These 'historical tours' of modern offices capture just how banal work is

"Now, a current TikTok trend suggests that one day in the future, those exhibits will be the modern workstation: standing desks, Zoom meeting headsets and all. The viral series titled " historical tour of a corporate worker's desk" by marketing professional and content creator Heike Young imagines what that will look like."

""Now in those times, it would have been really common for a corporate worker to sit at a desk, much like this one, and be on calls all day," she says in the skit, now with over 116,000 views. Behind Young a standing desk is set up with two screens, one for work and the other for online shopping, she says. The desk is scattered with an assortment of beverages, or "brown liquids", and plastic food containers and packets."

""Believe it or not, this worker would've actually been considered very lucky to have a job like this," she continues. "People would submit hundreds of applications and submit themselves to many humiliation rituals just to get a job like this one." In another video, Young highlights a few common tabs workers would have had open on their screens. "Yes, Amazon. That's the same name as the extinct rainforest, that's right," she replies to a "question". "We got some history buffs in here." She also educates on the linguistic practices of the period, more commonly known as business jargon or "work voice"."

A TikTok trend imagines future museums presenting corporate desks as historical exhibits. Displays include standing desks, dual monitors, Zoom headsets, and one screen for work alongside another for online shopping. Desks are shown cluttered with bottled beverages described as "brown liquids", plastic food containers, and snack packets. Narration frames long workdays on calls and intense job competition, noting hundreds of applications and practices described as humiliation rituals. On-screen jokes equate Amazon with an "extinct rainforest" and highlight the prevalence of business jargon or "work voice." The trend uses satire to recast everyday remote-work habits as cultural artifacts.

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