A man working from home is filling the shelf behind him with a carefully curated selection of books, ready for video calls. Clark Barton has already placed Fight Club, the Bible, The God Delusion and recent sensation Normal People in view of the camera and is working through the remaining space in an effort to look both cultured and promotable.

Barton said “I’ve got a pretty good selection so far but this needs to be perfect. Just the right amount of popular classics, pseudo-intellectual wank and management-material bullshit.”

Holding a pile of books, Barton continued “Does The Barefoot Investor make me look clever or poor? Are comic books still cool? Will people get that I only have Eat, Pray, Love ironically?

“I could always sit with my back to a bare wall, but how does that give me the chance to show my colleagues how I contain multitudes? No, what’s on these shelves must propel me forward in the eyes of the Zoom meeting.”

Sources believe that it will make no difference to colleagues’ perceptions of Barton as they will all spend the entire meeting either staring at their own image or going on their phone out of shot.