Thousands of young professionals are turning their careers into views on TikTok. But what does that mean for the companies they’re working for?
For months, it was hard to open TikTok and not see an aspirational workday vlog, playing up the allegedly cushy, perk-laden workdays of many in white collar industries.
“The genre often includes skin care regimens, eating habits or city-specific excursions,” writes the New York Times. “TikTokers also make day-in-the-life videos of their work lives, deploying the same editing style and careful curation to cast their office jobs in a more flattering light.”
And then, just as glamorous depictions of life in the industry were reaching their zenith, the tech layoffs started.
“The grim reality of the layoffs chip away at the facade of tech employee office vlogs, which frequently showed glamorous corporate perks like catered lunches, campus gym facilities and sponsored happy hours,” writes NBC’s Morgan Sung. “Now, many creators have pivoted to posting raw ― but still curated ― content about unemployment. Others are using their platforms to raise awareness of labour rights in the wake of recent layoffs.”
The videos might put some of those tech firms in a bit of a quandry. Amidst challenges with hiring, glamorous videos were “a powerful way to attract talent,” said one PR consultant. They were, among other things, a way for employees to brag about how good their jobs were.
But live by the sword, die by the sword: those same companies are now characterized with TikToks that portray their approach to layoffs as profit-driven, arbitrary and cold. But don’t expect the videos to go anywhere ― many creators say they plan to keep making them, job or no job. “This is my life now,” said one. “You might as well see it.”
Content written by Kieran Delamont for Worklife, a partnership between Ahria Consulting and London Inc. To view this content in newsletter form, click here.