#Workhumor, a cornerstone to daily office culture. A relatable ideal that seems to get most people through their growling 9-5 day job. Yet as professionals slowly begin to navigate the world of remote working, it seems as not only is work humor beginning to diminish, but also the forced pleasantries between co-workers.
This is exactly how TikToker Brittany (@randomazzbih) feels too.
Trying to bring back these foundational elements, the content creator posted a video on Feb. 1 and is now pinned at over 2.6 million views and over 185,800 likes. The up-and-coming TikTok comedian puts her acting skills to the test here.
It’s a common remote work conundrum: New hires don’t get a welcome lunch these days. And so a welcome email thread becomes a cringe, forced interaction full of fake smiles and reaction GIFs. What’s more, it seems like you have to send one of these weekly to a new hire. And then two months later, you get the “So and so has left the team” departmental update anyway as their Microsoft Teams profile suddenly goes dark.
Sitting hunched over her home desk, Brittany shares the internal monologue she experiences when a new hire is introduced to the team.
“Help us welcome Jessica to the team,” Brittany mumbles.
Throwing herself back into the chair, Brittany’s demeanor begins to slowly transform. Much like Jim Carrey in The Mask, Brittany becomes the typical office troll, her internal monolog churning.
“Jessica you’re going to hate it here,” she sings.
Manically laughing like the Grinch, Brittany continues on.
“Jessica, Ohh you’ve done it now Jessica,” Brittany says.
@randomazzbih Welcome to the team, Jessica! 😵💫🫠 #fyp #trending #funny #relateable #relatablecontent #workhumor ♬ original sound – RandomAzzBih
Commenters were quick to respond to Brittany’s menace-behavior standing in favor of the fabricated new hire Jessica, reiterating that “Jessica” is probably dreading it too.
“Jessica already knows, but Jessica needs a paycheck,” one commenter said, gaining over 4,750 likes.
Others have even gone as far as to try and narrate this so-called Jessica’s side of the story.
“Hi, I’m Jessica! One fun fact about me is that I’m dead inside with a passion for disassociating in my free time,” another commenter said.
Wishfully hoping the new hire has a better experience than Brittany presumably has had at the company, Brittany lets out a quick prayerful utterance. Except with an extra expletive sprinkled in there too.
“Godspeed and good luck [expletive],” Brittany says.
Once again wheezing and letting out a cynical laugh, Brittany warns Jessica of the job’s hardships in this pseudo-reality.
“It’s every man for themself out here Jessica,” Brittany says.
Finally, letting out a large sigh, Brittany pulls herself back together and looks toward her computer. Without a skip of a beat, Brittany miraculously becomes well-tempered once again and wishes “Jessica,” a warm welcome to the team. She sends… yet another cheerful and insincere office interview.
“Congrats girly welcome to the team,” Brittany concludes.
Work from home jobs actually produce a 25% lower turnover rate and a 14% increase in intent to leave if WFH isn’t an option. According to Forbes, WFH is better for the health of the worker, productivity, costs, and produces a richer talent pool, too. As the Daily Dot reported recently, going to work in an office can cost you more than $500 a month as an employee.
But the post-COVID acceleration of WFH has produced a cultural shift companies are struggling to adjust to. A hybrid job asks you to come in and “collaborate” and no one shows up. Some jobs take employee tracking to absurd heights and force their staff to work with their cameras on the whole shift. Some jobs are so easy that workers feel existential dread about completing them. Some workers have taken to stacking WFH and taking as many as four work from home jobs as once… which probably speaks more to how much time can be wasted at inefficient companies than anything.
The Daily Dot reached out to @Randomazzbih for comment via TikTok direct message.
