YOU’VE been ordered back to ‘the office’. So what is this strange place, and why are you here?
Your desk
This is where you sit for seven-and-a-half hours every day. Yes, seven-and-a-half hours. Yes, five days a week. Yes, that is completely f**king mental when you have a laptop and the internet and can work anywhere. And people think face masks are instilling obedience.
Your screen
This is what you stare at for the aforementioned seven-and-a-half hours a day. Yeah, you’re still not over that bit. Anyway, you stare at this and do the four hours work a day you’re used to fitting between homeschooling. You’ll get used to stretching it out pointlessly.
Your colleagues
These are people you don’t like who you spend all day with. Like the kids except you’re not allowed to bollock them, unless you’re the boss. Check first. But they’re now behind perspex screens so even the briefest chat involves shouting and repetition and isn’t worth it.
Your boss
Oh, you know this twat. They’ve been on at you the whole of lockdown with their f**king emails. Not so impressive in person, are they? Sitting there, looking out sadly at their socially distanced kingdom of barriers and empty desks. This was all they had.
Your canteen
Offers a pathetic range of daytime food options. Where’s the brimming bowl of Crunchy Nut you usually enjoy at 10.30am? What about the family-size bag of onion rings for 11am? And it doesn’t serve booze? In what reality is that f**king acceptable?
Your local high street
It might not seem as if it has much to do with your job, but this is why you’ve been ordered back to work. So in your half-hour lunch break go and buy a top from Zara, a sandwich from Subway and a thick shake from Five Guys, or the economy will collapse and you’ll be back at home. Wouldn’t that be a shame?
