While it would be easy to kick off this entire listicle by quoting that one Blink 182 song, we’re instead gonna preface it by saying that not all work is horrible. It’s a necessary evil, but one that we can easily overcome because we always have at least a few other options in life.
One of these options is escapism by scrolling through a sea of memes related to work, as per this dedicated Facebook page appropriately called Work Memes For The Soul. Enjoy!
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Unfortunately, you are also likely the one who needs to put out the fire too. I work in IT and for some reason a business consultant was put in charge of implementing a large data move. I asked the exec who signed off why, and was told don't worry about it. The guy ended up copying and pasting over a terabyte of locally stored data into the cloud, and if that wasn't enough he just hit "Yes to all" with conflicts/issues. I quit that job because of how horrible cleaning this up was. Sometimes, the internal I told you so is worth it, but now I just run as fast as possible from the issue and document f***ing everything.
So, Work Memes For The Soul is a page and community found in the bowels of Facebook. As you might have understood already, it shares memes about the struggles, joys, pains and gains of the necessary evil that is work.
The page was created in August of 2019 and has since then garnered a modest following of around 11,000 people.
Hmmmm... wish I had this differentiation capacity 35 years ago....
The themes and topics of the memes follow a pretty straightforward trajectory: it’s about the nuances of jobs, seemingly mostly ones with poor management, poor strategy, poor culture or poor anything, really.
It takes a jab at managers being overly obnoxious with their corporate rhetoric and demands, employee-centered situations like training newcomers, breaking something or breakdowns (not the car ones), as well as all of the external factors like bad clientele, exhaustion, poor wages and just not feeling it. It’s got it all.
Turns out, memes and work have some positive inter-correlations. While memes have become a new mode of communication in modern-day society, it has also expanded into being an effective tool for boosting workplace morale and improving corporate culture.
In a study on humor at the workplace, 4 out of 5 employees said that a fun work environment would do wonders in making employees productive, with 9 out of 10 pointing out that laughing reduces the work-related stress they experience.
It doesn’t stop there as memes, being a form of communication, do have the power to foster a sense of belonging among employees due to their relatability. To top it all off, memes are a sort of universal language that is easy to use and understand. They allow for easy bonding among employees, and culture or personality isn’t an obstacle here. All while everyone having a good laugh adds the fun factor to the workplace.
Whenever I get stressed at work I pull my hair into a pony tail. If someone stopped to talk to me I would point to my pony tail and say do you not see the stress in level indicator that is my hair? Then it got to the point where I could just point to it. Finally the minute people approached and saw it they would just turn around and walk away.
Memes aren’t the only way to make a work environment fun, though. Indeed suggests several dozen options to choose from: office sports teams, game rooms, office space décor, book clubs, office bands and other extracurriculars, talent shows, holiday observation and celebrations or even work traditions, pets in the office, volunteering, and travel retreats, among many other things.
Much like memes, these two have similar or equivalent benefits to the workplace and its employees. It has great potential for boosting morale, diminishing workplace burnout, all the while fostering creativity, interpersonal relationships and promoting collaborations. Think of it as a certain kind of team building with a more human element in it.
Reminds of when my son was in elementary school, when he got home we’ll ask him what he learned or did at school today, alls he talked about was lunchtime and what he ate
That's why management makes the big money. I don't make enough to put out fires too 🧑🚒
Now, if management does mess up by doing a poor job planning, designing, and executing team building, that can lead to some very disastrous things in terms of corporate culture. This can mean anything from lack of trust, resentment, demotivation, exclusion, an increase in conflict, emotional distress, loss of productivity and high turnover. Ultimately, all of this translates into a bad fiscal year, all because you couldn’t put aside a day to make things right.
I was never in the quarantine, that 2 years was driving a frigo truck for supermarkets food, so in my case that was totally true. On the other hand was amazing drive almost alone in highways and we, truck drivers that suplir you of food or other goods still are waiting for a ty from citizens or government.......at least I felt like almostt a hero for one time and was gratifying, so I don't complain . :)
Anywho, back to memes. Studies have shown that memes can be good for people’s mental health. While the study focused on the effect of mental health memes on people with mental health issues, 47% of participants reported that it did alleviate their symptoms.
Contextual humor and dark and self-deprecating meme relatability allowed them to laugh at their own problems and alleviated the tension that these struggles cause. All the while, they allowed folks to form bonds with others in the same situation.
And platitudes like, "we're a family here" or my favorite, "You need to be a team player".
But the same could possibly apply to work too. Sure, you can’t equate deep, psychological struggles with that of work. But as a coping mechanism, why can’t it translate and transcend into a variety of problems? Even more so if those problems are legitimate struggles.
The relatability and social connection works all the same regardless. So, why shouldn’t memes about work not serve as a catharsis for those working in retail, hospitality… really, any taxing jobs?
And we hope this listicle brought you relief, laughs, and provided a platform to share it all with other folks in the same corporate boat as everyone else. And why not express it in the form of your thoughts and stories in the comment section below!
And if this list has you craving for more, you can jump into this Bored Panda work meme rabbit hole, or you can go and check out the Facebook group behind this list, Work Memes For The Soul.
I don't do this so much in my current job, but I've been in previous jobs where I've known something was about to happen, but it was my lunch time, so I went on break and just sat there watching the mess through the breakroom window.
I am myself. My workself. You don't want me to be my homeself when answering customer-calls/mails
cráp. The barely unreadable word is cráp. Please BP, stop that cráppy censorism.
Oh wow. BP went through the trouble of cropping and re-writing this meme. Here's the original. Please BP, pull that stick out your árse, it's already starting to grow roots. 151703101_...1194d7.jpg 
“Oh, well… on the other hand, if you consider taking into account the variables we can’t control, we can shift some paradigms and re-sigma some sixes! Does that answer your question?”
🎶...the bear necessities, the simple bear necessities, forget about your worries and your strife... 🎶
Note: this post originally had 60 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
Thank goodness I got out of an 18 year toxic job and have been working a really good job with many supportive and fun people for the last 4 years.
"So why do you want to work for us"..."Well I'm in to sadomasochism and I've heard this is the the place to be for work"
we're getting there, kids. I've got a few more years of the grind until we're in a better spot financially and I can get out of the mess of jobs I'm in right now. There's a light at the end of the tunnel, even if it's very dim.
Thank goodness I got out of an 18 year toxic job and have been working a really good job with many supportive and fun people for the last 4 years.
"So why do you want to work for us"..."Well I'm in to sadomasochism and I've heard this is the the place to be for work"
we're getting there, kids. I've got a few more years of the grind until we're in a better spot financially and I can get out of the mess of jobs I'm in right now. There's a light at the end of the tunnel, even if it's very dim.
