The workplace is a vastly different experience depending on who you ask. Many see it as a daily ordeal, a place where you grit your teeth and deal with it until another day is over. Others, however, believe it represents opportunity and belonging, a nice little structured environment in which to act out their ambitions and office politics.

For many more employees, the truth lies somewhere in between. The office is simply the place they go each day to complete tasks in exchange for a paycheck that covers the necessities and luxuries to make life manageable. Society reinforces that this is just a part of adulthood, so many of us find ourselves clocking in five days a week.

Not everything about the workplace is bleak. One small but surprisingly meaningful consolation that we have access to is the humor we can share about it that comes in the form of work memes. These dumb jokes capture the absurdities of playing the role of employee, offering us some brief moments of recognition. It is something to turn to when actually being productive seems like too big of an ask, but we still want to claim that we a re working.