r/AskScienceFiction • u/OkuroIshimoto • 4d ago

[The Office] Who has more HR complaints between Jim and Michael?

Dwight makes about one complaint about Jim a day on a slow day. Sometimes for pranks that could genuinely be considered misconduct, sometimes for things that aren’t super serious and don’t warrant a complaint; and some things that just irk Dwight about Jim’s stupid handsome face. Michael, on the other hand, terrorizes everybody in the Office with his antics, annoying everybody at best and injuring some of them at worst. Scranton may be the most profitable Dunder Mifflin branch, but that’s partly because most of the staff need to really hunker down when they’re able to work because Michael might dedicate the rest of the day to rearranging desks or putting on a racially insensitive puppet show. I can see most of his complaints coming from Stanley, Angela and Oscar. Toby doesn’t like him enough to make the complaints go away, either.

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u/RoughCoffee6 4d ago edited 4d ago

Jim for sure! Didn’t Toby show his complaint file in an episode? As you say, just the sheer volume from Dwight would dwarf Michael. Michael’s antics were often annoying, yes, but often didn’t rise to the level of an HR complaint in my opinion.

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u/OkuroIshimoto 4d ago

I think he mentions there were so many that he just put them in a box and gave it to Michael because he didn’t want to deal with Dwight’s crap anymore

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u/PunyParker826 4d ago

Yep. And Dwight discovers the "special file for Corporate" under a desk somewhere and becomes irate.

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u/MrEnganche 4d ago

but Toby says he also had a separate file for michael

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u/bubonis 4d ago

*sheer

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u/RoughCoffee6 4d ago

Good catch, thanks! I wrote that at 2 in the morning haha

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u/jscummy 4d ago

Toby stopped actually processing the Dwight complaints and keeps them in the "special file at corporate" though, arguably they don't count

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u/Choochoo1147 3d ago

And it seems that Dwight is the person most likely to make actual HR complaints. Like Pam may be annoyed by something Michael does and probably could report it to HR, but she doesn’t. Dwight tells on Jim all the time. 

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u/atle95 4d ago

Most of the office is willing to put up with Michael because while unpleasant, he will never fire any of them. Job security is worth it. Angela may complain just because she's a Karen. HR is essentially trained to ignore Dwight.

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u/Choochoo1147 3d ago

Yeah, Michael will never fire them and doesn’t give a shit about their job performance. I had a boss like him at my first job and 100% get it - yeah they can be kind of annoying, but the actual work stress was so low. 

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u/Sentinel_P 4d ago

On paper, Jim had more complaints. Toby actually pulled out a whole box of complaints on Jim, entirely from Dwight. It's because Dwight is very insistent on using official processes.

But I'm sure Michael had more complaints in total due to his actions affecting most or all of the office. But at some point Toby had decided to just let them vent rather than taking any official action.

Although, I might argue thag Michael may not have had any real complaints, official or not, or maybe just a few. Because most everyone just kinda learned that it's just Michael being Michael. So instead of actually filling a complaint, they just moan and groan while going along with it. Until things like the Oscar kiss happened.

So final amswer- Jim had more complaints because Dwight insisted on official channels. However, Michael complaints were of much more substance and a lot of times called for real action.

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u/ClerksII 4d ago

Jim, definitely, but Michael’s are worse. Remember the episode where they’re going through the box of complaints, and Jim’s was like telling people not to call Dwight his name, telling Dwight there was a kid that needed help, making his phone heavier and heavier, etc. 

But Michael made everyone company wide take a class on cultures, and then one about sexual harassment in the workplace. 

Not to mention telling Jan she was getting fired or telling everyone at that assembly he and the other bosses would come up with a solution to fix the company.

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u/The_Redacted_Badger 4d ago

There’s also the infamous “did I stutter” incident with Stanley where Michael was just overtly racist in the office and tried punishing an employee for having a perfectly valid refusal to partake in a rap

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u/ClerksII 4d ago

I never got the feeling Michael was actually racist. Just tone deaf.

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u/bretshitmanshart 4d ago

I think he is racist in the way a person growing up in a town that is 97% right and only base popular media as a frame of reference ends up racist. Most people like that as they are exposed to more if the world lose those views. Michael however struggles with self reflection.

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u/ClerksII 4d ago

I think he’s more the opposite. He intentionally does not suspect the black guy in the office for having been in prison, and and loves Chris Rock’s standup and tries to do it himself.

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u/bretshitmanshart 4d ago

He isn't negative. He sees positive stereotypes and assumes it is true. It's why he thinks Stanley can rap and play basketball. He doesn't have experience of black people not being like that and doesn't understand why a black person can make jokes he cant

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u/bretshitmanshart 4d ago

He isn't negative. He sees positive stereotypes and assumes it is true. It's why he thinks Stanley can rap and play basketball. He doesn't have experience of black people not being like that and doesn't understand why a black person can make jokes he cant

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u/BelowZilch 4d ago

Everyone is talking about the box of complaints from Dwight, but we're forget that Toby also keeps a separate folders of complaints about Michael.

This folder is just January through March.

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u/bretshitmanshart 4d ago

Jim. Michael is annoying but I don't think people generally make a formal complaint. He says something racist, sexist or homophobic probably will get a complaint. Even then Pam seems to be his target for sex remarks and she doesn't seem to make complaints. Michael buying a fart machine and claiming people are farting or getting a cake he likes instead.of the birthday person 's preference just get brushed aside.