One of the key aspects of Pokémon is its ability to awaken the childlike wanderlust within most people. That’s awesome, but a bit incompatible when you’re an adult with a job in the times before the work-from-home revolution, which, interestingly, comprises most of the people who were playing Pokémon GO back in 2016.
And that was one hell of a lot of people. The good folks of Reddit joined us in reminiscing about the days when Pokémon GO ruled the world, and there were a lot of fun hijinks before managers realized what was going on.
One Reddit user said, “I worked at a car dealership at the time (I was a sales manager). I walk in, all the sales guys are on the lot, flicking their phones. The GM comes up to me and says, ‘I think the sales staff finally decided to learn about the cars; they’re all out on the lot inspecting the inventory…’ Yes sir! Let me check my email then I’ll go out and help them!”
It must have been a magical time. And it turns out working with cars was great, as they could be put to great Pokémon GO-related use! Another Reddit user explains, “That’s so funny! I worked in a dealership for a few years and used to hatch so many eggs from all the walking I would do. My friend was a valet and would drive around the lot catching Pokémon. Good times.” But things quickly changed, and managers everywhere started getting pissed at this hot new thing.
The image above was taken in the very distant 2016 in someone’s work office, but Pokémon GO was so huge that variations of this message must have ben circulating everywhere.
But not all workplaces confronted Pokémon GO head-on, and some actually saw it as an opportunity to help do some good, as another Reddit user explains, “I was working for a healthcare nonprofit doing outreach for Medicaid. Our boss tried to get them to make all our offices Pokéstops because a big focus was young people. That was 2016 so wasn’t possible yet but I always appreciated that attitude more than printouts like you’re sharing.”
Even the church saw the Pokémon GO phenomenon as a sign to ally higher powers with those of technology in the hopes of doing some good. “There was a church by my house that did the same thing. and it worked, they had a weekly PoGo youth meetup with refreshments from what I understood.” Another Reddit user sums it up as nicely as anyone could’ve hoped to, “It’s almost like everything isn’t awful if profit isn’t the motive.”
Great times. We might never have something like Pokémon GO again, something that deeply changes how so many people live their lives and engage with their workplaces, then mostly dies out just like it showed up, but the memories sure aren’t going away anytime soon.
