in what some reporters described as a continuity error, charles miner refers to jim's second-in-command position as "made up", but the position is real and jim was officially hired for it in the third season episode "branch closing". when asked by a fan about the apparent inconsistency, "the office" writer aaron shure said he believed it was because "charles is clearly not great at reading people and he's headstrong", and the fact that jim does not normally care about titles, so he was not used to having to defend himself in such a way. however, shure admitted he was "[trying] to wiggle out of this one" with his answer.