Mushrooms at work
Somewhere deep in the forests and mountains an entirely different life form is hard at work. Various fungi in several forms are busy. Connecting, collaborating and co-working with many types of colleagues, creating stuff.
Somewhere near Kramfors mushrooms are producing resources (ready for extraction) as well as producing themselves, here we offer a glimpse into their work process.
By: J.K. Bergstrand-Doley
![A specter is haunting Europe, the specter of mushrooms(aka. Pilze als Partnern. Mushrooms as managers)](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/aa0460cd3893a2a73b1fbf139290dbaa3b4c228988fd82d1e07d83f00013f9ac/1_mushrooms-in-a-meeting-2.png)
![I am with Jens, we have... like, a meeting](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/919821bd4404bd4c35ed5b953219ee526681e764603e0f44aaf5a8809ad0dff0/2_trees-humans-profit-2.png)
![I would propose we start investing in forest futures. That way we can get some returns on our growth.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8786cfb6c4f0d5ac9ccd845ff90a68daa561fa39d2da73d2a4921d8ec899e70d/coffee-hands-2.png)
![Good morning everyone. My last job was as a compost communist. I think my main weakness is that I am real, but you see me as a specter, a ghost you find in the forest, or sometimes just another leaf. I am shit hot with dead wood, but nobody notices.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fda2bce6ba85fc88ce6b30a84308df814984ede70ba1d96570bba3d43e712521/2_mushroom-office1-2.png)
![Late night. I just undressed in my empty flat, it cost me a fortune! It overlooks a park and has nice old wooden flooring that I have had sanded. I later realized that I live on dead wood. I live on the labour of others. If I have done well for myself, it is by standing on the shoulders of other mushrooms.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/531a97c481c96f0a171ada537a500197415ef162f9a253b53dc0fb7e4f41e1dd/4_living-room-2.png)
![The other day I went on a tinder date. It was a full-on night. I woke up in the morning with a sore patch. It was genital warts. Home office for the next few weeks. I still don't get it... how can a mushroom get a mushroom?](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5a71eb202c26a267ec6c79f82b07046cd472b2aff5947ce07637ca12c389e21b/5_mushroom-office4-2.png)
![It turned out that we both had an obsession for photocopying memes. At the beginning I thought they liked me for my glossy cap but on our second date they confessed that they were more interested in my long mycelium. Now I can't think straight, do they only want me for my fruiting body?](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/72597ae2ca800829b14b57d324fe4be7677e31022fc915ffa6d5b05f93fa89aa/6_smiling-mushroom-2.png)
![At that moment I realized that I am okay with being a personification of mediocracy. My therapist says I'm too hard on myself. But I know I am mediocre. I failed and will fail again. I have therefore started to think outside the box, no more simple chewing on receipts and meme printouts, tomorrow I am heading straight for the top, next job clearing up nuclear spillage! Never mind, I’m still here doing the paperwork, a bored mushroom in a mushroom boardroom.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dc09046d2c3b4d5c34e3fdfe3c7c42c1ca5f2f8206bad35a6b09999fb5c390c3/7_general8-2.png)
![In an online workshop the other day, my HR-manager told us: “it’s often said that ‘data is the new oil.’ Instead, we’d argue that it’s mushrooms that will decide whether businesses succeed”.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/83cf9fc06f939d73ff3aff197cc202e1ff97c464113690f167705f0f18ca8f72/8_general7-2.png)
![Later that night I sneaked into my boss' office. I felt it was time I was recognized as both producer and produced!](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4e0c8945171fc24e88398fde5526624dfaa1081ce09d6a35337e55abee526216/9_mushroom-office3-2.png)
![Of course I could have gone on with my life. I had it all: a lovely flat, mushy peas and keys to a private garden where I grew tomatoes and rucola. But it was when I was lighting the fireplace in the salon that I noticed I had totally fucked up my heart chakra. I began by ripping up my shiny wooden floor boards, getting rid of my cutlery, then the sofa, then the bed. Now I'm all in. No possessions. On my own.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a6ea14268a5a96cacaeffcdc63c0f261b4e210115ab031827182e15c1cd564a8/10_Mushroom-on-own5-2.png)
![Seems like they forget that the worse it gets the more I thrive. They normally only focus on results. They don't see the late-night shifts, the daily grind. My one small victory is working from home on Mondays, which I basically see as a free holiday. I want them to see what really produces me. My boss said, "fungi that invest more in the funeral industry actually outperform their peers over time". I guess I will outperform myself when I am dead and gone. Then I can sip on dead-wood cocktails and finally start taking it easy.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fab902a147999847abebefb41eb248b1c5314f07de44146686eb9e34099c6946/12_mushroom-office5-2.png)
![The following Monday I was hanging out in my home-office, doing nothing. Suddenly I felt a hand grip my body. It slunk over my damp skin. Squeezing my cap. In one brutal cut I was detached from my mycelium. Now I am drying on a radiator, shrinking and crumbling. No more home-office for me. I’ve been extracted.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3a4c9a8f75a1c674676651c486f683d6190d892d69f0e1a6bb22d1ab2b22c6de/13_mushroom-office2-2.png)
![The next day, my boss called me in to a meeting. It turned out I had been demoted, I was no longer needed upstairs they said. My new office was the basement. It was dark and damp. Turned out that I flourish in dark and damp environments. Already in my second week I had tripled my growth forecast. By the time my boss came around again I was bigger then the business.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b9c62f7aa6f35cbc060118d5e8ed1027a64da3adb9276b971b1e81a1346be104/Teams-meeting.png)