This site satirically explores the subjects of burnout and repetitive-compulsive gestures in white-collar design work. I found myself thinking about (micro-)scales of time as a body incrementally frays against capitalist pace, physiologies of stress, the fine attunements our bodies make to become appendages of our respective machines, and the small gestures and flatness of affect that make up various (literal) postures of capitalism in its different historical stages.

The site parodies the form of a Worker's Repetitive Strain Injury (Upper Limbs) Questionnaire. Retitled as “Burnout Progress Report,” my form combines questions from the original questionnaire with questions from production worker, graphic designer, and senior design engineer interview templates I found online; reworded titles from articles about the limits of human endurance; and few questions of my own.

The key conceit of the site is exaggeration: users can only navigate through it by tediously performing the very same carpal tunnel-inducing gestures that the site critiques (clicking, aimlessly moving around the mouse, typing, and scrolling). The user's interactions literally set in motion corresponding stock footage of white-collar design work, such that the videos only advance with the user's repeated gesture and come to a standstill without it.