, butI think at the end of the day
he really does care for thepeople he works with.
I think them together wouldhave come up with a way better
solution than Dwight alone.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
See, if I weren't going to choose Toby, I would
have chose Oscar.
Oscar would have been great, themost level-headed.
He'd be better than Tobyprobably.
He'd be so level-headed andhe'd plan it out really well.
I don't know, oscar.
Oscar would have probably beenif you're going to a committee,
(31:05):
he should be the committee chairof that committee and if not,
just give it to him and he wouldcome up with the best plan.
But you know another, give itto creek.
Oh gosh, we got.
We got free, everything, everymedicine you want, no
prescription, we're getting it.
We're not getting it fromcanada, we're getting it from
(31:25):
this island you've never heardof in the somewhere.
That's where we're getting ourmedicines from creed signed them
up for.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Like what is it?
Speaker 2 (31:32):
medical coverage of psychedelics yeah, exactly legal
and I'll be microdosing thewhole office every day, in our
coffee as well.
You know what?
Speaker 3 (31:43):
That would boost morale.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
So there you go Well okay, there was somebody out
there that was trying to makemicrodosing your employees as a
good thing.
We'll have to do this on.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
another episode is this consensual microdosing or
like secret microdosing a womanthat put laxative in someone's
coffee or something at work.
What was that it was?
It was something like that afew years ago here.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Here's something from Sherm.
Microdosing may become a moresignificant leadership issue.
I guess that's more aboutwhatever, but it's a lot more
widespread than you had.
This person, alex Atwood, apsychedelic coach that's the job
I want helps design protocolsfor people to integrate
microdosing into theirday-to-day lives.
(32:39):
That's funny.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
I mean, I guess it's no different than Wall Street in
the 80s, it's just differentvibes.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Everybody's coked up in the 80s and things like that.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
Everyone in this day and age is just really mellow.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Yeah, everybody's on Prozac or not.
Ambien, that puts you to sleep.
I don't know my drug drugsnames or anything like that, but
I don't work in pharmaceuticalsyeah, imagine, imagine if
cocaine was widespread now, asit were, in the 80s and 90s,
early 90s.
That'd be interesting.
(33:14):
So, anyhow, we've gone down acouple of different rabbit holes
.
We didn't intend to we've been.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
We've been a little loopy.
We recorded our.
We recorded episode before thisand I've I lost my mind doing
that episode.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
So yeah, exactly, but we do have.
We're going to do a normalepisode next week, but we're
going to continue.
I think we're still going to godown.
I think we're going to gostraight to episode four, which
is the alliance.
Rumors of Dwight downsizingspurred Dwight to ally with Jim
for survival and things likethat.
(33:50):
I think all the episodes inseason one have an HR twist we
can put on it.
The alliance would be a goodone.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
When have we not worked in an environment where
rumors were swirling?
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Oh, never.
Hr has never had to deal withpeople and their rumors and
things like that.
So, yeah, this will be sounrelatable, so unrelatable.
So, anyhow, join us in anotherweek from this episode, we will
have our regular episode.
My goal is that this episodethat early week in July, that
(34:29):
July 10th episode, is going tobe a really, really good one.
I'm really going to be workingmy butt off on this.
One is and it's cc's idea it'sgoing to be awesome.
She showed me something andI've just went down too many
rabbit holes and it it justkeeps getting worse and worse
(34:51):
and worse the more I I work on.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
It gets worse in the best way oh yeah, in the
absolute best way.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
it gets worse, and I'm going to take it a whole
nother direction as well.
So, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm diggingdown rabbit holes big time, so,
but we'll wrap it up and landthe plane right there.
So, as always, I'm Warren.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
I'm Cece.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
And we're here helping you survive HR one.
What the fuck moment at a time.
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