The 16 Best Work Pants Do All the Heavy Lifting for You

It’s time to seriously reconsider your relationship to work. Work is no longer throwing out your back scaling the side of the house "just to see" about those fallen shingles before you get the roofer's appraisal. Work is no longer cosplaying as a plumber while you tinker with the leaky faucet in the bathroom. Hell, work is no longer logging in remotely hunched over an uncomfortable chair in the kitchen to do the job you used to do used hunched over an uncomfortable chair in the office.

The pandemic upended all that. Work is everything now. Waking up in the morning is work. Watching the news is work. Falling asleep at night is work. Taking the kids to Pre-K (even, and perhaps especially, if Pre-K is in the living room)? Work. Making the sort of polite small talk you used to enjoy with the neighbor down the hall who now appears suspiciously sans mask every time you see him? Work. Keeping your mouth shut while your cousin goes off—yet again!—about the "left wing protestors" in the family group chat? Work. Most definitely work.

Let's face it: you ain't cut out for all of it. But your pants can be. *Cue comfortingly upbeat voiceover* Okay, before we veer too far into detergent informercial territory, it's important to note that I'm, like, half joking here. You probably knew that already. But the reality is, the sheer amount of shit you put up with on an everyday basis calls for the type clothing that can take a beating without you having to give it more than a second's thought, which, if you're a stylistically inclined type of dude, really is one less thing to worry about.

Everything is work now. Deciding which pair of pants to wear shouldn't be.