I chatted with Jenna Fischer a while back, in advance of the sadly aborted release of The Promotion, and she confirmed that The Office was a dream gig for her in more ways than the obvious. “I was a secretary for five years in various offices and I loved it,” says Fischer. “I always thought if I didn’t have a career in acting, I’d want to be the secretary to the President of the United States. Like, what is the biggest job you can shoot for as an assistant? I think I can do it, I can anticipate his or her needs!”

Here she laughs a bit, then continues. “I really did like it, though. I like filing, I like organizing things — not in my personal life, but I love going to work and working on an Excel spreadsheet. My Christmas list is on an Excel spreadsheet — any reason to make an Excel spreadsheet! But really, I like offices, and I like office work, so to get an acting job set in an office was like my dream come true — they combine my two loves. Even now, if you take to a Staples, I’ll get lost in there. The sheer variety of Post-It notes is amazing to me.”

Not everything in Fischer’s occupational past is peaches and cream, though. “I didn’t like catering very much — catering is so weird. I was always offended when people would look right through me, like I was a moving prop of food, but then I didn’t want anyone talking to me either,” says Fischer. “I was like, ‘Please don’t ask me any questions, don’t ask me what’s in it, I’m just going to make it up.’ I was always very grouchy as a caterer. If I was at a wedding and everyone [is getting] chicken, just don’t ask for the sauce on the side, just don’t. Because I don’t want to have to walk back to the kitchen and get sauce in a little cup and remember where you’re sitting, because you look like every other person at every other wedding that I’ve done for the past two years. So I was very grouchy, but as a result, when I’m at an event that is catered, I do not ask for my sauce on the side. I am polite but not too chatty with the staff, because I’ve been there.”