There’s an ongoing battle between employees and employers over the “right” to work remotely. To say it’s a complicated situation, with nuance around return-to-office policies, productivity, and a host of other factors, is an understatement. The answer for many companies seems to be a hybrid model of sorts. But return-to-office mandates are up and remain extremely contentious within the ad industry.

And that’s what makes it the perfect topic for a satirical film created for Canada's Agency of the Year awards. As part of the show, the top agencies are invited to create their own video, promoting the agency and their work to the industry in attendance.

“Living from work™” nails an uncomfortable truth — that the pandemic unleashed a seismic change between what employers and employees want in the workplace. And it's going to be really hard to put the genie back in the bottle.

“Living from work™” is set in a fictitious agency where the staff are told to return to the office. And not for just two or three days, but for a ridiculous seven days a week.

Discouraged agency staff, their requests for working from home denied during a hilarious Q&A sequence, are eventually sold on the advantages of living from work™. The President & CEO delivers “the pitch of her career”, listing benefits such as no more daily commutes, no more mortgages, and even free groceries (boardroom leftovers of course).

Even the dreaded holiday deadline is a thing of the past when you get to spend Christmas morning together brainstorming on a pitch. And freelancer costs simply vanish when an “agency” mom can get her kids to do “20 TikTok scripts” and “15 banner ads” as homework. By the end of the day no less.

Zulu Alpha Kilo has become well known for a series of industry-related films that focus on issues that are pertinent to the advertising community. The agency has taked a position of issues such as spec work and suspicious award show entries. The latest film tackled the on-going debate surrounding working from home versus showing up at the office. Following it’s release during the Canadian Agency of the Year gala, virtually every trade publication provided additional commentary and analysis of the “working from home” situation in their reporting, as opposed to simply recounting the content of the film. This led to increased viewership beyond the gala event, proving that the problem is real.