Rashida Jones reveals why she was let go from The Office after 1 season

Rashida Jones was at peace when it was time to clock out of work for good.On Tuesday’s episode of the “Good Hang” podcast, the actress, 49, got candid on briefly appearing on “The Office” as Karen Filippelli, who was an employee of Dunder Mifflin’s Stamford branch.“I had done a year on ‘The Office’ and they let me go, which made sense.

It made sense,” Jones told host Amy Poehler, who the actress co-starred with on “Parks and Recreation” for seven seasons.“You had such a tough job there, because everybody wanted Jim and Pam, and then guess who shows up? A very likable, cool… and everyone was like, ‘Oh no, wait,” the host replied.Karen went head to head with Jenna Fischer’s Pam for Jim’s affection.“It did not feel that way,” Jones quickly stated.“People did not like me.

Like, fans were not about it.”Karen first appears in episode 1 of Season 3 in 2006, when Jim (John Krasinski) has just transferred from Scranton to the Stamford branch.The two flirt back and forth until Jim dumps Karen in the season finale.In real life, Jones and Krasinski, 45, briefly dated.Jones now realizes that her character’s purpose was to “create tension for the relationship” between Jim and Pam “to be earned later.”“So I was the third point in the triangle.

It’s fine.I accept it,” she told Poehler, 53.Jones returned to the series as Karen for two episodes in Season 4, one episode in Season 5, and eventually for a final episode in Season 7.

When the last episode “Threat Level Midnight” aired in 2011, Jones was already in full swing as Ann Perkins on Season 3 of “Parks and Recreation.”Jim O’Heir, who played Jerry Gergich on “Parks and Rec,” spoke about the connection between the two comedies in his 2024 memoir “Welcome to Pawnee.” The actor, 63, wrote that “The Office” creator Greg Daniels initially created the seven-season series as a spinoff of “The Office” tentatively titled “The Stamford Br...