Less than Perfect Episode Rating Graph

Claude is put in charge of organizing the GNB on-air holiday greeting, but is alarmed to learn that there are strict criteria to determine who can represent the company - putting her in hot water with Owen, Ramona and Carl, to whom she had promised an appearance. Meanwhile Lydia refuses to rearrange her holiday plans with Jeb when he announces they must accommodate his son, George, and Kipp and his new girlfriend, Annie, encounter holiday relationship turbulence.

Learning that Owen has ""sired"" a child, Claude tries to arrange a get-together between Owen and the dad he's never known. When ""braces guy"" gets a promotion, Kipp decides that he needs a gimmick to get noticed -- so he becomes ""bicycle guy."" A bad photo in the paper has Will feeling self-conscious about aging, so he recruits Lydia to make him over.

Claude's new sway jacket is ruined because someone stole her umbrella, forcing her to go out in the rain. When she returns to the building, however, she runs into the guy who stole it and confronts him, only to find out later that he's Ted Elliot, the new executive producer. With her job on jeopardy, Claude has a change of attitude, but Ted is such a jerk to everyone that she stands up for her morals. Impressed, Ted offers her a job as his assistant, leaving Claude with a dilemma: does she continue to work for her beloved Will Butler or does she dump him for a job with a much more promising future ahead of her? To be Continued...

Kipp broke Claude's penguin toy, but instead of planning a meaningful revenge against him, Claude decides to help him make a demo tape on which he can show his news anchor abilities and she can show her producer skills. Of course, Kipp's attitude on the newsset it completely corky, which ends up as a very funny – and very humiliating – demo tape. But Claude is too good hearted to let Kipp go through that kind of embarrassment in front of everyone and decides to destroy the tape (and Kipp's trust on her). Meanwhile, Lydia tries to prove that Will hasn't forgotten about their night together and ends up realizing she is the one who forgot about it.

Tired of living in constant competition with Lydia over Will's attention, Claude decides to attend Ramona's ""strippercize"" class to develop her ""uh-uh"". Claude quickly gains the self-confidence that she's been lacking, so she and Ramona go out for drinks, where Claude finds herself competing for men -- against Lydia. Meanwhile, Kipp asks for Owen to help him take a good picture for his id card, and Owen obliges... but Kipp soon discovers that Owen is too much of a perfectionist.

Claude encourages Charlie to audition for a band, but she's dumbfounded when he reveals he got the gig and has to leave town indefinitely. Will wins Kipp from Jeb in a card game and gives him to Claude as a gift -- so Claude willingly lets him do her job. Meanwhile, Ramona and Owen plan a surprise birthday party for Carl. Depressed over her breakup with Jeb, Lydia (""the spinster Weston"") becomes Owen's ""pancake whore,"" but Claude interferes and Lydia winds up having an impromptu wedding with Jeb at Denny's.

Claude hawks tickets to Will's benefit dinner for a squirrel clinic, Owen gets in trouble with a bookie, and Kipp & Lydia scheme to get free merchandise.

It's Valentine's Day and Lydia is feeling jealous of Claude over a dozen roses she got from Charlie, who's on a road trip with his father. The next morning, two dozen roses mysteriously appear on Lydia's desk, and she wonders who is her secret admirer. Claude finds out it's Kipp, but decides to keep it down because no one would believe that. Meanwhile, Claude has the most embarrassing moment of her life when Will overhears her talking dirty with Kipp on the phone; and Owen is seduced by a gorgeous girl who only wants his sperm to make a baby, leaving Claude and Ramona the mission of opening his eyes not to let a child grow without a father.

Claude sees herself struggling with her moral values when she is forced to lie for Will. She feels bad about covering up one of Will's escapades and lying to Ramona and his wife about it, but it's all good after Claude talks to Ramona. Meanwhile, the employees attend a companywide meeting where they have to pick a ""floor buddy"", someone from another floor for them to bond with. Lydia is at first annoyed by Owen, but later misses him after she realizes he treated her like no one else did. And Ramona and Kipp pretend to dislike each other after having a great time in the Hamptons.

Ramona tells Claude she has to use her vacation days in the next few days or else she'll lose them. Claude refuses to leave Will even for a week, and Ramona (trying to be a good friend and give Claude a break from her overbearing work) sends a memo to Will about Claude's vacation. Forced to take a break, Claude pretends to go to Niagra Falls and sneaks around the office when she meets her temporary replacement – who she thinks might take her job. Ultimately, Will reassures her she doesn't have to worry about her job; he wouldn't trade her for the world. As for Kipp's dream job of becoming an associate producer, well, that will have to wait a little longer. Torturing Claude with lies about Luke's resume might have given Luke a promotion he never expected in such short notice.

Will leaves his apartment to be taken care by Claude while he's gone, and tells her she can bring whoever she wants to it. She quickly organizes a small party just for her closest friends, which does not include Kipp, who stole her idea for a story. Lydia gets obsessed in finding a crystal gazelle she gave to Will and after she does she spends the whole evening trying to rescue it from the fish tank. Kipp drops by unannounced and discovers by accident that Will has his mom's phone number on his speed dial. Turns out his mother and Will have been sleeping together for a good time now, which causes a lot of awkwardness on both parties, and it's up to Claude to fix things.

In celebration of two years in NY, Claude decides to throw a party at her place. But when Will says he'll go (a direct result from his publicist's attempt to popularize his image), she changes her party from casual to fancy. The only thing she wasn't counting on was Will showing up in casual clothes and turning her party into exactly what she wanted to avoid. In the end Ramona questions Claude about the reasons of her sadness and shows her that even though her party might not be the fanciest people sure are having fun.

Claude accidentally starts a feud with Roz, the company's president's secretary, but being the good hearted girl that she is she wastes no time on trying her best to make up with Roz. Roz sees in Claude a younger version of herself and tells Claude that will be her in 30 years, and Claude freaks out about it after realizing that indeed she has no personal life outside the workplace. She joins a pottery class and tries to make a gravy boat that ends up looking like a squirrel. Lastly, she tells Will she loves working for him, but doesn't want to be stuck as a secretary all her life. Will assures her she's very talented and can be anything she wants. Meanwhile, Kipp buys a 1500 dollar Armani suit and Owen thinks he bought it from him for a hundred bucks after he lent it to Kipp. When Owen doesn't hold the elevator door for Roz, she prepares her revenge. When Kipp shows up for an interview with the company president, Roz retaliates on him, thinking he was the one to leave her waiting in t

When Claude is unexpectedly asked out for dinner with Will, she quickly cancels her double-date plan with Ramona. But when the ""date"" turns out to be less of one than she anticipated, Claude finds solace in the company of Lydia -- who assumes that Claude slept with him. Meanwhile, Owen tries to assert authority over Kipp and the two feud over an expensive pen.

Claude nudges Jeb into marrying Lydia, so she'll stay home and be out of her hair for good. Meanwhile, Jeb instructs Kipp to recruit guests for a post-proposal ""man party.""

Claude finds an invitation for a Vogue retrospective at the Guggenheim museum in Will's junk mail and decides to take Ramona and Owen with her to a glamorous New York evening. But their plans hit a snag when Claude makes the last-minute decision to invite Carl. Meanwhile, Kipp makes a list of his ideal mate's qualities, which he leaves on Lydia's desk -- but Jeb finds it and assumes it's Lydia's.

Will's contract is up for renewal just as the head of the network arrives, flaunting a new anchor. Fearing that Will's job is in jeopardy and they'll be replaced, the staff bands together to pull of ""The Gum Caper"" to ensure Will a new contract.

Claude wins an extreme apartment makeover by the ""Extreme Makeover: Home Edition"" design team at a charity auction. While the designers (and Owen) redesign her apartment, Claude has to spend the night at GNB -- where there is a surprising amount of late night activity and intrigue. Upset over his breakup with Lydia, Jeb bonds with Carl and the two go on a bender; Lydia arrives in hooker attire, claiming that she's fleeing the police; and Kipp makes out with the cleaning lady.

After breaking up with Charlie, Claude is feeling low. Will's fiance insists Claude accompany her to a bridal salon, which only serves to upset Claude further. They run into Trista Rehn (star of ABC's reality show, The Bachelorette), who got engaged on the show and is trying on wedding gowns. Claude locks herself in a dressing room to cry, wiping her nose on a wedding gown, and Trista trys to comfort her through the door. Claude's friends rally round, even Lidia, and try to cheer Claude with an impromptu slumber party and girl talk.

Will's got a new girlfriend, Dani, who insists on having Claude run errands for her. Ramona and Owen convince Claude to put her feet down and stop being a pushover for Dani. When she finally confronts Will's new girlfriend, she imposes him to choose between her and Claude. Although happy to see Dani out of her life, Claude has to put aside the pride and talk her into getting back together with Will, who's been miserable without her. Meanwhile, Lydia and Kipp start sucking up to Ramona and Owen when they find out they have access to the VIP area at an important party.

Claude meets a man in the elevator, but refuses to give him her number, so she takes his instead. She is trying out some new dating rules and decides not to call him until the initial 48 hours are over. There's a Halloween party coming up and Claude decides to take Trevor, but unfortunately his number was in the pocket of the jacket she traded in for a party dress. They track down the new owner, but he washed away Trevor's number. Despite her lack of luck, she manages to meet another guy at the party. Meanwhile, Kipp and Lydia smuggle an illegal cheese in order to impress their superiors and earn promotions, but the cheese is eaten by Ramona, Owen and Carl.

Mr. Henry a worker at GNB dies in his office, and Claude tries to return his stuff to a family member in Queens. Ramona tries to take Mr. Henry's office but Owen rigs it with special effects to scare her so she wont leave him. And Lydia and Jeb fight over their Halloween costumes.

When Kipp stirs up a competition with Claude over whether Jeb is a better boss than Will, it escalates until Kipp discovers that Jeb's job is in jeopardy. Meanwhile, Carl gets a thermostat installed in Owen and Ramona's office, which Ramona demands that Owen keeps set on high heat.... leading Owen and Carl to hatch a revenge scheme that goes awry.

Will hires Claude's old firend Roxanne Fiedler(Tori Spelling), as a new secretary, even though she's totally unqualified for the job. Meanwhile Kipp is assumed to be going bonkers Gaslight-style, thanks to some pranks by Carl, Owen and Ramona.

After Claude is told by her date that he's ""not ready for a relationship,"" she catches him at a houseware store with his new girlfriend... so Claude tries to get him to reveal what he doesn't like about her. Meanwhile, Will gets an earring, and Jeb spends an inordinate amount of time Roll-O-Boarding with Owen and Carl, which causes friction with Kipp and Lydia.

Claude steps in to help Lydia and Jeb with their pre-nup, but finds she may have opened a Pandora's Box. Owen offers to help Claude with Will's fan mail, and forges a relationship with one fan in particular, Louise. But when Louise (played by Joan Rivers) shows up at GNB to meet Will, it could be trouble for everyone. Meanwhile Ramona cooks up an internet auction scheme to get back at Kipp for insulting her.

As Claude takes over editing the company newsletter due to the death of the previous one, she hires Owen to write a review comapring Carl to Eddie Smirkoff(Jim Belushi), the new sandwich guy. Meanwhile Will Butler orders her to destroy videotapes that she thinks are old pornography, but turn out to be evidence of his early career as an actor on a Canadian soap opera.

Claude uses her high school's website to hook up with a down-on-his-luck former classmate and the sparks instantly fly -- until Claude discovers that he's better off than she realized. Meanwhile, Kipp and Lydia fight to get a $100 bottle of shampoo, and Carl gets his feelings hurt when he implements a suggestion box in the cafeteria.

During a transit strike, Claude borrows Carl's beloved Buick Riviera and sets out on a quest with Ramona and Owen to find a better lunch... a quest that promptly ends when Claude wrecks the car. Meanwhile Lydia talks up Kipp in front of Jeb, who promotes Kipp to his assistant -- but Lydia fears that Kipp will reveal unflattering secrets about her.

When a new guy starts at the office, Claude is oblivious to the fact that he has a crush on her, so she tries to set him up with Ramona. Meanwhile, Jeb and Lydia sneak off to have plastic surgery, but a misunderstanding leads Kipp to believe that Jeb's been kidnapped; and Carl has aspirations of becoming a spy.

The crew arrives at GNB's annual retreat to discover former human resources representative Schmidtline fired up to point out all their workplace flaws. Claude struggles to lead the group in a team-building task, and when things go poorly, they decide to go AWOL to a casino. Meanwhile, Will and Jeb are left to fend for themselves in the office, but neither can figure out how to make a conference call.

Claude's ex-boyfriend, Charlie, returns to GNB and they decide to give their relationship a second try, so Ramona convinces Claude to buy some sexy lingerie to reignite their passion. Meanwhile, GNB has upped security and reinstated the studio tour, putting pressure on Ramona and Owen to perform as if they had an audience; and Jeb at last seems to appreciate Kipp's work, but he changes his tune when Kipp's great story idea (men with silly beard styles) results in horrible reprocussions.

Claude is heartbroken when Mitch goes on assignment to Budapest, so Owen and Carl try to lift her spirits with a game of ""Pimp Hat,"" where everyone picks a name out of a hat and sets up a date for them. Kipp joins in the game, secretly plotting to ruin everyone's evening, and Lydia becomes jealous that she and Jeb don't have a good ""first date story.""

Carl's girlfriend, Viv, is friendly to everyone except Claude who, she thinks, is trying to steal Carl away from her. But when Carl breaks up with Viv for ridiculous reasons, Claude makes it her goal to get them back together. Meanwhile, Lydia convinces a restaurant to add Jeb's image on their famed wall, which forces Will off the wall.

When the videostore that Carl works for goes out of business, Claude agrees to turn in an application for him at GNB. She types his resume on stationary that reads, ""From the Office of Will Butler,"" so his application is rushed through and Carl recieves a job as the cafeteria manager -- but Claude fears his performance will reflect badly on her. Meanwhile, Kipp's plan to climb up the corporative pyramid backfires when his elderly target ends up wanting him for sexual purposes.

Claude babysits Kipp after his laser-eye-surgery and comes to the realization that he may have paid for the procedure with the company's missing funds that Ramona's been looking for. Meanwhile, Lydia is shocked to learn Jeb is hiding a dirty little secret about the fancy hotel she's chosen for their romantic rendezvous. Owen and Carl help Will train for the upcoming NYC Marathon, but they have a difference of opinion on how Will's diet should be handled.

It's time for the Christmas party, and Claude keeps hanging around Will, making sure he's got everything just the way he wants. When he tells her to loosen up a bit and act casual because she's not on the clock, Claude gets a little too personal and talks about Will's personal life. She spends the rest of the party worrying about the impression she gave and tries to make up for it, but only make things worse when she accidentally tells Will she had a crush on him. Meanwhile, Kipp keeps trying to find some big-shot producer who will promote him, and after a number of unsuccessful attempts he announces on the mic he's quitting. Ramona is a big success with her enormous cleavage and Owen and Lydia end up making out after both have a lousy time at the party. The next morning, Kipp tells Claude nothing that happens on the Christmas party counts, and she thinks twice about the cute guy she met on the bar.

To complete the GNB Management Training Program, Claude and Kipp must supervise a department. Claude is assigned to Supplies, where she struggles to assert her authority over hypersensitive Owen. Meanwhile Kipp is assigned to Operations, which he soon learns is the janitorial department. At first appalled at blue collar life, Kipp later embraces his new masculine side. Lydia fills in as Jeb's secretary, which proves awkward since they've broken up. Carl recieves 18 health code violations in the cafeteria, but the inspector agrees to wave them if he'll sleep with her.

Claude is throwing her first Thanksgiving for all her friends. Owen's two lesbian moms (Valerie Harper and Joanna Kerns) come to visit and share the holiday. The only problem is that his moms have always assumed that Owen is gay. Hoping to keep up the ruse, Owen asks his friends to play along, including asking Carl to pose as his lover. Meanwhile, Lydia and Kipp both get invited to Will's Thanksgiving party, where Kipp is briefly the star attraction.

After an altercation with the paparazzi, Will enlists Claude to write a public service announcement in hopes that it will clean up his tarnished image. Claude is ecstatic until she learns that he granted Lydia the opportunity to write one too. Meanwhile, Owen and Carl bask in the luxuries of the VIP men's washroom at GNB, but fellow tresspasser Kipp tries to keep them from invading his turf.

Will is looking for a way to boost his image, so Claude suggests that GNB becomes a paper-free office, not realizing that it will make Owen's job obsolete. Meanwhile, Jeb becomes enchanted by Ramona's rants, inciting jealousy in Lydia, and Kipp drops Will's car key down the elevator shaft and recruits Carl to help retrieve it.

When Will makes an on-air flub, he attributes it to a wobbly chair and refuses to do the news again until the chair is fixed to his liking. Claude innocently calls him ""a diva"" and suffers Will's wrath: an hour on his psychiatrist's couch. Meanwhile, Lydia schemes to get Jeb on the air in Will's absence; Owen develops an obsession with bubble-wrap; Carl focuses his anger on Ramona when they add a self-checkout to the cafeteria; and Kipp fears that he will literally be shot by the girl who he just broke up with.