Literal Self-Promotion and Human Resources

Besides being the baseball playoffs, tonight is also The Office night. The show is nowhere near as funny as it was in the earlier years, but it still is a funny, enjoyable half hour and well-worth the watch (at least until Steve Carrell leaves at the end of the year). Last week's episode was an interesting one, though because of Pam's literal "self-promotion" and Toby's mediation with Michael due to his "corporate punishment" from the week before.

Usually when we think about "self-promotion" we think of someone promoting their own brand. What happened on the last episode of The Office was quite different. When a sales person walked into the office and asked who the office manager was, Pam stepped up and took the position even though it wasn't hers. She then set out to convince the rest of the office that she had the position but had not received her salary bump. In the end, she got her way, but through less-than-savory means (well, she lied). 

Now Human Resources should be encouraging employees to promote themselves to other members of the office. Taking responsibilities that are not there's to help out in the office is great as well and should be encouraged. But that's where this should end. Actually giving yourself a promotion and a raise was funny on the show, but is not exactly ethical.

As for Toby, he had another classic showdown with Michael. Toby is Michael's punching bag and usually doesn't bring a good face to Human Resources, but he shined much of this episode (except when he had Michael fill out his own form). Toby's inability to stop Michael from acting out has been one of his toughest thing to deal with but his ability to work with Michael despite all the abuse gets kudos from me.

We'll see what types of office hijinx happen on tonight's episode, but last week's episodes was certainly chock-full of laughs and Human Resource topics.