In recent years, Americans have seen the reversal of employee-centric policies that were implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic. As the economy worsened and interest rates soared, employers regained the power and footing they had temporarily lost during the Great Resignation—a time when employees were leaving in droves, chasing higher salaries and work-life balance, while companies were left battling in the war for talent.
When employers started to regain power, they would call for workers to return to the office, even though their businesses flourished when employees worked from home. They would pull back on employee perks and benefits. From mid-2022 to about early 2024 and on, we witnessed workers being laid off in cold, harsh-one way calls, with employers lacking empathy as these workers were about to lose their livelihoods. Employees began recording themselves getting fired without any explanations or data to show why they were being separated from the payroll.
All while this was happening, TikTok saw a meteoric rise. In addition to dancing, people started to use the app to expose their bosses, share their job search frustrations, workplace injustices and advocate for themselves and their fellow workforce—and thus a movement was started.
On the app, TikTok influencers regularly share career advice, giving life to viral workplace trends like quiet quitting, acting your wage, bare minimum Mondays and more. They center around the themes of knowing your worth and sticking it to your boss.
While the TikTokers may be well-intentioned, there is some advice on the platform that could be detrimental to your career, if taken.
I urge you to practice discernment when receiving tips from TikTok influencers, as some may lack real, in-depth knowledge when it comes to hiring and career and money management.
Here are some common pieces of bad advice that circulate on TikTok.
Do The Least Amount Of Work
People are tired of working dead-end jobs, being paid low wages that fail to meet rising costs, and feeling unappreciated at work and resentful over being required to put in more hours and take on additional tasks that were not in the job description. It’s a soul-crushing feeling that they are living to work rather than working to live.
TikTokers can be very cavalier when they tell people to engage in quiet quitting, acting their wage and doing the bare minimum.
The prevailing sentiment is that it’s safer to stay put in their jobs and continue earning a paycheck, while biding their time and taking a wait-and-see approach until the job market swings in their favor again.
However, these nice-to-hear bromides could sabotage your career. If you blindly follow the advice to work less hours, act disengaged and not care about your job, it may not end well for you.
You can get away with doing the bare minimum in a hot job market. Managers will put up with it, as they know it will be exceedingly hard to find a replacement. But in a slowing job market for white-collar professionals, while you are quietly quitting, your boss may be quietly firing you. You risk being targeted for downsizing.
It’s completely understandable to feel exploited and unfairly treated in your job. Given all that individuals have faced in recent years, it’s perfectly reasonable to seek time for relaxation and to prioritize self-care.
With self-care should come self-preservation. If your mental health is declining and you feel burned out, speak with your manager. Let them know how you feel. Discuss why you are feeling disengaged. Work together to come up with a solution. You do not want to risk getting fired and having to explain why in future job interviews.
Frequently Switch Jobs
While it’s possible to increase your salary by changing jobs, constantly jumping ship, as advised by TikTokers, can negatively impact your future employability. With frequent job switches and short stints at each company, you may be able to earn more money with each move. However, it will come back to bite you in the long run.
Historically, if an applicant’s résumé shows that they have had a few moves within one to two years, the hiring firm views the candidate as a “job hopper.” To an employer, a job hopper is considered a flight risk, and the hiring manager will pass on that person and look for other candidates who possess longer tenures on their résumés.
Additionally, if a prospective job offers a 10% raise, the pay bump may not be very meaningful after taxes. So, you have to ask yourself if it’s worth being perceived as a “job hopper” for only a slight salary increase? Is a minimal rise in pay worth leaving an employer that may offer better job satisfaction, work-life balance and opportunity for growth?
Moreover, on TikTok, there’s a tendency to oversimplify the job search and interview process. In this hiring environment, it is not as easy to make a job switch, as the process is taking much longer than it did during the Great Resignation. Some employers will have you jumping through hurdles, only to ghost you after 10 interviews.
Before you engage in a job search, do your own research. Is the job market in your industry or sector hot or cold? Could you get hired at a particular company, only to be laid off within your first three months because the organization is financially struggling? Know what you are getting yourself into.
Get Rich Quick
Some influencers will promote unrealistic expectations without offering the fine print of the time, effort, money and level of risk it takes to achieve a certain level of success. They’ll often push you to pursue a side hustle or entrepreneurship that will allegedly help you get rich quick and build out your social media empire. These promises tend to come with an offering to buy their coursework or products to build out your inventory and business.
To achieve wealth, they espouse the virtues of “hustle” culture. They draw you in with the possibility of hitting it big, showing you their fancy houses, cars and screenshots of their monthly income, but are quiet about the requirements to get there or how they financially benefit from recruiting you to their team.
You want to be cognizant of multi-level marketing schemes, which are prominently featured on the app. In an MLM system, members are encouraged to sell a company’s offerings and recruit new participants. Distributors earn commissions not only from their own sales but also from the sales made by their recruits, forming a hierarchical structure often referred to as a “downline.”
While many MLMs operate legally, they can sometimes resemble pyramid schemes, which are illegal. MLMs can be risky when you have to purchase inventory, especially if it doesn’t sell. You’re then left with unsold products and out-of-pocket expenses, which can lead to significant financial losses. Some people are unaware of this risk when they enter this business model.
Rage Apply
If you are feeling overlooked, unappreciated, passed over for a promotion and unfairly compensated, TikTokers tout applying to dozens or hundreds of jobs to extricate yourself from your current employer.
However, shotgunning your résumé to every online job advertisement you come across isn’t a winning plan. While it might seem like casting a wide net would increase your chances of getting a new position, applying to irrelevant jobs can waste your time and energy, as well as portray you as an impulsive “spammer,” which can sully your reputation and brand.
When hiring, employers desire a candidate who is motivated to work in this particular role at this particular company, as opposed to just wanting any job they can get. When a person is not discerning in their job applications, it conveys to hiring managers that this person is running away from a bad situation at their current job, only chasing the compensation or just trying to align with the prestige of the organization.
Source: Forbes
