The Office's Phyllis Vance and Angela Martin have a long past of hostility and undermining each other. Due to Angela's judgmental and blunt nature, she goes after the weak, including Phyllis. However, over the course of nine seasons, we see Phyllis come into her own and began standing up for herself. With Phyllis' new sense of identity, the small catfights between her and Angela only escalated.
Their feuds began after being in the Party Planning Committee together with Pam. Both Phyllis and Angela had their own ideas for what was best for the office's parties but Angela usually came out on top due to small threats. But after Phyllis walked in on Angela and Dwight making love in the office, their roles completely switched.
Let's take a look back at some of Angela and Phyllis' biggest fights as members of the Dunder Mifflin Scranton Party Planning Committee.
ANGELA DEGRADED PHILLIS THROUGHOUT THE PARTY PLANNING COMMITTEE
Angela had a much bigger role in The Office than Phyllis did (even though Phyllis was amazing enough to have more of a storyline, but that's for another time), but most of their interactions with one another revolved around the Party Planning Committee.
As head of the committee, Angela let the title go to her head. She bullied Phyllis and Pam into doing whatever she wanted and poked fun at them when they came up with "bad" ideas. Considering how sweet and soft-natured Phyllis is, she never deserved any of the heat Angela threw her way.
PHYLLIS BRIBED ANGELA FOR HER SPOT AS HEAD OF THE PARTY PLANNING COMMITTEE
On the night of Andy and Angela's engagement (at Toby's going away party), Phyllis walked in on Dwight and Angela making love on her desk. Both people were completely nude in the dark, so it was very obvious what they were doing.
In an effort to keep Angela's indiscretions a secret, she handed her title as head of the Party Planning Committee to Phyllis. While that's the least Phyllis could do, she brought up outing her affair to the entire office every chance she got — which is similar to teasing Angela with the biggest secret of her life.
WHEN ANGELA TOLD PHYLLIS 'ORANGE WAS WHORISH'
At the very beginning of The Office, we see the ladies in the conference room discussing party decorations. Angela asks Phyllis to pick up green streamers at lunch but Phyllis replies, "I thought you said green was whorish?"
With a dead stare, Angela looks directly at Phyllis and says "No, orange is whorish." Not coincidentally, Phyllis was wearing an orange-based shirt, implying that Phyllis was, in fact, whorish. Even though that makes no sense since she's married to Bob Vance.
PHYLLIS SPELLED THE BANNER WRONG TO SEE HOW ANGELA WOULD REACT
In the episode "Launch Party," Phyllis knows she'll need to deal with Angela while planning a launch party. After reading 'how to deal with difficult people' online, Phyllis decides to test what she's learned on Angela.
To see how Angela would react to a major spelling error, she miswrites lunch instead of launch. So now the entire office thought there was a lunch party at 7 pm. When Angela reacts in an upset manner, Phyllis uses what she learned from the Internet to make Angela crack.
ANGELA MADE PHYLLIS FEEL BAD FOR BUYING SMALL CHRISTMAS TREE LIGHTS
The good people at Dunder Mifflin Scranton love Christmas and go all out on their office Christmas parties. At one final Party Planning Committee meeting before the big Christmas party, Angela asks Phyllis if she bought the Christmas lights for the tree.
Phyllis did, however, she bought smaller Christmas tree lights instead of the bigger ones. You can sense the fear in Phyllis' eyes when we see that the small Christmas tree lights were very anti-climatic and didn't do anything for the tree. It's Christmas after all, is it really worth making a person feel horrible for buying the wrong size bulbs?
PHYLLIS OUTTED ANGELA'S AFFAIR TO THE ENTIRE OFFICE
Phyllis did a pretty good job of keeping Angela and Dwight's affair from the office for as long as she could. In fact, it didn't even seem like she was ever going to tell the office. She was just going to keep hanging it over Angela's head so she could continue getting what she wanted in the Party Planning Committee.
However, after being pushed around for too long, Angela threw a slew of insults towards Phyllis and said she doesn't have the guts to spill what she saw to the office. Well, unfortunately for Angela, Phyllis called her buff and told everyone.
ANGELA SHREDDED A LIST OF HER PARTY-PLANNING VENDORS AS SOON AS PHYLLIS WAS IN CHARGE
Now that Phyllis was the head of the Party Planning Committee, she had a lot on her plate. After all, Michael Scott was pretty demanding when it came to his parties. In a moment of stress, Phyllis came to Angela's desk with her tail between her legs and asked if she could have her list of vendors.
Instead of handing the vendors over to Phyllis as a normal co-worker would, Angela shredded them so that Phyllis would have to struggle on her own.
PHYLLIS THREW A BALL OF POST-ITS AT ANGELA'S FACE
In the same "Launch Party" episode, Phyllis is still trying out different ways to deal with difficult people (i.e. Angela). She wrote down every request Angela asked Phyllis to do, wrote them on a Post-It note, and stuck them to her fingers.
She asked Angela to pick one request out of the eight or nine that she threw her way. But did Angela pick one? No. She threw a sly remark which prompted Phyllis to crumple up all the Post-Its and throw it in Angela's face.
As rude as Angela is, throwing something at another person is out of bounds.
ANGELA JUDGING PHYLLIS' WEDDING
Phyllis' wedding was a special moment in The Office. As someone so quiet, it was sweet to see Phyllis so happy with Bob Vance. Shockingly, Angela did show up and give a thoughtful congratulatory wish, but she also said her dress was so white that her eyes were "burning."
She later left the wedding to dance with Dwight outside...in the dark...where no one could see them.
PHYLLIS WANTED TO HIDE ANGELA'S RELIGIOUS BELIEFS FOR THE AESTHETIC OF HER MOROCCAN CHRISTMAS
Now that Phyllis had all the power in the Party Planning Committee, she decided to throw the Christmas party she always wanted to throw: A Moroccan Christmas. She wanted it to be authentic with themed food, decorations, and music. As a very religious woman, Angela was very offended by the thought of a Moroccan Christmas, but since she had no say in the matter, she kept her lips sealed.
Angela decided to leave her Nativity set on her desk to honor the original story of Christmas but just to bust her chaps, Phyllis made her get rid of her religious figures. As rude as Angela is, everyone has the right to their own religious freedom.