At the time of writing, the ‘Daily Work Memes’ account had just over 1.3k followers. Though it might not sound a lot in the grand scheme of things, the content itself is really good. The memes are very spot-on. They’re bound to resonate with anyone who’s ever disliked their job, even just a little.

The aim of the project, according to its curator, is to provide everyone with a daily dose of memes to make their 9-5 “a little less mundane.” In our view, it certainly succeeds in doing that.

The essence of a quality meme—any meme!—lies in its virality. If it spreads across the internet, it does what a meme is supposed to. Meanwhile, if it remains tucked away in some god-forsaken niche of the World Wide Web, unseen and unloved, you can consider it a failure.

Great memes are engaged with: they’re shared, edited, reshared, and reimagined. 

The more relatable a meme is, the more likely it is that people will enjoy it and then forward it to others. Most people tend to support and enjoy information that confirms their current worldview, addresses the same issues that they’re dealing with, and validates their actions.

So when you see a meme that encapsulates part of your daily work experience, you connect with it. Humor lends a hand with this because it makes you feel good.

Another important aspect of crafting memes is the way that you format things. Generally speaking, you want to create a balance between two things. On the one hand, you want to resonate with your audience in the deepest way possible.

On the flip side, you need to edit your meme in such a way that it’s easily read, understood, and approachable. That’s due to how our attention spans are changing.

Our attention spans have become awfully short over the past couple of decades. Professor Gloria Mark, from the University of California, Irvine, found that in the early 2000s, people would concentrate on an electronic device for an average of 2.5 minutes before shifting their focus.

These days, that attention span has fallen to a mere 47 seconds.

It’s a vicious cycle. Shorter and shorter-length content reduced our attention spans. Meanwhile, we tend to want to consume only shorter and shorter content when our attention spans have shrunk.

Naturally, if content creators want to stand out from the crowd, they need to make their memes eye-catching. That means using impactful pics, ‘clean’ formatting, and easily-readable text.

If there’s far too much text or the image itself is too chaotic, you risk losing your audience. They’ll simply keep scrolling without bothering to look at the meme. On the flip side, if the text is concise and relevant, and you’re using a clear font, you’re doing things right. Sometimes, keeping things simpler is far better than overcomplicating them. Especially when it comes to humor.

Sure, you might not be able to capture the entire essence of how dystopian and exploitative the job industry might actually be in a single meme. But you can touch on a single issue in a very relatable way. Then, over time and with the help of hundreds of memes, you can provide a humorous interpretation of office life and the job market itself.

Social media has become a tool for some employees to maintain their power even in unfavorable circumstances. Some workers who have been laid off have taken to TikTok and X (formerly Twitter) to share videos about getting fired. According to BBC Worklife, TikTok videos using the #layfoffs hashtag have been watched a jaw-dropping 366 million times and counting. 

However, things aren’t quite as clear-cut. Though it may feel great at the moment to push back against the company that hurt you, you have to consider your future prospects, too. You might have a tougher time getting hired if you’ve gone viral for talking bad things about your former employers… even if it was merited.

At the end of the day, it’s a delicate question. What ought to be done will depend on each person’s circumstances, skillset, industry, and financial situation.

Tell us, Pandas, which of the memes that we’ve collected here resonated the most with you? Were there any that you thought were so incredibly accurate that you couldn’t help but send them to your friends? What do you love and hate about your job the most? If you have a moment to spare, scroll down to the comment section to talk about it.