LinkedIn and 3rd parties use essential and non-essential cookies to provide, secure, analyze and improve our Services, and to show you relevant ads (including professional and job ads) on and off LinkedIn. Learn more in our Cookie Policy.
Select Accept to consent or Reject to decline non-essential cookies for this use. You can update your choices at any time in your settings.
Gone are the days when TikTok was merely used to try out the latest dance challenge. Now there’s a whole corner of the app, “CareerTok”, dedicated to discussing career trends and sharing real-life employment horror stories. With over 250 million videos currently on TikTok discussing some of the biggest career trends in 2024, is it time for employers to start taking TikTok seriously?
Forbes argues that ‘viral trends are actually reshaping and revolutionizing the workplace,’ with Gen Z leading the charge in openly discussing work-related topics online, that have previously been considered “hush hush” or taboo.
In fact, the platform is becoming such an influential source, ‘nearly 1 in 10 say they trust TikTok more than parents [and] colleagues for career advice’ and almost half (41%) of users ‘have made a career-related decision based on TikTok advice’ reveals a recent survey.
Photo by cottonbro studio
What topics are being discussed on #CareerTok and why should employers care?
Quiet Quitting: This refers to when an employee intentionally “checks out” and essentially puts in the bare minimum effort for an extended period of time before eventually leaving their role. A wider discourse is happening around this as historically marginalised workers feel it’s an essential survival tactic in the face of persistent bias like microaggressions.
Act Your Wage: The ‘act your wage’ trend means only putting in as much effort as you believe your salary level deserves, rather than going above and beyond to impress the higher powers that be. It’s not exactly a new phenomenon, but it does have a shiny new slang name.
Rage Applying: SMETodaysays that ‘rage applying’ is ‘when you apply to as many jobs as possible as a reaction to typically building frustration or having a bad day at work. As society becomes ever more digital, we’re seeing an increase in the number of unhappy employees rage quitting.’
Lazy Girl Jobs: Put simply, a ‘lazy girl job’ is any low-stress, fully remote career which isn’t demanding, whilst still - very importantly - offering a good salary. And Creators are recommending them on TikTok.
Quit-Tok: Perhaps the most damaging trend for employers, #QuitTok refers to the rising trend of employees posting videos of secretly recorded (or retellings of) them resigning or being laid off, for the world to see online. Take creator, ‘Anti Work Girlboss’ (note the name) as a prime example of this - she garnered over 2 million views on her real-life recording of herself quitting her ‘lazy girl job’ earlier this year.
Photo by Mikhail Nilov
So, what should employers do?
Stop avoiding the issue: Employers can no longer dismiss TikTok (or any social media for that matter) as irrelevant to the working world. Anyone with a smartphone, including your current employees, can be a creator and your company could be the next to go viral. Not in a good way.
Keep your finger on the pulse: It’s important to stay sharp on CareerTok trends. If a topic is going viral on TikTok, it’s likely that it matters to your staff, too.
Lean in and adapt: The best employers are the ones willing to learn and adapt. Be open to change, consistently review your policies, and have an open dialogue with your team. Even if you can’t make an immediate change, they will respect you more for addressing the issue and being transparent.
You don’t want to risk losing your best talent just because you’re scared of addressing certain topics. As Forbes says, ‘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.’
Have feedback for the newsletter, or want to suggest a topic for us to cover? Hit reply or jump into the comments.
This is super interesting! Thank you so much for sharing. We cannot ignore the power of TikTok across so many different areas, not only does it seem to be challenging Amazon, your article and reference points have really highlighted it's challenges to LinkedIn too!
This is super interesting! Thank you so much for sharing. We cannot ignore the power of TikTok across so many different areas, not only does it seem to be challenging Amazon, your article and reference points have really highlighted it's challenges to LinkedIn too!