Over the last five years, TikTok has cemented its place as a social media powerhouse— and the platform is no longer reserved for dance challenges and lip-syncing. It’s a place where people discuss and dissect different aspects of their lives from weight loss and dating to intimate details of their career journeys and professional lives.
When it comes to work culture, TikTok has changed the dynamic in both subtle and obvious ways. Millennials and Gen Z in particular feel more free to express their attitudes in the workplace, which has opened the floodgates to dialogues that before social media, had never taken place at such a mass scale.
From the rise of “Lazy Girl Jobs” and “Quiet Quitting” to “Loud Laboring,” viral trends are actually reshaping and revolutionizing the workplace. Here’s a better look at what these trending Internet topics are and how they can affect your office “IRL.”
Lazy Girl Jobs: Embracing the Work-Life Balance
Despite its name, the “Lazy Girl Jobs” trend is not as simple as slacking off at work. Instead, the movement refers to a growing number of individuals who prioritize the work-life balance over the traditional 9 to 5 grind.
TikTok users have been sharing their stories about finding flexible, remote, or part-time jobs that allow them to pursue their passions and interests outside of work.
This trend is affecting the workplace by bringing to light the importance of flexibility and employee well-being. Because of this shared mindset— largely facilitated by the online world— companies are now reevaluating their approach to work, offering remote options and emphasizing outcomes over hours logged.
The “Lazy Girl Jobs” trend has shown that happy employees can be more productive and engaged, ultimately benefiting both workers and employers. At a minimum, it allows people to reimagine what work has to look like, and that can be a really powerful thing.
Quiet Quitting: The Art of Subtle Resignation
If you’re on social media, odds are you’ve heard of “quiet quitting.” The TikTok trend gives name to the age-old phenomenon of doing the bare minimum— quitting without actually quitting.
Quiet quitting is when an employee consistently puts in low effort; this can look like not speaking up in meetings, not volunteering for additional tasks, and refusing to work overtime, all the while taking home the same paycheck.
The idea is that while there may be no reason to promote you, there are also no grounds to fire you— you’re ok with just cruising by, especially if your current job is just a way of staying financially afloat while you look for a different gig. And quiet quitters are everywhere; in fact, a Gallup study shows that quiet quitters make up as much as 50% of the workforce.
By giving the phenomenon a name, it’s become all the more imperative for companies to find ways to keep employees engaged and invested in their goals. For a lot of workplaces, this has meant offering more professional development opportunities and fostering a culture of communication to prevent their staff from quietly resigning.
The uglier side of this, however, looks like quiet cutting. Quiet cutting often looks like reassigning an employee to a new role within the current company, telling them that the job they had before is now cut, and they can move to another job as a part of an organizational restructuring.
Why? So companies can cut jobs and trim costs without actually laying anyone off. This, of course, can leave employees feeling confused, or worse, scared that their reassignment is only a teaser for their layoff.
Regardless of what approach companies take, the quiet quitting discourse online has definitely made people more aware of more subtle work dynamics. And whether you’re on the employer or employee side, it’s worth paying attention.
Loud Laboring: Toxic Work Cultures
Loud laboring has always existed, but it didn’t always have a catchy name (thanks, Gen Z).
Unlike quiet quitters who are often trying to stay under the radar, loud laborers are more concerned with publicizing their efforts than they are in the actual work itself. This kind of self-promotion can be detrimental to a workplace if it goes unchecked.
If you’re a manager, look out for the employee who never seems to accomplish much, yet is always talking about how swamped they are and how much they were able to get done on any given day.
If higher-ups fail to recognize, or worse, reward loud laborers, it creates a kind of workplace dynamic that demotivates quieter (or just more humble and more hard-working) employees who sense an environment of unfair competition.
Thankfully, TikTok’ers have identified, named, and poked fun at this behavior so much that it has already become a social misstep to loud labor. Millennials and Gen Z have come to the consensus online that the office is not a place to self-promote; leave that for salary negotiation meetings and one-on-ones with managers.
Bridging the Gap
TikTok trends are not just for the younger generation— when it comes to work culture, they have the ability to bridge generational gaps and foster important conversations that were once seen as taboo.
Opening the dialogue about things like work habits, salary expectations, and company culture gives the everyday employees power, and in turn, forces companies to reconsider practices that were once seen as routine.
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