The BusinessCringe universe
Heres everything you need to know about the BusinessCringe universe.
More information is added regularly.
BigCorp Incorporated
This is the workplace all videos take place at.
BigCorp incorporated is a large multinational company involved in a number of ventures.
Their slogan is “Because we care”, which they adopted shortly after a 2017 lawsuit.
Over the years, they’ve been sued for (among other things) unethical business practices, rainforest destruction, and negligence toward employee safety.
Despite this, they continue to report record profits and record-breaking dividend payouts, while employee salaries have yet to keep up with inflation.
According to their website, their core values are "Transparency" "flexibility" and “forward-thinking”.
I'll let the audience decide whether they live up to those values.
Cringe
Cringe has been through EVERYTHING the corporate world has to offer. Job interviews, meetings, focus groups, incompetent managers, Linkedin…
Name something corporate, and he's experienced it. And he HATES all of it.
These days, he prefers to take it easy. He spends his time doing things like painting, cooking, or reading. Simple, peaceful things.
But his quiet life is often disturbed by his naive sidekick, Mickey. Through him, Cringe is forced back into the HELL that is BigCorp.
Now it’s his mission in life to BRING IT DOWN!
Mickey
Cringe’s naive sidekick.
With his innocent view of the world, he tries to navigate BigCorp, Linkedin, and the rest of the corporate landscape. He’s convinced that a positive outlook and hard work is enough to advance his career.
Most episodes begin with Mickey naively assuming that BigCorp has his best interests at heart, leaving Cringe to talk him into more sensible ideas.
Because Pizza Fridays are an amazing treat, right? Applying for jobs in 2025 is a smooth process where everyone is given a fair chance? Corporate meetings are a great way to boost productivity, right?
He means well, but if left unsupervised, he’ll end up exploited, underpaid, and overworked.
It's a good thing he has Cringe by his side.
Tom the IT guy
Tom is the glue keeping BigCorp together.
The entire company rests on his shoulders. Tom is the only person in the entire organization who knows how to reset a lost password, or grant a new hire access to their email.
Despite this, Tom goes through his day with little urgency. He's on site every Thursday, but even then, it's hard to get a hold of him.
In private, he’s known for his radical political views. He was a vocal supporter of the 2003 U.S invasion of Iraq - and still is.
Thanks to some connections in the Bush administration, he landed the job at BigCorp in the early 2000s, and has stayed on ever since.
The Evil Executive
He’s an executive and board member of BigCorp.
He’s a dedicated Linkedin user, who frequently shares leadership lessons, and reflections on what everyday moments have taught him about B2B sales.
He was one of the main architects behind the 2017 rebrand, when they adopted the slogan “Because we care”.
He refers to BigCorp as "one big family”, yet in the past 12 months alone, he’s laid off 17 employees due to downsizing, caused 10 cases of burnout, and convinced 6 others to accept pay cuts due to a “limited budget” (despite record profits).
He’ll make you work overtime without extra pay, use manipulative negotiation strategies, and expect you to reply at 10 PM on a Friday, in the name of “team spirit”
In other words, he's your favorite boss.
Larry, the incompetent middle manager
Larry has zero clue how anything works. Like, absolute zero. The intern knows more than him.
He got the job 15 years ago, and since then, technology, and the business world, has changed significantly. Larry has not.
As a result, he's the least knowledgeable person in all of BigCorp. But he follows orders from Management without question, and gets paid well for it.
He tells you he’ll “get back to you” about everything - but he almost never does.
Somehow, he’s survived multiple rounds of layoffs and digital transformations, maily by just flying under the radar of accountability.
The corporate drone
Jessica is BigCorp’s most loyal employee. She knows the “Policies and Routines” manual inside out - and lives by every word of it.
One of her favorite hobbies is enforcing those rules on her coworkers, even though she doesn’t have any mandate to do so. If you don’t like it, you can “submit a request to management”
She proudly wears her company-subsidized apparel and is known for encouraging others to do the same - even though there’s no policy requiring it outside official events.
Jessica has accepted pay cuts more than once, and she genuinely believes BigCorp is incredibly generous for providing Pizza Fridays every other week.
Her most ambitious dream in life is to one day become a team lead.
Bill from the third floor
Widely known as the "I'm about to lose my mind guy"
Bill used to be a really funny guy. He was artistic, always cracking jokes, and had a way of making everyone around him feel great.
But that version of Bill has been gone for a long time now.
Four years ago, he helped set up someone's password (Tom was absent). Since then, people started handing him task after task, and he gradually got burnt out.
In those four years, he's had three divorces with two different women. He’s been to therapy, anger management, and numerous AA meetings.
Somehow every task ever gets put on Bill’s desk, because people know he’ll do it. As a result, he’s constantly stressed out of his mind, and one tiny mistake away from going absolutely insane.