Charles Miner (The Office)

Charles Miner
The Office character
First appearance	"New Boss"
Last appearance	"Company Picnic"
Portrayed by	Idris Elba
Information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Saticoy Steel employee (former) Vice President of Northeast Sales for Dunder Mifflin (former)

Charles Miner was the Vice President of Northeast Sales for Dunder Mifflin, having taken over the position vacated by Ryan and Jan. He is portrayed by Idris Elba.

Character history

Charles is first introduced in "New Boss". Before coming to Dunder Mifflin, he was previously employed by Saticoy Steel, and came from an accounting background.

Season 5

Miner's debut is in "New Boss" ^[1] when he visits the Scranton branch, which is one of the branches he oversees. Initially he seems to get along with Michael when they meet for the first time in corporate headquarters but that is short lived when Charles' no-nonsense management skills clash with Michael's laid back demeanor. Michael designs a series of bagels by cutting out a chunk of each them to resemble a C in honor of Charles, who rebuffs the gesture. He even purchases lunch for the employees which irritates Michael, who thinks Charles is trying to one-up his idea. Tensions between Charles and Michael rise when Charles overrides Michael's authority on bad news items such as ordering employees to do extended work on office hours without overtime, revealing a 3% cut in the staff's 401K contributions, and dissolving the party planning committee. This last move causes Michael to give his two weeks notice, given that the planning was for Michael's 15th anniversary with the company.

Charles immediately clashes with Jim, keeping the salesman under intense scrutiny, particularly when a prank involving Jim wearing a tuxedo doesn't seem to amuse the humorless Charles. When Jim tries to smooth things over with Charles after they got off to a bad start, Charles condescends to Jim that his position as "Assistant Regional Manager" is "made up" (the show later confirmed via the writing staff that the position is real and Charles was wrong). During "Dream Team", Charles is revealed to be a serious fan of soccer, which prompts the staff, including Jim, to feign their enthusiasm for the sport as well. However, Charles' like for Jim is short-lived when they later engage in a soccer game in the parking lot when Jim dodges the ball and it hits Phyllis in the face.^[2]

Fretful over Michael's new company poaching several clients, Charles meets with CFO David Wallace in "Broke" at the branch. He sucks up shamelessly to David, which Jim notices, given that it's different from Charles' no-nonsense persona. Charles vocalizes his disdain at Jim's presence in a meeting with David Wallace, who wanted Jim present. Charles thinks of Jim as "a disappointment" but finds out under embarrassing circumstances later on that Jim is smarter than he thinks. Jim later makes a snide remark at Charles when he makes another obvious attempt to kiss up to Wallace, leaving Charles to look defeated in front of his boss.^[3]

Charles is revealed to have somewhat of a contradictory personality in front of Wallace, judging from how he seemed to get along well with Michael when they met at corporate headquarters in addition to his sudden attitude change when Wallace met with him in Scranton.

In "Two Weeks", Charles begins interviewing outside of the company for the regional manager position Michael has left. He soon has security remove Michael from the office when he discovers Michael is planning to start his own paper company and is using company stationery in the process. When Michael returns, Charles attempts to physically remove Michael from the office. He later appoints Kevin Malone to take over as receptionist and Stanley Hudson as the productivity czar for the office, an indication that Miner doesn't know his employees well, and neither man does well at the new post.

During "Heavy Competition," Charles compliments Dwight on his work ethic and lets him know that his hard work isn't going ignored. Dwight perceives this as Charles showing more respect to him than Michael did, which prompts him to bring Charles to a secret meeting he has been holding with Michael, who is ordered to stop pestering Dwight.^[4]

However, Charles's respect for Dwight is short-lived in "Broke" when Dwight embarrasses Charles in front of their boss, David Wallace, who was initially surprised when Charles said "Dwight's my guy". Charles even stops Dwight from going to talk to Michael about a possible settlement and encourages Jim to go. When Dwight gets crucial information on the failing state of Michael's paper company and tries to reveal this to Charles, Jim distracts him, leading Charles to angrily refuse to listen to either of them and call Dwight and Jim "morons" to their faces.

When Michael is later re-hired by David Wallace, he makes a demand that David fire Charles, an order which David refuses, calling Charles valuable. He does, however, leave the Scranton branch and return to Corporate. Upon his departure he tries to say his parting words when Michael cuts him off, mirroring Charles's earlier treatment of Michael. Charles resurfaces in "Company Picnic", condescending to Jim again and heavily competing with corporate against the Scranton branch; however, it's also confirmed that Charles no longer has any authority over Scranton, as Jim notes Charles can't do anything to him anymore and yet still makes him feel lousy. When Charles utilizes the opportunity to take out Pam Halpert, Scranton's best player, Dwight stalls the game by kicking the volleyball away and irritating Charles.^[5]

In a deleted scene, Charles openly ridicules Jim on the field and aggravates Jim.

Seasons 6 & 7

Although Charles is not seen, he is mentioned twice. In "The Banker" Pam states that Michael is now the highest ranking employee in what remains of Dunder-Mifflin.^[6] While this strongly implied that Charles has lost his job, this isn't confirmed until "Viewing Party", when Michael names Charles as one of the many bosses he has outlasted (he lumps him in with the fired David Wallace, the crazy Jan Levinson, and the decapitated Ed Truck).^[7]

Behind the scenes

Idris Elba was the second former cast member of the HBO drama The Wire to be hired for a recurring role on The Office, after Amy Ryan. Michael notes in the Season 4 episode "Night Out" that he's started watching the show but doesn't understand a word of it. His previous role as Stringer Bell, where he had an American accent, also contributed to the actor's decision to forego his natural British accent in portraying Charles.

References

1. ^ Episode "New Boss"
2. ^ Episode "Dream Team"
3. ^ Episode "Broke"
4. ^ Episode "Heavy Competition"
5. ^ Episode "Company Picnic"
6. ^ Episode "The Banker"
7. ^ Episode "Viewing Party"