TikTok's role in unveiling Workplace Truths

Welcome to this week’s edition to all 12,345 of you! 👋 

This week, I’m focusing on how Social Media, and TikTok in particular, is helping lift the lid on corporate culture, as well as helping GenZ share their experiences with their peers.

This is a fast-growing trend that on one hand gives more information and power to employees, and on the other, needs corporates to be more accountable.

We’ll cover:

• Why there’s a big need for information about workplaces to make good choices

• All of the Social Networks, Communities, and websites that provide salary data, reviews

• Focus on TikTok with trends in sharing employees being laid off, or quitting which went viral last week

• Bonus feature on the most cringe-worthy and worrying Corporate ‘RTO’ video I’ve ever seen

Let’s dive in! 👇🏼

There used to be a time when organizations would be a complete black box: unless you knew someone working there, you had no chance to know what it was like. You had to rely solely on your experience in the hiring process and trust both what was being said, as well as your gut.

A famous quote:

Here's why:

• 36% of hiring managers say they've lied to candidates about the role or company during the hiring process.

• 92% of hiring managers who lie to candidates say they've had

There's a great saying in Italy that goes 'Don't ask the innkeeper if his wine is good' which gets the point across very well.

Switching to 2024, even if we still have a long way to go, you can turn to these resources, all based on Social Networks or Social Media:

Job Salary Data - I love these because they come to the aid of employees in salary negotiations and promotion conversations. Depending on the specific culture, generally speaking, money is a big taboo, but this is changing. These sites (think of levels.fyi) usually have some first-party information but mostly depend on anonymous inputs and are super helpful to categorize according to industry, seniority levels, geographic locations, and so on. Great touch with the 'Get Paid, Not Played!' payoff (did I just make a perfect pun?) right there.

Layoff Trackers - Another great one (layoffs.fyi), sadly very 'actual' at the moment, with big-tech companies being on post-pandemic layoff sprees. Debunks the myth that some companies are 'safe havens' and helps make informed decisions, especially in startups if you don't find funding data (i.e. another way to understand if the company is 'healthy'). You get useful information like specific locations, departments, size of the layoff, company stage, and even potentially a list of employees impacted so you can reach out directly.

Company and Job Reviews - Maybe the oldest, GlassDoor has been a pioneer in 'opening up' reviews about the workplace. "Find the job that deserves you" is a nice payoff, I must admit. Here you can find employees rating their jobs and CEOs with star ratings, specific categories, and free-form comments. Now, we all know that user reviews are not always reliable (thanks TripAdvisor!) and I don't think there's a way for GlassDoor to a) verify that the person has worked there (correct me if I'm wrong) but even more importantly, you're relying on a subjective and specific experience that may, or not apply to you. Regardless, if there's a good number of ratings, you can have more directional confidence.

Online Communities - Surely a ton of private Discord servers or WhatsApp groups are going on in companies, but the most interesting to me is Blind which is an anonymous Social Network/Community (think Reddit-style) where people just share which company they're from and discuss work-related issues and benchmark against each other.

TikTok - Yep, you read that right. Facebook and Instagram haven't been used for this purpose, probably for their initial reliance on images and text but most likely for their 'older' audiences. GenZ has found in TikTok their community and it's taken only a few to open up the way for total transparency and sharing of work experience on all possible levels. Just to name a few:

1. Hiring - I covered this in the article on how TikTok is replacing Linkedin for GenZ, with candidates using their creativity for 'alternative' resumes, looking for jobs, and more.

1. "A Day in the Job" - These have been particularly popular during the pandemic, but also a huge boomerang for some organizations because most videos portray employees mostly doing little work and enjoying office/company perks. Huge backlash ("One glance at TikTok and you see videos of 'the day in the life of a Meta product manager' who attends 1 meeting and drinks coffee all day while doing 0 work was a very clear sign as to how bloated these firms became.") and consequent (?) trimmings at some of these companies. Leaving the 'bad' part for a second, these videos can be pretty useful (remember, it's not the tool - it's how you use it) for depicting real-life experiences (not just the Silicon Valley offices) so I think this could and should be a growing trend with the right guardrails.

1. Layoff and Quitting Experiences - Ok, so we all should know about the famous TikTok video that 'launched the Quiet Quitting trend back in 2022; a clear example of how Social Media has been a place for venting and being candid about feelings. Other notable trends have been people recording themselves in real-time when they're quitting their jobs (#quittok is the hashtag) – filming their departures on a live Zoom call, or documenting the second they turn in a letter of resignation. The most recent viral video has been from a young sales executive at Cloudflare, filming the whole experience of her being laid off which showed a really bad performance from the company and got millions of views. Here’s the video if you haven’t seen it yet:

@alexyardigans

#BrittanyPietsch #Cloudflare #Layoff

This forced a response from the company's CEO, who said 'Firing is normal, but we got the communication wrong'.

Last, but not least, company videos and internal communications are being shared.

Best example?

WebMD's RTO (return to the office)video recently went viral, thanks to its richness in clichés mocking people working from home and threatening employees who refuse to return to the office. Plenty of cringe-worthy materials too; love this graphic of a Google Meet signaling no one is connected, but you'll find plenty more, but also the vending machines, and much more. Now today's topic is not discussing these mandates, but more how this type of communication can quickly get out there and totally ruin the company's reputation and even worse, hiring 'attractiveness'.

Here it is:

Going back to our main topic: why is all of this happening?

GenZ has grown up as digital natives, used to share every milestone of their life online. It's how they've learned to be in the world. If you grow up used to recording and sharing things, why wouldn't you share these larger, more significant moments in time?

Another reason is that this generation watched their parents struggle in corporate jobs during the 2008 economic crash, and some of these young people are mired in student debt with low-paying jobs themselves. They’ve also had their early work experiences shaped by COVID-19, with the youngest workers never even having stepped foot inside an office. There's a widespread feeling of betrayal (directed towards companies, but could be broader in terms of life uncertainty) and at the same time, a need for sharing and engaging with peers about it.

Leaving for a second the 'legal' aspect aside (There was no consent from the other parties being recorded) the broader trend we can see here is that there's more transparency around what happens inside organizations. It's a good thing. It's not just about whistleblowing against malicious practices, it's about employees having more information about where they may end up spending an important portion of their lives, as well as getting organizations to go beyond fluffy mission statements and holding them responsible for their actions publicly. The sad truth is that many times, whether it's intentional or 'sloppy' management behavior or decisions, there is little or no accountability if consequences stay isolated just to the few employees impacted.

Companies can prevent this by having open communication with employees, transparency, and accountability. But most of them know this is the solution, it's just tough to accept it. I can't say how many times I've witnessed conversations where it was clear that management simply did not want to accept the truth, and found alternative ways to read what was being asked for. It takes courage, energy, and a small ego to accept criticism, or see beyond employee frustration and look for and solve for the root causes. So we often choose the shortcut: ignore it, or push it back.

Social Media and GenZ's willingness to put this out there can change this, for the better, and that's why also organizations want to push for AI: the moment they can get rid of human complexity, the more they can have full control and remove emotions out of the equation.