Project Pandora’s Box: Apple’s Cheeky Take on Working From Home

Do you know this woman?

Maybe you are this woman. Maybe you work with her. Maybe you live with her.

I wonder aloud because I find the portrayal of her work style and her work ethic striking.

She is all in, of that, there can be no doubt.

When the unreasonable boss-lady chirps her unreasonable requests, the young worker, Bridget, is not daunted. Oh no. Bridget cheers on the team with, “We can totally do this. Okay? Today, we’ll get up to speed and then tomorrow we think inside the box.”

She’s delusional.

The typecasting doesn’t stop there. The older man on the team is disheveled and out of sorts. He is not the seasoned confident worker that he could be. He’s a dad with small children and too much to do.

None of the team members are strong characters. Bridget wants to succeed, but the rest of the team is just holding on. Meanwhile, the exec in charge is orbiting another planet.

I wonder, is there a reason that Apple put this together. What could it be? Does the advertainment above make you want to buy new equipment from the Kings and Queens of Cupertino? Or does it inspire you to break shit and run away?

Perfect Workers Are Perfectly Impossible

According to CNN, you can burn out whilst working from home.

“With the suddenness and degree of the shift to remote work, the loss of childcare, and all of the worries that accompany the pandemic and its economic fallout, all of the things that typically cause burnout are intensified, which means the risk of burnout is intensified,” said Vanessa K. Bohns, associate professor of organizational behavior at Cornell University.

Even before the pandemic hit there was an obsession with being the “ideal worker” that is always online and never turns down a project, explained Bohns.”This tendency has also been exacerbated by the shift to remote work. We worry that people are going to think we are slacking off at home,” she said.

And now with more than 20 million Americans out of work and widespread economic and job insecurity, there’s even more pressure for workers to want to show just how productive and invaluable they are.

“Many of us would benefit from lowering the expectations we hold for ourselves right now and feeling okay with ‘good enough,'” said Bohns.