The office is a theatre for work (2019)
This resonates a lot with my experience.<p>Take OKRs, for example. Everyone is expected to set their target goals, publicize and discuss them with others, and follow them religiously. Otherwise you send the signal that you don't like setting goals for yourself, and thus have no desire for self-improvement, which reflects poorly on your performance review. There are company-wide ceremonies about OKRs themselves; workshops, office hours and endless discussions about best ways to plan, track and meet your objectives. The amount of time and effort spent just doing this management work makes up a large portion of working hours.<p>Speaking of performance reviews, they're another huge waste of time. In the ever-important self-review you're expected to present proof to your higher-ups that you're not only worthy of keeping the job, but also why you deserve that 4% raise. So you better have been taking notes of your accomplishments in the past 6 months, otherwise those OKRs might come in handy. Your work would apparently be invisible to the company if there were no performance reviews, so make sure to make the best case for yourself, and to cherry-pick peers that would leave you a positive review.<p>The amount of theatre and politics involved in modern work culture is exhausting. I just want to get good work done, and go home.