I finally had the chance to burn through another season of “Platonic” and it’s unexpectedly been the shot of hope I needed.

One of the running gags in the first season was Seth Rogen’s character kicking over electric scooters whenever he saw them. This time, it’s food delivery robots.

At a basic level, it’s just a good sight gag. It’s funny watching people kick things. You can imagine how it’s also just physically satisfying to unleash some frustration at an inanimate object that also represents, potentially, some of the most annoying encroachments of technological “progress” in daily life.

But in a coaching call with Annika Westlake today it also came to mind as a visual for a dynamic I appreciate in the workplace. Each time Seth Rogen kicks a robot he’s actually doing something. Yes, it’s basically a completely futile something! But, it’s something. It’s physical. It’s public. It’s intentional—he’s tired of seeing those stupid things everywhere and what they represent and he wants to do something about it.

The doing something about it is what a lot of people seem to miss in the workplace. They don’t list the pay. They don’t treat applications as a relationship building opportunity. They don’t reject the latest tech fad. They don’t reach out with a note of appreciation, most of all to the leaders of color who may be feeling lonely. They don’t get creative and think of ways to protect the collective of the workplace.

There are very many ways to just do something to make the workplace slightly better instead of the default mode we’re all pushed to. These types of interventions are part of creating the world as we want it to be, of making it slightly more just, slightly less precarious, just that bit more human.

So, thanks for everyone kicking at robots, shouting at clouds, slightly adjusting a word choice here or a process there to do something to try to make their organization a better place. And especially, thanks for writing and speaking about it. Letting other people know we notice (and value!!) these actions seems to be a critical part of helping them (and not the robots) proliferate.

If you’re interested in these kinds of things and may want to chat about it, please reach out. I am trying to figure out if I can pull a question out of this realm for a research project, and would greatly value chatting about this area. If Seth Rogen can make a whole show out of friends shouting at each other and kicking stuff and still sorta making their lives work, why can’t we work together to make workplaces just a little bit less crap?

Last modified on November 27, 2025