workfarce
n. A workplace or workforce that is ridiculous or worthy of mockery.
Etymology
Examples
2015
So on to a different world, that of Sydney and the public sector. More suburbanites. A few tolerable people, sure, but the social scene was still at Genitalia R Us level. In my mid 20s, I was now meeting "the workforce”, or "workfarce" as I continue to think of many of them.
—Paul Wallis, “The problem with being raised to be a real person,” Sydney Media Jam, May 17, 2015
2014
A cartoonist should come to all my conference calls. There's nothing but comic material here. #workfarce
—Liza Morse, “A cartoonist should…,” Twitter, December 10, 2014
2008
If you have been in the workfArce [sic] of this nation for 30 plus years, then the "world of shirk" has probably reduced you to a state of controlled rage and near apoplexy. Quite frankly, most people who have been a party to the tidal wave of nonsense that has engulfed the workplace these last few decades is now probably unemployable.
—Nick R, “Age and employment: The grey army grows mightier every day” (comment), The Telegraph (London), June 18, 2008
2003 (earliest)
For example, in California, on July 4, they started to train 600 people, and on August 1 flew all 600 into the Verizon territory. So even as we are here today, they are afraid to send these people away because we can still strike, there are 20,000 on stand-by — and I call it instead of "workforce," I call it "workfarce."
—Morton Bahr, “Proceedings and Index of the 65th Annual Convention - 2003” (PDF), Communications Workers of America, August 25, 2003
Notes
A report prepared for the House Ways and Means Committee sees even worse results from Workfare than from WIN. It forecasts that the administration's plan “may actually encourage desertion (by the father) rather than discourage it,” putting more people on welfare. “Workfare" might turn out to be “Workfarce."
—“Nixon's 'Workfarce',” The Piqua Daily Call (Piqua, Ohio), March 04, 1970