When I saw "The Office" for the first time, I thought Jim and Pam were couple goals. They were always joking around, pulling pranks on Dwight, and overall having a great relationship. I was rooting for them to get together, even if it hurt some people in the process.
Initially, I wanted to have a relationship like that. However, while re-watching the Office recently, I realized something–Jim is selfish and kind of a jerk.
When viewers
After Jim discovers that Pam won't leave her fiancé, Roy, Jim decides to transfer to Stamford to avoid Pam. Shortly after this, Jim enters into a relationship with his co-worker, Karen. When the Stamford branch is dissolved, Jim encourages Karen to move back with him to the Scranton branch. At this point, Pam has broken up with Roy, and Jim sees this as an opportunity to get what he wants.
Jim starts treating Karen like garbage. He freaks out when she says she's moving to an apartment a few minutes from Jim, even though he was the one who insisted she move with him. Jim continues flirting with Pam and decides to dump Karen in New York after a business interview.
He strung Karen along, expecting her to move her life to Scranton, and then dumps her because Pam is single. To Jim, Karen is just a placeholder for Pam. Jim didn't even have the decency to break up with Karen properly. He leaves her in New York without so much as a reason why. Jim doesn't respect the fact that Karen has feelings or that he ruined a part of her life. He only cares about how he feels and what he wants.
When Jim and Pam aren't together, they claim that they're good friends. However, when Pam has an art show and invites all her coworkers to show up, Jim doesn't come. Supposedly, Jim and Pam are the best of friends, yet Jim couldn't even take a few minutes to see Pam's art after work. Friends support one another, and by Jim failing to show up just demonstrates that Jim doesn't support Pam's dreams.
Another issue that I had with Jim was that he bought his parents' house without talking to Pam about it first. It'd be one thing if Pam had expressed a prior interest in purchasing Jim's parent's house, but after buying the house, Jim admitted he wasn't sure if Pam would like the surprise.
Buying a house together is a big decision, and not talking to your fiancee about it is pretty selfish. Just because Jim wants to live in the house he grew up in doesn't mean that Pam does too.
After deciding that he wants to start a business with his old college friends, Jim chooses to invest $10,000 in the company, without discussing it with Pam. He acts as though it's not that big of a deal, sinking most of his and Pam's savings without Pam's approval. Then he heads to Philidelphia, enjoying himself at his new job, while Pam takes care of their two kids alone.
While Jim may be trying to provide a better life for his family by earning more money, he should've taken into account Pam's feelings. If Jim could see past himself, he should've noticed Pam's unhappiness and realized the solution to the problem would be to try to move his family out to Philadelphia, or visiting Scranton more often than he was. Instead, he only cared that he was enjoying himself by playing basketball with former NBA players.
Overall, Jim seems mostly concerned with himself. He does whatever he wants, without taking into consideration the people around him, or even at times his wife. Though Jim and Pam can be a cute couple at some points, Jim is just plain selfish.
