So you don't have to be 'fun' at work? 👀
➕ Matty Healy kissed a SYSCA follower and I'm dead over it ❤️🩹
FIRST OF ALL WELCOME TO ALL THE NEW ANGELS WE’VE GOT HERE THIS MORNING! I promise, this is the least depressing way to get the news each morning - so stick with me! Can’t wait to be your pen pal 💘💘💘
But first, my weekend:
Well well well, it’s been a while since I’ve been able to update you on some good old classic Luce grass-touching, but after this weekend I can tell you it’s been well and truly touched!! A bunch of us went camping to celebrate both Liv and our bestie Abby's 25th birthdays, and it was cute as hell. Lots of colouring in and painting, swimming, drinking, dusty instant coffees out of cups (not mugs), sausage sizzles, and even bouncing on ginormous pillow things. Very wholesome, very needed. Also! One night we saw about a million shooting stars which was just the sickest thing ever.
Anyway, that was my weekend - how was yours? How are you holding up at this hellish/ heavenish point of the year? Let me know in my replies/ comments!!!
People in China are protesting Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid policy
A man won the legal right to not be 'fun' at work
Matty Healy kissed a fan during Robbers and it devastated me
When you're camping, do you wear footwear in the communal showers?
People in China are protesting Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid policy
Across China, we’re seeing a rare eruption of protests, where hundreds of people are chanting “Step down, Xi Jinping! Step down, Communist Party!” in response to the country’s continued zero-covid policy (which has resulted in extended lockdowns which have at times lead to dire/ dangerous situations). The latest anger seems to have been fueled by a fire in Xinjiang, where 10 people died and nine are injured after “video emerged that seemed to suggest lockdown measures delayed firefighters from reaching the victims.” A lot of the protests appear to be happening at Universities across the country, and the BBC has seen people bundled into police cars.
I should note that scenes like this - where people are calling for Xi Jinping to step down or speaking against the Communist Party - are quite rare, as they usually come with harsh as hell punishments, which is why this is kinda a big deal.
If you’re interested, there is a lot more info here:
A man won the legal right to not be 'fun' at work
A French court has just ruled that a company can’t fire their workers for failing to be ‘fun.’ This ruling comes after a man - Mr T - was fired from the Paris consultancy firm Cubik Partners in 2015 for “refusing to participate in after-work drinks and team-building activities” (Cubik Partners also said Mr T was difficult to work with and a poor listener.)
According to the Court of Cassation, the company's "fun" values included regular obligatory social events that culminated in "excessive alcoholism encouraged by colleagues who made very large quantities of alcohol available," as well as "practices pushed by colleagues involving promiscuity, bullying and incitement to various excesses."
I totally get the whole ‘you shouldn’t be forced to go to work drinks’ vibe, espesh if what he’s saying about the culture at these events is true, but team-building feels… kinda important. Anyway, I’m off to tell Rubes and Liv that we’re no longer going to be fun at work - phew!!
Matty Healy kissed a fan during Robbers and it devastated me
The way I reacted to this news (as we drove back into reception) made me feel 15 again and absolutely sick to my STOMACH. For the uninitiated (AKA me a few months ago) The 1975 have a song called ‘Robbers’ which is about a toxic relationship, and it’s a cult classic among fans. One thing that Matty used to do back in the day, was get a girl on stage (yes, like Justin Bieber used to do during One Less Lonely Girl as EM perfectly pointed out here, but make it punk) and kiss her (sometimes) during the song.
We all thought this era was looooooong over, until he DID IT AGAIN AT ONE OF THEIR RECENT LIVE SHOWS TO A SYSCA FOLLOWER!!!! And don’t you worry, I’ve been DMing this gorg gal, and I’m working on getting a wee play-by-play of how it all went down for you all!! And before you all say it - yes he asked her, and yes he got consent.
It hurts less to someone living your dream when you know they’re cool as fuck, an ex Directioner, and they’re in the SYSCAhood. But in saying that… and I can barely open my TikTok without getting sick to my stomach with envy. So there’s that.
Anyway, if you can handle it, here’s a clip:
Update, he did it to a dude the next night 🥺🥺
And when I asked what we’re calling this era, a bunch of you gave me GREAT answers like:
being slutty in a foreign language
his elvis era
2014
matty h(oe)aly
cold sore on tour
the andrew garfieldization of matty healy (if someone could write me an essay on this that would be GREAT)
the earnest kiss era
a brief inquiry into on-stage relationships
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: you’re all so funny u rly should be doing my job for me.
Today’s mundane poll:
FIFA & the Controversies in Qatar, Explained (The Shit Show Podcast)
TicketMastermind (Taylor’s Version) (Culture Vulture Podcast)
Bob Iger’s Disney challenge: Solve the problem he helped create (Recode)
Balenciaga Apologized For A Photo Shoot That Included Kids Holding Bears In BDSM Gear And People Are Not Having It (Buzzfeed News)
Kris Wu Gets 13-Year Jail Sentence for Raping Multiple Women (Vulture)
I always wear flip flops in communal showers. I don’t need HPV or athletes foot. I’ve got enough problems
i do really think that court case was really interesting, like why is binge drinking and lewd conversation a “fun” team building exercise or the only/mandatory team/hangouts (which despite being mandatory rarely composite people for their time), like my idea of fun is like a board game night not going to a venue where it’s to loud to have a conversation and everybody is wasted.
my mother recently had to leave her work for similar dynamics in which she was told she had no choice but to attend “team bonding trips” which included nights out or full international holidays but were exclusively company members only and came with the expectation of binge drinking, excessive alcohol and partying and contained no team-building/management development (and she was basically told when quitting that she was ruining her boss’ fun ‘girls trip’ by having asked for an alternative to attending and setting boundaries when she told somebody she did not want to be friends she wanted to maintain their professional working relationship -despite it being a work trip lmao)
while partying and alcohol are fun, for people like my mother who choose not to drink often, or others like myself where I don’t like drinking while out and being neurodivergent find loud crowded environments stressful, it’s a bit upsetting to feel peer pressured to attend “social” events whether for work or general life where if you don’t want to get stay out until late hours of the night, behave wild, lewd and drink excessively you get excluded or punished socially as a buzzkill or bad coworker. shouldn’t mandatory group bonding experiences especially in a work environment 1. have at least some level of professionalism/healthy work culture 2. be accessible to all members 3. actually have the goal of team-bonding
TLDR; there are so many reasons people don’t drink or party and it often feels or is an expectation of adult work and social life, and I just feel like they could be replaced one in a while with a brunch or something, like i’m glad others enjoy partying but it shouldn’t have to be the only way to “bond” with coworkers