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FT editor Roula Khalaf has chosen her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Soon, Amazon’s white-collar workers will enter a new phase: coming into the office five days a week. Don’t worry. I’m not going to rehash the arguments about potential productivity losses or mandated revenue increases. It may also reportedly be influencing management’s desire to cut staff, with disgruntled staff at other online retailers becoming “furious” about their jobs elsewhere. I’m not going to get hung up on what they’re saying, “I’m applying.”
Rather, the point of Amazon’s 2025 policy is to emphasize its deep interest in the office. In March 2020, when the world went into lockdown and marveled at the novelty of white collar workers being moved en masse to their bedrooms, did you ever think we’d still be talking about it almost five years later? ?I didn’t. My heart sinks every time my boss issues a new edict requiring staff to come to work, reigniting the debate about the merits of the office. Readers comment to each other whether it’s great or terrible. Politicians, business leaders, and pundits are also involved.
I was surprised at how often this topic comes up during the holiday season. There’s a lot of debate over where people sit in shops eating sandwiches (or steak, in the case of British Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch), typing on laptops, and watching PowerPoint presentations.
But now I think of office chats as a gift, not a waste of time. This allows white-collar workers to discuss their 9-to-5 lives in a way that even non-experts can understand. When friends I’ve known for decades post on LinkedIn, it’s not just how rational and consistent they seem, but how completely unlike the friends I knew as a child. I’m surprised. But I’m not entirely sure what they do specifically.
The enigma of white-collar roles was exemplified by the fictional Chandler Bing, played by the late Matthew Perry on the American sitcom Friends. When asked to name her job in the game, Monica said, “It’s about numbers and processing.” “He’s carrying a briefcase,” Rachel guessed, before landing on the “transponster.” I can’t understand a single word, let alone work. That ended 20 years ago. Since then, I think it has only become more mysterious.
Is it possible that AI will strengthen this trend? Perhaps that could be the case if workers were freed from the shackles of technology and encouraged to dive deeper into the rabbit hole of their own expertise.
Jargon only adds to the difficulty of reading. Advertising guru David Ogilvy once said: “Our business is rife with idiots who try to impress by using pretentious jargon.” This sentiment is reflected in the fact that people who lack self-confidence “use jargon in their communications and conversations.” This is supported by research findings that the trend is high.
Given this complexity and corporate nature, it’s no wonder people talk about their time at the office when trying to find common ground. Oh, work is boring, work shouldn’t define us, we shouldn’t spend more time at work than we are paid for, we should find other topics to discuss instead, like literature. I know there are people who say, . , hobbies, or political turmoil elsewhere in the world.
But it seems like a shame to completely avoid something that requires so much time. In her forthcoming book, Talk: The Science of Conversation and the Art of Being Yourself, Allison Wood Brooks writes that when she became a professor at Harvard Business School and taught a course on negotiation, she “ He said he discovered “difficult conversations.” . . . It’s not just interactions that trip people up. People struggle with seemingly simple conversations. She says that while we often think of small talk as boring, it’s worth persevering with because it can be a “stepping stone to bigger, better, more interesting conversations.” Or, as Atlantic columnist James Parker put it, it has the ability to “tilt you headlong into the searing emptiness” of another person’s soul.
Maybe that’s how you look at The Office stories? Rather than bragging about successes, it’s an icebreaker where people can discuss work they don’t understand, and it can go in unexpected directions. Yes, the place where your coworker drives you up the wall with loud gasps or petty insistence that you use your favorite coffee mug. But it’s also about autonomy and control, professional drama, the setbacks and realizations of dreams, and workplace friction.
What do we talk about when we talk about offices? It’s not just shared desks or cubicles.
