Griniaris.com

It was my first day back at the office after a blissful four-week vacation. I had no idea what to expect, but I imagined it would be like stepping back into a world of emails, meetings, and paperwork—essentially, a land where time and energy go to die.

I walked into the office with my head held high, coffee in hand, ready to conquer the mountain of tasks that awaited me. But as soon as I entered, something felt… off. It wasn’t the usual hum of activity. The office felt eerily quiet. And then it hit me: I was the only one there.

I stared at my desk, noticing that it had been buried under a mountain of sticky notes and forgotten coffee cups. I walked over, sitting down in front of my computer, only to find that it had been rearranged—by a coworker who apparently thought it would be hilarious to set my desktop wallpaper to a picture of a cat in sunglasses.

I let out a sigh of frustration and plugged in my headphones to drown out the noise of my own thoughts. Just as I was about to open my inbox, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to find my boss standing there with a huge grin on his face.

“How was your vacation?” he asked.

“Great,” I replied, still trying to figure out why he was standing there looking like he had just won the office lottery.

“Well, you’ll be happy to know that we’ve all been working diligently while you were gone,” he said, patting me on the back. “We reorganized everything!”

I blinked. “Reorganized what?”

“Your desk, of course! The team wanted to help you out and make sure it felt fresh when you returned. Oh, and we decided to add a little flair!” he said, pointing to the enormous pile of sticky notes and the cat wallpaper.

I stared at him for a moment, unsure of how to react. “Pope?” I asked weakly.

“Yeah, you know. Inspiration!” he replied, as if this was some kind of motivational speaker moment.

At that very moment, my coworker Farine walked by, wearing a shirt that said “Team Spirit!” She paused, looked at me, and then at the cat on my screen. “Did you get the memo about ‘Dress like a Meme’ day?” she asked cheerfully.

“Memes?!” I gasped, completely out of the loop.

“Yeah! You missed the email, but don’t worry. We’ll let you off the hook this time,” she said with a wink, clearly delighting in my confusion.

As Farine walked away, I sighed deeply, realizing I had just become the office’s “vacation meme” victim. I was now the proud owner of a desk that looked like it had been hit by a hurricane of Post-Its and internet culture.

At least I still had my coffee. But then I realized—my coffee mug had been replaced with one that read: “This Might Be Wine.” I looked around, considering if I should just leave and pretend the whole thing was a dream.

But nope. This was my life now. Welcome back to the office, indeed.