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For many office workers, the typical lunch hour is a sad desk lunch of a sandwich or slop bowl supplemented by a rotating schedule of snacks. According to a poll conducted by Yahoo and YouGov, half of employed Americans regularly eat at their workstations. And now theyre sharing it all on TikTok. Office snack content is hooking viewers online with captions such as WIEIAD (what I eat in a day) and what I ate at my 8-4, featuring office workers time-stamped eating schedules. Employees post montages of their morning coffee and breakfast of choice, followed by a time-lapse video of a variety of snacks and beverages consumed at their desk. Some videos have voice-overs, some have light jolly music, and others keep it monotonous, complete with keyboard ASMR. And if the workers employer offers free food (certainly a step above your tuna on rye in a brown paper bag), theyre sharing that, too. Rating everything I ate at the office today, one TikTok creator who works at the tech company Carta posted. First, she helps herself to free coffee, followed by a Cocojune yogurt with blueberries. For lunch, she shows a plate of chicken katsu and a range of beverages, including a lime Diet Coke and a Spindrift. The day ends with a protein bar. Her content frequently racks up hundreds of thousands of views. In a separate video, she provided a close-up of the snack selection, due to popular demand. My show is on, one user commented. Another wrote that theyd love to see how much money this saves you eating at work every day. A day of office lunches may not sound like thrilling source material for social media, but clips of what people are eating at work are an extremely popular content niche. There are more than 1.1 million videos on TikTok with the hashtag #wieiad, varying from corporate snack selections to what workers pack for their lunch from home. Why these mundane videos are oddly satisfying to watch, whos to say? For some, it may serve as inspiration; for others, it can give a sense of a companys workplace culture and perks. Perhaps we are simply nosy creatures. Free food at the office has long been a popular perk used to entice employees. In 2022, Meta eventually barred employees from bringing in Tupperware because too many had been stocking up on free food and taking it home with them. After the pandemic and the end of remote working left many companies seeking ways to entice workers back to the workplace, office snacks and free lunches were among the incentives employers turned to. Because who doesnt love a free lunch? (With the additional benefit for employers of keeping workers at their desks longer.) A recent change in tax law may throw a wrench in the WIEIAD trend, though: Starting in 2026, meals provided for the employer’s convenience, such as on-site or cafeteria meals, will no longer qualify for a tax deduction, according to professional services firm UHY. Some have suggested the change could apply to office snacks and coffee, too. Think of all the potential office mukbangs wed be deprived of.
Category:
E-Commerce
One of Michaels friends told him recently, Im not burned out; Im just feeling empty. She shows up, meets deadlines, and manages to smile in meetings. But her work feels weightless and disconnected from purpose. Shes not alone. Gallups 2025 State of the Global Workplace report found that only 21% of employees worldwide are engaged, and just one in three say theyre thriving. Thats not a blipits a warning signal for leaders and cultures. When emptiness shows up at work, our reflex is to pathologize: Is this burnout? Do I need a diagnosis? Sometimes, yesclinical conditions require clinical care. However, many of todays struggles are fundamentally philosophical, centered on issues such as purpose, values, identity, and the meaning of life. Those dont always need a medical label; they need better questions. Why We Need a Different Lens Disengagement is expensive. Gallup estimates that low engagement costs the global economy $8.8 trillion annually, nearly 9% of global GDP. Manager engagement is also slipping, dropping three points in 2024, with a ripple effect on teams. The human cost? Teams feel flat, leaders are running on fumes, and organizations are mistaking busyness for progress. Cognitive scientist John Vervaeke refers to our current moment as a meaning crisisa cultural shortfall in making sense of our lives. That frame helps us see that the emptiness that many feel isnt always a disorder; often, its a signal. Therapy is essential when theres a clinical risk. But when the primary challenge is purposenot pathologyphilosophy can be the right first (or parallel) step. What Philosophical Counseling Looks Like at Work Philosophy at work doesnt show up as abstract debates about Plato in the break room. It shows up as structured reflection in moments when leaders feel stuck, conflicted, or unclear. Unlike traditional coaching, which often emphasizes goals and performance, or therapy, which focuses on healing emotional wounds, philosophical counseling creates clarityhelping you slow down to examine the ideas, assumptions, and values that drive decisions. In practice, this means creating a conversational space where leaders can explore the deeper questions that often remain unaddressed in quarterly reviews or strategic planning sessions. Its not about diagnosing or prescribing. Its about holding up a mirror to how you think, and then gently but persistently asking whether those patterns are serving you. Sometimes, testing your core ideas against a contrary philosophical position helps you change your mind, but it also helps you formulate your idea with better precision and focus. So, a philosophical counseling session isnt about advice. Its an inquiry guided by questions like: What do you mean by success here? (Define the concept before you chase it.) Which assumptions are you treating as facts? (Surface the hidden rules youre following.) What obligations follow from your values? (Tie action to meaning, not mood.) One VP I worked with felt behind in her career. She wasnt looking to change jobs; she was questioning whether she should. From the outside, her role was a success story: she was leading complex cross-functional work, mentoring future leaders, and shaping long-term strategy. But because her peers seemed to leapfrog into splashier titles, she had internalized the myth that a career only counts if it moves in a straight, upward line. Together, we explored economist David Galensons distinction between conceptual and experimental innovators: some leaders peak early with bold, disruptive visions, while others build mastery through experience, iteration, and depth. When she looked at her own path through that lens, she realized her current role was giving her exactly what an experimental innovator needsbreadth, autonomy, and repeated opportunities to refine her craft. Her progress wasnt stalled; it was accumulating. Once she saw her trajectory as cumulative rather than delayed, the pressure loosened. She didnt need a new job; she needed a new narrative. And with that reframing, her energy and her confidence returned. Another founder I worked with was trapped in performative productivity, equating worth with constant output. After interrogating his deeper purpose, he shifted from chasing vanity metrics to making value-aligned bets. Hiring became more intentional. Product decisions became braver. And his leadership became far more sustainable. Practical Steps for Leaders & Organizations The goal isnt to turn executives into armchair philosophers. Its to equip them with tools that help cut through noise, clarify assumptions, and ground decisions in meaning rather than momentum. Philosophers have long been aware of their reputation for getting lost in thought. As Plato recounts in Theaetetus, Thales once fell into a ditch while contemplating the heavens. Leaders dont need another abstract framework piled onto their already full plates. Philosophical counseling brings philosophy back to the ground, connecting it with everyday problems and offering clear practices that create space for reflection and insight without derailing productivity. When leaders bring this lens into the workplace, they not only strengthen their own claritythey normalize purposeful inquiry across the culture. Here are some concrete ways to start weaving philosophy into your leadership tool kit and organizational systems: Run an Assumption Audit. With a partner, list current dilemmas. For each, ask: What must be true for my conclusion to hold? How else might I interpret the facts? Institutionalize Socratic Stand-Ups. Once a month, replace a staff meeting with a facilitated dialogue on a first-principles question (e.g., What are we optimizing for?) and publish the reasoning behind the decision, not just the outcome. Offer a Meaning Map workshop. Help leaders chart their values, obligations, and behaviors. If values dont result in better choices, theyre not valuestheyre slogans. Use AI thoughtfully. Employees increasingly confide in chatbots. Health experts caution against relying on generative AI for mental health, as it lacks safeguards and nuance. Organizations should establish policies and direct people to seek human assistance when needed. Return-to-office and hybrid work have scrambled the social fabric. However, micro-rituals matter: leave five minutes for human check-ins on Zoom, host optional philosophy salons, or design in-person days around connction. These arent time-wasters; theyre trust builders. Philosophy provides leaders and teams with a disciplined approach to thinking about what mattersenabling them to act with clarity, rather than merely coping. Your colleague who feels empty may not need a diagnosis. She may need to reorient her thinking by asking more effective questions. And those questions may be the most practical tools we have for navigating the complexity of modern work.
Category:
E-Commerce
The Trump administration is spending millions on advertisements aimed at recruiting new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The ads are so widespread that TV viewers and social media users alike are seeing them everywhere, including on YouTube, Spotify, and LinkedIn. In one recent ad seen on LinkedIn, a stern-faced Uncle Sam points at the viewer. The message reads: “Join ICE Today” along with the note, “$50,000 signing bonus” at the bottom. Likewise, a 30-second TV spot that originally aired during the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards broadcast in September has been spotted nationwide in the months since. You took an oath to protect and serve, to keep your family, your city, safe, the narrator says in the promotion. But in sanctuary cities, youre ordered to stand down while dangerous illegals walk free. It’s hard to tell what sets certain cities apart, but the call to action has been specifically targeting Albuquerque, Boston, Chicago, Denver, New York, Philadelphia, Sacramento, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. More recently, the ads have been seen in Atlanta, Dallas, Miami, and Salt Lake City, as well as in San Antonio, Houston, and El Paso, Texas, according to AP News. The ads are part of the Trump administration’s $30 billion initiative to hire 10,000 more ICE agents by year’s end. According to data from Equis, acquired by Rolling Stone, the Department of Homeland Security has been spending millions to reach more and more Americans. DHS has spent about $2.8 million since March to keep ads running on Meta’s Facebook and Instagram. Since August, the agency has paid Meta another $500,000 to run recruitment ads. DHS also spent $3 million on Google and YouTube ads in Spanish instructing people to self-deport. Ads have been running on Spotify and Pandora as well, but Equis did not have data on how much DHS spent on those ads. Spending didn’t stop or slow down during the government shutdown, either. According to Newsweek, DHS reportedly kept throwing money at ICE recruitment efforts while millions of workers went without paychecks. Over the three-week shutdown, ICE spent around $4.5 million on paid media. Millions of people are at risk of losing their food stamps and are about to go hungry because of this government shutdown, Natalia Campos Vargas, deputy research director at Equis, told Newsweek at the time. But somehow the Trump administration and DHS and ICE are choosing to spend millions of dollars on ad campaigns. That just feels inherently wrong to me as a taxpayer.” As ICE has ramped up recruitment efforts, the pushback has been gaining steam. On December 11, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was grilled by lawmakers about alleged wrongful deportations of U.S. citizens, including military veterans. Noem was confronted with individuals the agency allegedly deported. The secretary left the meeting early and was heckled upon exiting. Meanwhile, anti-ICE ads combating the pro-deportation narrative have also popped up on various platforms. In one ad from Home of the Brave, Army veteran George Retes, a U.S. citizen, tells the story of his ICE abduction. My drivers side window shatters. An agent sticks his arm through and pepper sprays me in the face. They drag me out of the car. They throw me on the ground. They zip-tie my hands behind my back,” Retes says in the video, which is airing nationally across streaming platforms. Had they just looked at my ID, they would have seen that Im a U.S. citizen, that Im a veteran. . . . Whats happening right now isnt right.” Still, while many users may be uncomfortable with the surge in ICE ads online, the organizations running them seem undeterred. A Spotify spokesperson told Fast Company that the ad is part of a broader, well-documented U.S. government campaign running across multiple platforms, including television, streaming, and online channels.” The spokesperson added that users are able to control their ad preferences. “Spotify is an open platform that supports a wide range of voices and perspectives, even those some people may personally disagree with. That’s why we believe listener control is key to that balance and users can like or dislike specific ads as well as update their ad preferences, including opting out of certain categories such as government. While there has been a surge in calls for Spotify users to boycott the platform over the ICE ads, as well as over founder Daniel Ek’s investment in Helsing, a German defense company, the platform says there has been “no material impact in terms of cancellations.” Fast Company reached out to LinkedIn and YouTube in regard to the running of ICE recruitment ads but did not hear back by the time of publication.
Category:
E-Commerce
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