“Work Sucks, Let’s Laugh About It”: 50 Relatable Work Memes To Help You Get By
Interview With Owner
Sometimes work is fun. Indeed, getting paid, your favorite colleague, free snacks, and the view from your window might make it bearable. But other times, you can’t think of anything worse. It’s just the evil nature of having to work for the rest of our lives.
However, it’s comforting to know we’re not the only ones selling our lives away. The Instagram account “Work Memes Official” is helping its followers cope with the crushing weight of their jobs with humor. We’ve compiled a list of the best they offer, so scroll away to escape the daily routine and maybe waste a little bit of that company’s time.
We also reached out to the creator of this Instagram account, Joseph, to learn more about the inspiration behind it.
You can find the interview below!
This post may include affiliate links.
Workplace memes often touch on things like the dreaded small talk after the weekend, spending 40+ hours a week in a place that drains you, and meetings that could’ve been an email. Some might see them as expression of dissatisfaction, but to others, they are a lighthearted distraction that connects the workforce, provides a break, and reduces stress
The creator of the Instagram account “Work Memes Official" has taken it upon himself to share these memes with people to make their day that much more bearable. He also agreed to have a quick chat about it, which you can find by scrolling.
As the content Joseph posts is intertwined with work, Bored Panda was curious to know about his own occupation. He surprisingly told us that his background comes from real estate and finance.
“I used to work for a real estate investment trust doing acquisitions, then a private equity firm as an asset manager. I then went to USC to get my MBA and then worked as a finance and strategy consultant for Fortune 500 companies. I recently left my consulting role to focus on social media full time.” Having experience in various positions, Joseph knows how hard it can be to get through the workday.
This successful Instagram account was created in 2018 and now has almost 160K followers and over 3K posts. It’s not the first of Joseph’s rodeos, as he has also created a number of other meme pages, such as “The Tinder Blog,” with 4 million followers, and “Memes By Joe,” with 301K followers. There, he also shares various funny and relatable jokes to brighten up our day.
Oh, I do this a LOT. She'll be like "well, I already knew that" or "I don't need to be in this email chain," and I'll go "you asked me about this, so I assumed you'd want to know about that as well." I think the message is pretty clear.
When asked what inspired him to start an account about work memes, he said, “I realized there was a niche that I wanted to start where I can share my experiences in the workplace and the struggles of working for a company with bad culture, management or underappreciating their employees in a comedic way.”
Indeed, humor is a great way to deal with work-induced stress and can bring the relief you need. Research shows that when people are distressed or anxious, they become calmer and more at ease after enjoying a good joke.
I bring a kind of “I spent 5 days a week surrounded by people who made me traumatised when I WAS a kid” vibe to these kind of conversations that the OPs don’t really like.
And let me tell you, that's a fine line to walk without occasionally toppling over.
Yep questions like do you take milk - no I'm. vegan. Would you like. biscuit - are they vegan? Would you like a cake/chip/ most anything going round in an office. You can take something and jus throw it in the bin - and they get upset. You can just say 'no thanks' and you'll be asked why not. Can't win really.
The creator of the account noticed something that really resonates with the followers are posts about work besties. Especially “when they quit or don't show up, and how much of a difference it makes for your work experience.”
They are the ones who tell you all the news, but don’t give away your secrets. The ones with whom we share our coffee break and who help us sort out our mess. Your work best friend is an essential part of your support system at your job. And when they’re not there, the day becomes grey and sad. You may feel lonely, lost, or even stressed. And it appears that one great way to cope with that is through memes.
At my job if the power went out for two hours we got to go home and it went off for like an hour and 40 minutes we were so excited haha
you're lucky, we have generators that kick in 5 seconds after the lights go out.
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We couldn't lose power at work. UPS that could carry the entire complex for the time it took the generator to come online, all automatic.
No it's worse. At home I can go to sleep, read, go for a walk, call someone. At work you have to sit there doing nothing or pretending to do "admin" until the power comes back on or it's time to go home, I can't deal with the boredom!
I worked at Target after a hurricane when the power was out everywhere. Only the emergency lights were on. The AP team was sneaking around hiding in aisles trying to catch shoplifters cause all the cameras were out.
I working I produce warehouse we hat a wrath of God storm that knocked out power into the next day we were given headlamps to wear in the coolers cause orders stop for no one. The office staff was in complete darkness they have no exterior window
Pre-retirement I worked for The Phone Company for 33 years. We had generator backup for all the larger office buildings and definitely for all the switching offices. I did get lucky enough to work out of a satellite office for a couple of years. No generator. Got to go home early a few times.
Except when I worked at an aquarium. Then it was a flurry of frantic fish rescuing panic. Then cleaning up the inevitable flooding.
10 minutes of pre-dread warmup, then the actual time to do so, then really get up ( to turn off the alarm)
Joseph also shared his previous work experience, which helped in creating content for the page. He said, “In college I worked for Nordstrom selling shoes, and having worked in retail with higher end customers as my store sold designer shoes, gucci, prada, dolce, etc., it led to more entitled customers. Having to deal with "karens" before it was a thing, helped with a lot of the content creation on the page.”
Haha I love those Friday afternoon emails. “Dear person. Your inability to organise yourself does not constitute an emergency on my part”
Nope my job is more like "unless you're dying or in the hospital you BETTER be here!" And now everybody is sick.
I work on contract basis. Grab a rate rise practically every time I switch employers.
No. How about we take some of those productivity gains technology has given us, and instead of it making more profit for the 1%, it gives us all better work life balance. Let's move to a four day work week and/or 6 hour days instead of 8. Let's not set rigid "must be a morning person" hours to any of that.
I always return back to work on a Wednesday or Thursday - no way I'm doing a full week straight after a break.
I define working out by remembering to take the trash out and the fact my neighbors park illegally and I get to walk 1/2 a mile home @4am so I guess I’m winning??
I'm a boomer and I'm going to relate a true story from 6 weeks ago. I called customer service for a lawn equipment company and was on hold for 2 hours waiting for tech person who could actually answer my question. It took her 3 minutes to resolve my issue. BTW, I wouldn't have called if their online help forum and chat support hadn't been so useless. This is why I never call customer support. Cheers.
While some people are just going through the daily motions when they ask, some of us ask "how was work?" what we mean is "I am here if you need to unleash, this is a safe space to vent."
Me, a New Zealander: *Dante from Clerks 2 voice* Leave the people of Yemen alone, Randall! (The CEO of our airline, whose name is Greg, sold weapons to the Saudi military, who used them to blockade Yemen. Either that or his predecessor did and he covered it up. His predecessor is now our prime minister btw. 🤮)
Years ago, I found an ink pad stamp that said:" F**k Off! Stronger memo to follow" . Oh, how I would have liked to use it!
Note: this post originally had 86 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
I once had emergency surgery and all I could think about was how much better it was than being work. Genuinely my stress level plummeted.
I really looked forward to my hysterectomy and those 6 weeks paid disability.
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When I finally quit my current job I intend on going out with a bang. During our department meeting when they ask if anyone has any comments or concerns I will have some great comments that will cause them great concern. I am hoping they will ask me not to come to the office to drop off my computer, but sending me a shipping label.
These memes and jokes are so very tired and stale and overplayed. You can only see "When you have to go to work but you don't like to work HURR HURR" so many billions of times before the joke has completely lost any humor to it.
I once had emergency surgery and all I could think about was how much better it was than being work. Genuinely my stress level plummeted.
I really looked forward to my hysterectomy and those 6 weeks paid disability.
Load More Replies... When I finally quit my current job I intend on going out with a bang. During our department meeting when they ask if anyone has any comments or concerns I will have some great comments that will cause them great concern. I am hoping they will ask me not to come to the office to drop off my computer, but sending me a shipping label.
These memes and jokes are so very tired and stale and overplayed. You can only see "When you have to go to work but you don't like to work HURR HURR" so many billions of times before the joke has completely lost any humor to it.
