“After work” is an invitation to explore the impact of the changes in work-life in the post-corona context and its effect on the broader political, social, and economic functions of the European city. The cautionary tales could be read daily in small doses after work or consumed in more significant quantities by those who lament the death of their daily work lives. The stories are based on the premise that the disappearance of offices (office-based work) has an extended history, and the pandemic has only made some of these patterns more visible. The tales bring to life how workspace, labor, and everyday life connect in wicked and messy ways that are often omitted in the desire to find consensus or to provide precise solutions. The amplification of ambiguities, conflicts, and contradictions invites the readers to navigate the complicated relationships between fact and fiction within the recent post-work related discussions.

The cautionary tales provide a critical exploration of the shortcomings of the concept of work, intertwined as it is within capitalist narratives of modernity and progress. Specific normative constructions of concepts related to work such as optimization, growth, work hours, productivity, salary, that remain unquestioned within mainstream narratives appear absurd when pushed to their extremes. The design imagination and its particular ability to make abstract issues spatially visible can contribute to the naming and framing of these absurdities.

For work to be appreciated in other ways––or for us to better understand the role of work in a society that comes ‘after progress’––we need a shift in the ways that individuals construct value around the notion of work. On the one hand, these cautionary tales assist this construction of new mental models by using humor and absurdity to critique the faulty values within the current work narratives. On the other hand, the caricature highlights specific patterns and trends that may present a promising future. By naming and framing these patterns, the cautionary tales act as rhetorical devices that can aid policy conversations. The stories act as interactive systems (map reading, card games, board games, performances, play books etc.) that provide various stakeholders the opportunity to take part in a broader reflexive exercise about their values and priorities.