i’ll see you in the office

Two pans of makeup sit in the center of an office desk- one white, one black; the pans are filled with the pigment of corporate ideology. With every action, they add another layer of white, identity-less paint onto themselves. With every action committed, one lends their energy, with every task list fulfilled and completed, one has given a piece of themself; and in turn made a piece of the work a part of them. 

Work consumes, it is our most daily ritual in the capitalism we inhabit, and we allow it to dictate;  to demand our ideas, our abilities, our bodies, and our time. When we engage in these manufactured work environments, we build layer by layer a compliant mask that mimics the environment; the path of least resistance is also the path of efficient productivity. Mind you the slippery slope we engage in without a second thought as to the impact of our mental space, our personhood, or our individualism at the hands of a growth-focused, future-thinking machine, the US (industry)

A story about the workforce culture post-pandemic; does anyone feel seen? Hybrid work, useless meetings, forced division of employees resources, and even in an office of two- the inability to truly see the people around you, the breakdown of communication, and the sheer vanity of the workplace are all emotional barriers to what we want from work; to have a fulfilling and meaningful purpose in our role.

In the end- what the manufactured workplace of senseless capitalism has done to us, is evaporate the very thing that drives us- leaving us sad, hallow mimics of the individuals that entered with motivation and intention who become reduced to sheer repetitive copies of each other- every act of externalization is inherently an act of self-creation.

A dose of my grief about how capitalism makes us feel about our value.