Welcome to office dystopia, where everyday work can feel irrelevant as global conflict rages

• More and more workers are returning to the office this fall, just as another horrific news cycle ramps up.
• It can create a feeling of numb office dystopia, as focusing on spreadsheets can make real-world problems feel imagined.
• A Harvard Medical School analysis says the fight, flight, or freeze instinct can kick in during tough news cycles.

It's the year 2043. A worker is spending the day critiquing slide deck colors, participating in an ice-breaker exercise, and reminding their team to fill out their timesheets.

Between tasks, they take breaks to listen to the news, hearing reports on President Charli D'Amelio, World War IV, Elon Musk's work with aliens, and the latest revelation that Walt Disney is alive and working on a musical.

This office dystopia is not real life — yet — it's a TikTok video by Joe Fenti, a 27-year-old Boston-based comedian who works in finance. Fenti said the video demonstrates the "ridiculous" disconnect between the shocking news cycle of the outside world and "mundane nonsense at work."

"I think it's something people really resonate with," he said. Even for workers who don't hate their job, "there's so much stuff going on that is so important, and yet we're doing something that seems so minute and so granular."

He's describing a sense of numbness some workers feel as more and more return to the office this fall. Commuting, sifting through piles of Slack and Teams messages, and working toward a deadline can make mounting global crises seem far away, or even imagined. It's a harsh reminder that the early pandemic's temporary suspension of hustle culture and shift to fully remote schedules is over, and many of us are back to business as usual — even if the world isn't.

What it's like to work through a dystopia

It's not unusual to feel numb during hard times. The fight, flight, or freeze instinct can kick in during tough news cycles or rough personal events, according to a Harvard Medical School analysis. The freeze instinct might appear as indifference on the surface, but it can manifest as generalized anxiety, or even nightmares.

Research on the early impacts of the Covid lockdown found that we were indeed remembering our dreams more, and those dreams more increasingly focused on confinement, illness, war, and death. That could contribute to a low-grade, generalized anxiety pumping through your veins as you sort a spreadsheet.

The push for normalcy that's happening at a wave of companies right now might be a brief, welcome reprieve during hard times for some, but it can also feel invalidating for some workers, says Dr. Lily Brown, director at the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

"For some, working provides some of the only effective distraction from horrible realities outside of work. It can be helpful when work is tied to a sense of purpose, giving back to the world, or if it helps to connect to people," Brown wrote in an email to Insider.

"However, distraction tends to only be helpful in the short-run; it doesn't allow individuals to process their complicated emotions," she said.

The dichotomy between real-world problems and work obligations has also inspired Ben Sweeny's TikTok content. In one imaginary workplace, a boss in 2020 tells employees that work shouldn't be a number-one priority — he says family should be, and workers should use their fully remote status to deal with any emergencies that come up. That switches up in 2023, when the same boss says that the employee — not their family — is his responsibility, and that's why the worker needs to be back in the office.

In Sweeny's view, companies in 2020 almost went "overboard" in emphasizing just how much they cared about their workers' mental health, wellness, and flexibility.

In 2023 "it just feels like the complete opposite," Sweeny said.

Have you experienced office dystopia? Contact this reporter at [email protected].