A new book that goes behind the scenes of The Office has thrown new light on the likely cause of Steve Carell’s departure from the NBC sitcom as Michael Scott.

It’s hard to imagine that it’s been over a decade since Steve Carell walked away from the small-screen character that made him famous: Michael Scott. He was the charmingly-infuriatingly tone-deaf man child who worked as Regional Manager of Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton location.

The NBC program was was based on Ricky Gervais’ popular UK series of the same name. Despite spending seven mostly brilliant seasons on The Office, Carell shocked both fans and critics when he announced that he was ready to leave both the character and the show after so many years — and 138 groan-inducingly hilarious episodes — of living inside the often cringe-inducing world of the wannabe “World’s Best Boss.”

According to the new book, actor Steve Carell never intended to quit the program.

Carell rose to fame as a result of the American version of the British sitcom, which he left after the seventh season. Carell was said to have departed to seek other job options at the time, but it has now been revealed that he had every intention of staying.

The cast of the US ‘Office’

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Interviews with the sitcom’s producers, writers, and players, according to Collider, tend to imply that the network’s uncertainty regarding Carell’s contract played a role in the main actor’s departure from the program.

Steve Carell made the first public suggestion that his days at the fictional Dunder Mifflin workplace could be numbered in April 2010. Because his contract for The Office only ran until season 7, he informed the BBC (via Entertainment Weekly) that the upcoming season would “probably be [his] last year” on the show.

According to interviews in Andy Greene’s book, a lack of internal response to Carell’s statement about Season 7 possibly being his last made him believe it was time to depart.

Ferry explained, “He didn’t want to leave the show. He had told the network that he was going to sign for another couple of years. He told his manager and his manager contacted them and said he’s willing to sign another contract. And the deadline came for when [the network was] supposed to give him an offer and it passed and they didn’t make him an offer. So his agent was like, ‘Well, I guess they don’t want to renew you for some reason.’ Which was insane to me. And to him, I think.”

Casting director Allison Jones added: “As I recall, he was going to do another season and then NBC, for whatever reason, wouldn’t make a deal with him. Somebody didn’t pay him enough. It was absolutely asinine. I don’t know what else to say about that. Just asinine.”

According to hairstylist Ferry, Carell told NBC that he “didn’t want to leave.” “It just is mind-boggling how that happened. And I feel bad because I think a lot of people think he did leave the show on his own merit and it’s absolutely not true. I’m telling you. I was there. He really wanted to stay. And it devastated all of us because he was the heart of our show.”

According to the book, NBC’s regime change left The Office without crucial backers at the top. Bob Greenblatt, who took over as head of NBC, was apparently not a big fan of the show and wasn’t interested in raising Carell’s compensation to keep him on board.