Why "my office for the day" is an icky posting trend

A messy post with a point, I hope.

My office for the day! Look at this week’s workplace! My view from the job right now!

These kinds of posts pop up on my feed daily, second only to funny cat videos. Pictures of sandy beach feet, wine glasses resting on cabin patios, and generic forest shots with laptops held in the foreground like shiny metal intruders in nature.

The majority of us don’t work in cubicles anymore. We write from coffee shops, backyards, bedrooms, buses, bars, and on the backs of donkeys. So posting shots of special places is more about a location humble brag, and less about the task at hand. Which mutes the work in a way. To me, at least.

This flippant topic doesn’t come from a place of geographical envy or some kind of posting-etiquette I deem from a social media high horse. I’ve written in the most beautiful places around the world too. And god knows I’ve had my share of annoying posts. Guilty as charged.

But these posts get under my thin skin lately. And I had to share, I guess.

I believe, with the “my office for the day” posts — that work should be work, and leisure shots should be leisure shots.

Why? Because when the two are combined, the work takes a second seat to your feet. And it just mutes the art and work.

Do the work. Let the work speak loudly. From whatever location it comes from.

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In good measure, I will show you the two places I wrote this quick, clunky post from. But I did force myself to write, and it didn’t have to be from a beach.

Room 5A

The serene backyard of detox

Yes. Relapse is a devastating, cunning devil. It tears apart loved ones, opportunities, health, and robs almost everything from you. It’s seedy motels, isolation, hospitals, fear, financial drain, the inability to stop, IV’s, hunger, exhaustion, and so so so much shame.

12-steppers tell me relapse is not doing the work and book properly. Church peers tell me I don’t pray to God enough. While…doctors and nurses and professionals in the hospital tell me relapse is a natural part of the disease, say, like diabetes flaring up.

They are all correct, but right now, I lean toward the doctors, as I am gratefully medicated and monitored right now and told about the disease in scientific terms. It’s so much more complex than not picking up a drink. But that’s another essay.

But I will keep writing. It heals me. I hope you work hard too, whatever it is that heals you. We’re all on the same team.

Take care, friends. See you on the other side. I’ll post again soon, in a stronger state. Strong like ox!

Write from ‘wherever today’s office’ is.