The person behind WorkRetireDie is Jack Lawler, who founded the brand about 5 years ago and has a presence on all social media with the biggest following on Instagram where 95k people enjoy his content.
On social media, he mocks corporate America and makes relatable humor for those working in offices as it has its own ecosystem, its own language and culture.
Jack told a bit more about the brand on a podcast with Auxoro and revealed how he came up with the name WorkRetireDie. Apparently, when it was graduation time, Jack’s friend’s grandfather said to them that when they're done with their education, everything that will be left for them will be to work, retire and die. It stuck with the friend group and Jack kind of stole it for the brand.
Jack knows what it’s like to work in an office environment because he had such a job for 5 years. He really didn’t understand why everyone there took their jobs so seriously even though they weren’t saving lives.
Now he doesn’t work there anymore, but he remembers the culture and the annoying buzzwords people tend to use to make themselves sound more professional. He still remembers how pointless some of the tasks were and that everyone did that to just retire.
Bored Panda also talked with Jack and we were curious what is the most enjoyable part about creating memes. He shared that he likes “taking a frustrating experience and channeling it into a funny meme that other people can relate to. A lot about office life can be unnecessarily complicated, serious or mind-numbing and [he likes] having a creative outlet to channel that into.”
According to the creator’s observations, the memes people relate the most to are the ones “relating to annoyances with coworkers, bosses, or feeling like a cog in the machine of Corporate America.” Let us know in the comments if you like these ones the most as well!
White-collar jobs are the ones who work at a desk in an office and usually don’t require physical labor. That sounds lovely, but it comes at its own cost. According to the CDC National Occupational Mortality Surveillance Database, white-collar workers like doctors, dentists, veterinarians, financial workers, lawyers, and engineers have a higher suicide rate by 1.5 times or more.
Though the deaths are not linked to what type of a job a person has, it is still an interesting observation. And it is concerning to note that the rates are increasing every year.
The CDC doesn’t provide conclusions about work-related suicides and it is hard to find out if a person chose to leave this world because of work-related issues, but it is hard to deny that people feel stressed at work.
A survey conducted by the American Institute of Stress shows that the main causes of stress are workload (46 percent), people issues (28 percent), juggling work and personal lives (20 percent), and lack of job security (6 percent).
Jack has a few suggestions about what could make an office job more enjoyable. He thinks that there should be “More realistic expectations from people and the understanding that there is more to life than work. I’m all for working hard and pushing yourself, but at the end of the day, a lot of work that’s done in offices feel redundant or unnecessary to me. If you’re done at 4 pm why can’t you just go home instead of having to stick around to look good for your boss?”
We also wanted to know if Jack has any advice for workers who are really fed up with their office work and he feels that you should “Find something you like to do and care about. Instead of moping around and wasting your day, take the free time you probably have to figure out a passion.”
Knowing that other people go through the same somehow consoles you and when it’s presented in a meme format it even makes you laugh and bond with others over the annoying and stressful things at work.
Do you relate to any of these memes? Which ones are your favorite and what causes the most stress at your work? Feel free to have a conversation in the comments!
Also, Jack has a full blog site with “relatable satire articles that [he writes] every Friday (with occasional help from an intern who covers college topics) on topics around work, adult life and everything in between.” He is also present on YouTube and TikTok, so you can chose the social media that you like the most to what he is posting.
