It’s no secret that The Workplace has been remade time and time once more in numerous international locations all around the world. Along with the unique U.Okay. model, and the beloved American take, there have been officially-sanctioned Workplace remakes in Poland, India and Brazil, simply to call a number of.
If there’s any takeaway from the worldwide enchantment of this premise, it’s that shitty bosses and awkward romances are as pervasive in workplaces as beige partitions and soul-crushing fluorescent lights.
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Now there are two new worldwide variations of The Workplace — a lately introduced Mexican adaptation, and the Australian remake that got here out earlier this month, each of that are being launched on Amazon Prime Video.
The timing of this information is somewhat odd, contemplating that the Australian Workplace is all about “the return to work after COVID” and it dropped only a month after Amazon mandated that workers return to in-person work 5 days per week. This marks a “vital shift” from their earlier post-pandemic coverage, which “required company staff to be within the workplace no less than three days per week.”
The transfer has been controversial, and wildly unpopular with workers, 91 p.c of whom are “sad” with the choice in line with one survey. It’s additionally reportedly “backfired,” prompting a mass exodus of certified workers in quest of hybrid positions.
There’s actually no good purpose to power folks again into workplaces, contemplating that hybrid jobs profit workers’ psychological well being, and profit employers by growing employee productiveness. The in-person push appears to be extra about sustaining authoritarian management and justifying real-estate portfolios than anything. So is it doable that Amazon is utilizing remakes of The Workplace to attempt to normalize in-person work tradition and justify their unpopular company coverage?
This will likely sound somewhat far-fetched, however it’s not like massive streamers are above utilizing their in-house content material to unfold refined, totally self-serving messages. For instance, Ted Lasso and plenty of different Apple TV+ exhibits bent over backwards for example the advantages of assorted Apple merchandise.
Whereas we’ve no conclusive proof of Amazon performing related feats of subliminal sneakiness, their press launch for the Australian present did start by proclaiming: “It’s time to get again to The Workplace!”
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To be honest, within the present, the return-to-office push comes from Hannah, the David Brent/Michael Scott-esque supervisor, purely for egocentric causes. However her need to power everyone again to an in-person routine is finally vindicated when the present’s Jim and Pam surrogates fortunately settle for these phrases as a result of it can permit for inter-office flirtations.
It’s additionally been mentioned that Workplace remakes should observe the plot line of the unique’s pilot, per Ricky Gervais’ directions. However whereas the primary pilot concerned downsizing workers, this one begins with the paper firm threatening to nix the bodily workplace, implicitly drawing a comparability between the significance of individuals and the significance of firm actual property.
It might have been extra practical if the present ended midway via episode two as a result of everybody give up that specific paper firm.
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