The Office Reality Check: 71 Corporate Absurdity Posts That Hit Too Close

The job industry is in a bizarre place right now. It’s rough out there. Graduates are finding it hard to land even entry-level jobs. Even veteran professionals are struggling to get hired. AI hype is driving panic and layoffs. And raises and promotions aren’t guaranteed even for great employees and top performers.

‘Corporate Absurdity’ is a social media account that posts painfully relatable memes about work life that hit a bit too close to home and feel very personal. We’re featuring our favorites, and we think you should definitely show them to your boss, HR, and work besties at your next big meeting (which, let's be honest, could have probably been an email).

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A well-timed and relevant opinion piece in The New York Times notes how machine learning, which has been evaluating potential employees for more than a decade, is now being supercharged with another layer of artificial intelligence and surveillance.

“As employers continue to use A.I. to rationalize the process of identifying strong applicants, applicants have begun to use similar tools to game the systems evaluating them. The vicious cycle thus begins: Employers buy or build new tools, which job seekers cotton on to, and on and on. It becomes a futile ‘Spy vs. Spy’ showdown instead of a useful way to meet the ostensible goal of giving qualified people jobs,” writes Jessica Grose.

According to Grose, the job market is very tough for applicants right now.

“There are more applicants for open roles than there were a few years ago, and many employers do not seem to be looking for diamonds in the rough; human resources experts are telling me that corporations are ramping up their expectations and requirements because they’re in a buyer’s market,” she writes.

“Forcing employers to offer some kind of transparency and even feedback to potential employees would help correct the power imbalance and make the process of looking for a job feel at least slightly more human.”

One potential solution might be to turn back the clock and opt for old-school analog recruiting methods, such as referrals, local job boards, headhunters, and alumni networks.

According to mentorship and leadership development expert Ruth Gotian, Ed.D., Chief Learning Officer and Associate Professor of Education in Anesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medicine, there are four attributes that top performers share.

These are intrinsic motivation, perseverance, a strong foundation, and constantly learning through informal means, she writes in The Success Factor: Developing the Mindset and Skillset for Peak Business Performance.

However, it’s not enough to be great at what you do. How you communicate your achievements has a massive impact on your career path and growth.

The cold, harsh truth is that, in the corporate world, what matters isn’t just working hard but also being visible. Gotian emphasizes how excellence without visibility can often lead to workers being overlooked.

“Your work no longer speaks for itself. You must speak for it,” she stresses in a post on Psychology Today.

Working long hours and doing a good job may not lead to rewards, raises, and promotions in the corporate world.

“The rules of career advancement have changed with the generations and advancement of social media and artificial intelligence (AI). Those who rise are not simply those who work the hardest. They are those who are visible,” Gotian explains.

Talented, ambitious, and competent top performers can fall behind because they are not being seen.

In a nutshell, visibility is not bragging. Rather, it is communicating with your employers in such a way that they see your work, achievements, and thinking process. There are times when your approach is more important than the results you (do not) get.

“In engineering and software development job interviews, it is not uncommon for the person running the interview to ask the applicant to build something. Recruiters consistently report that they care less about whether a prototype works and more about how the applicant approaches the challenge. They want to see curiosity, problem solving, and a healthy relationship with failure.”

So, what can you do? Simply put, you need to get better at articulating how awesome you already are.

For one, you have to make your skills discoverable. Be more specific about what you do and achieve in your in-office communication, resume, and on LinkedIn.

Meanwhile, even if you’re not a content creator, you might want to share your industry insights and lessons in posts, videos, newsletters, etc.

“You cannot help people if they do not know what you do. You will not be promoted if people cannot find you. Self-promotion is for attention. Visibility is to spark curiosity, share your thinking, and your unique value. If you want to stay ahead of the rapidly shifting job landscape, you will need more than ability. You will need to be seen,” Gotian writes.

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