Worker complains that influencers ended remote work: 'It's six hours of posing with laptops by a pool in Bali'

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JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor
Aug 25, 2025 10:00 AM EDT

Odds are, you or someone you love works remotely. It's the nature of work these days. After the events of 2020, which necessitated it, it stuck around. Workers liked the flexibility, the lack of commute, and the decreased costs due to the lack of commute and the ability to make their own lunch. Companies liked not having to pay for an expensive office building. It was a win-win… for a while. And then slowly things started returning to normal. Companies wanted their teams together again. So it's been slowly rolling back to in-person, and not everyone is happy about it. So workers have been looking for explanations, since their companies are not always the best at providing them. Where is remote work going? Is it going away forever? Who can we blame?

One person had their own explanation that they posited on the internet. Nobody likes influencers. Even if you're an influencer yourself, you probably feel some level of cringe about your profession. After all, they're not the easiest to like. If you've ever waited in line for something in New York City, you know this to be true. 

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  • A woman sits in front of her laptop in a tropical location.
    via Unsplash+ (Molly the Cat)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • So this Redditor tried to draw the connection between the two. The way he saw it, the way in which we post online has a lot to do with what happens in our workplace. But not everyone saw it that way. Scroll on for an explanation of his theory and read what commenters had to say. 

  • Influencers k*lled remote work and I hope they rot for it.

    Remote work was amazing. People like me were actually getting more sh done at home. No useless fake office culture, no waking up 3 hours early just to fight traffic, no manager breathing down my neck just to make sure my a is in a chair. We were delivering results while being healthier and happier.
    via u/Dante_consigliere
  • Then the influencer plague showed up. These braindead clout chasing parasites decided remote work was an "aesthetic." They flooded TikTok and Instagram with their fake "work from anywhere" bulls. Two emails in the morning then it's six hours of posing with laptops by a pool in Bali or pretending they're hustling from a coffee shop. None of them actually working. Just flexing for views. Pieces of sh.
    via u/Dante_consigliere
  • And of course companies saw that sh. Instead of realizing most of us were doing our jobs better than ever, they swallowed the influencer image whole. Suddenly remote work is lazy a h les making content instead of working. So what did they do? They ripped it away from everyone. Now we're stuck in traffic again, losing hours of our lives, just because some dopamine addicted TikTok zombie couldn't stop filming themselves pretending to work.
    via u/Dante_consigliere
  • So yeah I blame influencers. I hope their ring lights explode in their faces, I hope their follower counts crater. I hope every single one of them ends up trapped in an open office next to the loudest obnoxious coworker on Earth. They ruined one of the best things to ever happen to the workforce and I'll never forgive them. I will forever hate influencers. F you /end rant
    via u/Dante_consigliere
  • A woman looks at another woman remote working by a body of water.
    via Unsplash+ (Molly the Cat)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • Commenters pointed him toward another reality.

    IAmDisciple ⚫ 36m ago your anger is caused by a system and you're directing it at individuals. Capitalism is happy for you to get angry at influencers, an easy target, rather than the owning class
    via u/IAmDisciple
  • LadyM80 18m ago • Keep us all distracted and fighting with each other, yep
    via u/LadyM80
  • Prophet_Tehenha... 42m ago Buddy, it has absolutely nothing to do with what influencers were doing. Entire state governments are trying to force return to office - they aren't doing that cause some influencers.
    via u/Prophet_Tehenhauin
  • They're doing it because it turns out entire cities tax basis are built around people shopping and eating during their free time from work. They're doing it because they want to get around requirements for mass layoffs so they hope you'll quit. They're doing it for tons of reasons that have nothing to do with what some people posted on TikTok
    via u/Prophet_Tehenhauin
  • Mosh4days. 30m ago Capitalism profits & control over workers. It ain't deep -
    via u/Mosh4days
  • . apocalypticboredom 20m ago Even more, they're doing it because renting office space is expensive and the companies who own those buildings need to get paid too.
    via u/apocalypticboredom
  • gainer1001 14m ago • I also wonder if it's to squeeze every dime out of people to put into the economy. Force people to spend more money on gas, clothes, fast food, etc.
    via u/gainer1001
  • Seamascm • 12m ago They are doing it because its really expensive to rent gigantic empty buildings in city centers
    via u/Seamascm
  • REJECT3D. 10m ago Exactly. Also banks really don't like empty commercial real estate and tenants underwater on their loans. RTO is about propping up commercial real estate as well.
    via u/REJECT3D
  • Lord-Nagafen • 7m ago Companies save on property tax because they bring workers downtown who spend money. No workers, no tax breaks. Now they are scrambling to maintain their tax exempt status
    via u/Lord-Nagafen
  • Lifeguard No9762 · 45m ago I hate influencers as much as anyone who has ever tried to walk on a pretty street. But WFH is being eliminated due to real estate not that those goof balls. Can't have perfectly good buildings sitting empty.
    via u/LifeguardNo9762
  • eroi49.42m ago As much as I agree that the influencer stuff was dumb, I think that companies were already against remote work from the start but had to be flexible during the pan mic or lose profits. They have real estate investments in their offices and well, they are mostly stuck in the last century for management practices.
    via u/eroi49
  • psycho-batcat • 33m ago Blame your employers and the government officials that want you at the office so you can add to the capitalism machine for surrounding businesses. I swear all the common folk will forever be attacking each other and pointing fingers. while the bloated executives get fatter and fatter off your life.
    via u/psycho-batcat
  • grapegeek 35m ago • Influencers have very little to do with this. We are in a recession. Companies are cutting jobs. An easy way to get around paying severance is to tell people to report to an office hundreds of miles away knowing they can't do that. Also during the pan mic so many companies over hired
    via u/grapegeek
  • now they need to lay these people off, and there's a real estate component many cities offer tax breaks if you had employees in their cities, and now they are asking for their money when all these companies went remote. There are just a lot of evil managers that want to see you toiling away at your desk. It's many things.
    via u/grapegeek
  • Survive1014. 34m ago Influencers are entirely worthless as humans and as legitimate businesses, but they had nothing to do with killing remote work. Billionaires seeing their commercial asset growth stall out is what k led remote work.
    via u/Survive1014
  • homesickalien337 • 30m ago I assure you that influencers are not involved in discussions by c-suite execs wanting RTO
    via u/homesickalien337
  • sloppy_johnson • 26m ago My guy, your boss didn't see an instagram of an influencer in Bali and assume that's what his staff were doing
    via u/sloppy_johnson
  • iDownvoteToxicLe... 26m ago Blame greedy corporations you imbeciles
    via u/iDownvoteToxicLeague
  • Coakis 24m ago . Pretty sure you're blaming the wrong people. middle management who were finally shown that their jobs are in fact useless and parasitic are the ones that are to blame here.
    via u/Coakis
  • LiquidSoCrates · 23m ago Middle management k led. remote work. Those idiots couldn't stand to lose their petty fiefdoms.
    via u/LiquidSoCrates
  • tomalator 5m ago Don't blame influencers. Blame CEOs and upper management who think they're getting screwed by influencers. And those same need to justify their very expensive office lease.
    via u/tomalator
  • The number of influencers you're talking about is a very small minority. Maybe a few hundred. It's a loud minority, but it's still a minority. And many of them are lying about being paid to do nothing. They still need to submit projects because no productivity means you get canned.
    via u/tomalator
  • reillyqyote ⚫ 32m ago • You're getting absolutely demolished in the comments, you should probably quit your job and become an influencer
    via u/reillyqyote

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boss remote antiwork workplace-stories remote work jobs toxic-workplace job bosses work coworkers working reddit story toxic-boss workplace reddit thread bad bosses influencers Reddit toxic-work-environment
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