2013-06-24
Explanation
This comic depicts a workplace "morale booster" program. In the first panel, a woman presents to a group of employees, saying "Welcome to our morale booster program." In the subsequent panels, she explains: "Due to low morale, sales are down" and "Because sales are down, we'''ve been unable to pay for a proper morale booster program. So you'''ll all have to come in on weekends to offset it." An employee points out, "Isn'''t that a vicious cycle?" and the presenter responds, "Okay, that reminds me, now you need to generate your own electricity."
The joke satirizes corporate management'''s tendency to respond to low employee morale with solutions that actually make morale worse. The company'''s response to employees being unhappy is to pile on additional burdens -- forcing weekend work to compensate for poor sales caused by the very unhappiness they claim to be addressing. When an employee correctly identifies this as a self-defeating loop, the presenter punishes them further by adding yet another absurd requirement (generating their own electricity), perfectly illustrating how pointing out problems in dysfunctional workplaces often leads to more punishment rather than solutions.
In the votey, a character says, "But that exercise ain'''t free!" -- continuing the escalation of the vicious cycle, implying that even the physical effort of generating electricity will somehow be turned into another cost or burden placed back on the employees.