Landing a job on one of Peak TV’s most popular comedies seems like it’d be an enviable gig no matter what the details were. And while that is likely the case more often than not, horror stories within the industry do indeed exist, with The Office alum Lindsey Broad non-enjoying a first-person experience with just how despicable fandoms can get where controversial characters are involved.
First appearing in what’s arguably The Office’s worst cycle, Season 8, Broad arrived in the seventh episode as temp worker Cathy Simms, who landed at Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton branch to help fill in as Pam transitioned into her maternity leave. Despite her seemingly normal behavior early on, it’s soon clear that Cathy doesn’t really mesh well with others, but harbors romantic feelings for Jim, eventually culminating in her brazen attempts to sleep with him in “After Hours.”
Jim and Pam’s picture-perfect relationship timeline, Cathy’s arc was cut short soon after, but that was only the beginning of Lindsey Broad’s years of dealing with obsessive and wildly immature Office fans who spew hateful messages online, even during her attempts to mourn her dead dog. Speaking with Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey on their beloved podcast Office Ladies, Broad shared:
I will say the Internet is just a really crazy place. And there was a moment — I tweeted something back when I used to be on Twitter. When my dog was killed and I had posted on Instagram that my dog had died, there was a bunch of comments underneath being like, ‘Fuck you, Cathy. You deserve it.’
We all know the Internet is gonna Internet, regardless of whether there’s justification for it or not. But to angrily target an F-bomb at someone mourning a dog’s death due to a fictional character they did not create, but only portrayed across roughly 20-25 total minutes of screentime? That’s abysmal behavior for anyone to have to deal with.
Broad previously addressed fans’ harsh treatment at a point when the online comments seemed to be more prevalent, when the show was still streaming on Netflix ahead of shifting to Peacock. And despite multiple years going by, it’s still kind of shocking to hear that she’s dealt with such unfiltered negativity online for such a relatively minor role in a largely forgettable season. Maybe if any of her appearances happened in the best Office episodes of all time, but that’s not the case.
Thankfully, it appears as if Lindsey Broad’s experiences with sour viewers has been limited to online reactions, and her daily life isn’t plagued by such interactions. But part of that is because she purposefully doesn’t advertise her past career heights. As she put it:
As far as I know, it doesn’t really affect my real life, because my real life — I compartmentalize. I use the same last name as my kids, I try to be pretty unassuming in my real life. So I don’t know how much it bleeds over into how certain people see me or treat me. Occasionally, if I meet somebody and they just like really don’t like me despite the fact that I’m being very friendly, I’m always like in the back of my head, like, ‘Is that what it is?’
It appears as if Broad has been able to curb disturbing online reactions by limiting her social media activity, since that more easily allowed Office fans to track her down line. But the actress is more welcoming to having real-world dialogues with fans, since the very act of recognizing her in public is a sign that they’re a true fan and not just a disgruntled Pam and Jen stan. In her words:
Here’s what I will say. The internet is a crazy place. I’ve gotten used to people calling me Cathy. However, when I meet people in real life, people are so excited. If people are big enough fans of The Office that they can recognize me, and again, I’m sort of an unassuming looking person. I’m not like, very flashy looking. So if they recognize me, they’re a big fan. People are so excited to see somebody from this show that they are just incredibly nice. The Internet is a different story.
The Office‘s popularity reached the point just this year in 2025 where a formerly closed Chili’s in Scranton, Pennsylvania reopened specifically to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the spinoff debuting on NBC. So I guess it shouldn’t be surprising to hear that certain pockets of the fandom chose to go all scorched-earth anytime an obstacle (human or otherwise) got in the way of Jim and Pam’s happiness. But it’s been 13 years since Cathy came and went, so maybe those feelings can be put to rest.