"Back from Vacation" was written by Justin Spitzer, a staff writer who joined "The Office" in its third season. The episode was his first script for the series. Spitzer found Jan's final scene with Michael – in which he expects she will yell at him for their circulated picture but instead informs him they are staying together – especially tricky to write. Spitzer was unsure how to craft the scene, and eventually requested advice from the other series' writers. They decided that Jan would give a "psychobabble" response to Michael. Sitting on a panel of television writers at Northwestern University, Spitzer briefly described her reasoning, "Jan’s nuts. She has some bad psychiatrist giving her bad advice." He praised the benefits of a "good writers room," in which "scenes go to this place you never could have gone to alone."