David Wallace was looking to close down the DunderMifflin offices
At the end of Season 3 we learn about the Corporate Office opening in New York and that Michael, Jim, Karen, and Ryan are up for the position. We don't learn about Ryan's applying for the job until the end of season 3 when he accepts the position and dumps Kelly.
Of the applicants that we know about, Ryan is the only one with no real sales record. Which makes little sense given that Michael told Pam in the beach party episode that the promotion required sales experience. Why would Ryan, a temp with no sales, be given that promotion?
We also learn from the start of the series that Dunder Mifflin is having financial troubles, which is why Devin was fired in season 1 and why later on in the series Dunder Mifflin is bought by Sabre and later David Wallace. In fact, in season 5, after Ryan is fired and rehired by Michael, we learn in the Business Ethics episode that the company is still suffering from financial difficulties and David Wallace is willing to look the other way on Meridith sleeping with vendors for discounts, even though Holly wants her fired for that.
So, Dunder Mifflin is in serious trouble financially, and David Wallace is looking for the best way to save money to keep the company going long term.
This is where Ryan Howard comes in. At some point in season 3, Ryan met with David Wallace, a move similar to what Dwight did with Jan that backfired for Dwight, resulting in him doing Michael's laundry. Only instead of getting ratted out to Michael by David Wallace, David Wallace listened to Ryan. Ryan had a plan, he knew where Dunder Mifflin was failing, he knew what David Wallace was wanting, and he had a plan and he laid it out plain and straight forward to David Wallace.
The interview process.
We see David Wallace invite Jim, Karen and Michael to the interview for what we later discover is Jan's job. We learn later on in The Deposition episode that Michael wasn't a serious candidate for the position. The same is true for Jim and Karen, and anyone else invited. Many companies have a policy that clearly states that a job position can't be interviewed for unless there are a certain number of people being interviewed. David Wallace already selected Ryan Howard for the job, the other candidates were just a formality.
This is why Ryan Howard was able to get a job that requires sales experience without having any.
What was the long term plan?
Th
... keep reading on reddit β‘
Ryan Howard showed toughness with Jim and Michael. Jim even admitted to "actually trying" and made a large sale. Michael was put in his place after trying to tease him. Ryan's toughness as senior VP made the company better. He had a strong vision about moving online, and he integrated technology to try and save the company. They may not have liked him, but he had their respect. At the end, he had to make tough decisions about the fraud, but had he survived that, he might have saved the company. He put himself in a precarious situation to save the company; like a good boss, he took risks.
Like, everybody keeps calling him a 3. I get it, but not really.
Ryan is the perfect example of an unhealthy 4. Before we get into that, letβs get into his nice characteristics. He is extremely creative and emotional. Thereβs been plenty of times when the show portrayed how powerful his poetry is. Heβs a PHOTOGRAPHER. Who likes to take photos of the things that are βnot commonβ or βboringβ and try to make them interesting. Kelly said he cried when there was a sunset in one of the episodes. He tries to set himself apart from the rest of the cast a lot. When that one artist died he pretended to be very upset about it bc he wanted to look like he was βdeep about musicβ as Pam said.
His bad characteristics is that heβs very self-absorbed as we can see from his relationship with Kelly. We can also see this when he makes his company βWUPHFβ, when he encourages Michael to take a second mortgage on his condo just so he can continue his business. 4s are also known to be creative with business ideas.
My consensus: Ryan Howard is an enneagram 4w3.
Thereβs so many more reasons why Ryan is a four, but I procrastinated enough from homework to type this.
Thatβs all, sorry if this is the wrong sub.
I don't think it was yuppie.
Robert California is the weird zen master character who becomes CEO of Sabre/Dunder Mifflin in season 8 of The Office. Ryan Howard is the former temp turned VP turned bowling alley attendant turned temp. My fan theory is that Robert California is Ryan from the future.
At some point in the series, around season 5, Ryan becomes a weird hipster wanna be artist/entrepreneur. Both he and Robert constantly spout nonsensical advice and zen statements, the difference being that Robert does it better. Both characters are unable to maintain healthy relationships. The driving force behind this theory is that Robert is more or less what Ryan is trying to be. He's successful, he's aloof, he is able to get people to do what he wants by using weird turns of phrase and is able to be "cool" and "unique". Robert California also kind of comes out of nowhere, is implied to be very rich, yet is unemployed when we're introduced to him.
At some point in the future, Ryan discovered a time machine and used it to go back in time and make his way back to the top of Dunder Mifflin. He changed his name to something that he thought sounded cool, scammed some money by using winning lottery ticket numbers, and then maintained a low profile until the time came when he knew Michael Scott would be leaving Dunder Mifflin.
This older version of Ryan is more mature, leaving behind his grudges against Jim as well as his feelings for Kelly. However he still exhibits some behaviors of his old self, lusting after younger women, and being more or less a phony loser, only this time keeping it under wraps.
)