TV taught us why works sucks

And what do to about it.

The history of television perfectly explains the current state of workplace dissatisfaction. And why LinkedIn has become unreadable.

📺 Severance (2022–present)

📺 Silicon Valley (2014–2019)

📺 The Office (2005–2013)

📺 NewsRadio (1995–1999)

📺 Murphy Brown (1988–1998)

📺 The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970–1977)

📺 The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961–1966)

📺 I Love Lucy (1951–1957) — okay, not a full workplace sitcom, but close enough.

Notice a trend?

TV has been satirizing the work forever. Because people have been complaining about work forever.

Absolutely nothing we’re experiencing is new.

Meanwhile, LinkedIn is stuck in reruns. Every day its recruiters are the problem. Hiring managers are the problem. Bad salespeople are the problem. Execs are the problems.

It’s the same show. Over and over..

Is it getting worse? I doubt it. I’m rewatching Mad Men and I have to tell you, things were way, way worse in the 1960s.

Now, I’m not dismissing anyone’s frustrations. Not at all. But two forces are intensifying today’s workplace angst:

1. The “Office Dork™️ Golden Age” Came and Went

2020–2022 was peak good times for white-collar workers.

Salaries went up. Remote work went up. Work life balance went up. Mental health awareness went up. Dare I say kindness went up.

And then some of it went back down.

👉I would never say “too much too fast” about any of these things. Except of course our expectations about how quickly positive change happens.

And speaking of expectations…

2. Elite Overproduction is driving disillusionment.

Want a single explanation for all these macro forces? Elite overproduction.

Never heard of it? Google it–err–have ChatGPT write you a summary and watch a few YouTube videos.

Take on massive student debt, get a degree, and an air-conditioned office—err, remote job—will be waiting.

It’s not working out as people hoped.

Why? We because we never needed this many Office Dorks™️ to begin with.

(Side note: Elite overproduction also preceded virtually every era of social instability and the fall of major civilizations. Happy Monday.)

I’ll get to the point. Work is called work for a reason. On some level, no matter what you do for a living, some of it sucks. And that’s never going to change.

👉The best piece of advice I’ve ever received: happiness is a choice.

It’s a decision you make, every day, to do things that bring you happiness. Or how you allow struggles to influence your mindset.

So you can allow the LinkedIn (or perhaps your company’s) echo chamber of negativity to blame everyone else for whatever it is that irks you the most.

Or.

Take a cue for the great sitcoms of the past and have a laugh.