Internet Brands, a tech firm based in El Segundo with offshoots like WebMD and CarsDirect, may have the most bonkers corporate message ever in the return-to-office row.

The firm made a video called "Internet Brands Return To Office - a Message From Company Leadership," which is still on the firm's public Vimeo page despite being mocked on social media.

Bosses from Internet Brands' internet brands are so desperate and bossy that they look like they are cracking up in wanting more workers at the office.
CEO Bob Brisco moans at the video’s start: "Too big of a group hasn't returned.”

The video has it all: fast cuts, weird sound, and bosses reading their lines from screens. There's fake office footage and the clear use of green screens. There's even some keen (and awkward) dancing to the New Orleans hit "Iko Iko." with a phonetic spelling of the ending lyrics placed alongside one translation of them: "'We mean business' or 'Don't mess with us.'"

It's like the bosses started their planning session by watching 12 music videos, an iMovie how-to video and the whole of "The Office" Season 1 (the British one, the American version was rubbish).

The management atrocity was mixed in with the corporate footage of a printer spitting paper and a too-loud video of a hand squashing a Dr Pepper can.

In the video, WebMD Chief Financial Officer Blake DeSimone says, "We have been slow in getting back with some people and in some places. That's about to change."

Internet Brands HR senior vice president Lynn Tokeshi says, "Your manager will be in touch with you soon about how this will be done and checked."

"Thank you, team," Brisco then says, sounding final. "I want to leave you with this. We aren't asking or talking now; we're telling you how we need to work together from now on."

The video feels pretty cringey at times. When one exec talks about the need to "crush the competition," we see a clip of someone erasing the word "competition" off a whiteboard. Then, we see someone's hand crush an empty can of Dr Pepper. Next on the screen flashes a stock clip of a man taking a meeting from home, wearing a dress shirt and boxers.

Many people who were involved with the video and signed off on its production do not realise that this sort of “management thing” is why workers don’t want to be locked in the same room with middle and senior managers five days a week. It reminds them that sitting in long meetings where a manager uses a PowerPoint presentation full of terms like “kicking the ball running,” “paradigm”, and that old favourite “who moved my cheese?” is precisely why working from home was so attractive.