What #worktok teaches us about the employee mindset

Personal broadcasting platform of choice TikTok allows users to record short videos and share them with the world. It currently sports around a billion monthly users.

Since the early days of the pandemic, the hashtag #worktok (as well as #careertok) has become exceedingly popular. Thousands of employees are using the hashtag to share their feelings about the world of work – largely through short comedy sketches which have been igniting conversations and collecting somewhere in the region of half a billion views on TikTok.

It’s highly likely that many of us don’t share real emotions in the workplace, either on-site or remotely. #worktok videos can be seen as public journals as users share how they feel about their roles, work environment, co-workers and managers. 

From the camera-on/camera-off quandaries of video calls, the stress of sudden check-ins by needy middle managers to the blurring of work and home life, these videos illuminate the friction of toiling away in the new normal during a period where all of us had to make so many adjustments to the way we work.

A common thread through the content on #worktok is the hope that the two years of employee flexibility forced on us the pandemic is actually here to stay, with the latter half of work-life balance given more importance. But it is also shining a light on some of the aspects of corporate culture, like executive jargon and meetings for the sake of meetings that has become easier to poke fun at from people who have spent quality time away from HQ.

So, how will business owners react to #worktok? Spending a little time scanning over this irreverent content could give you a pretty good sense of how your staff, especially the younger cohorts, really feel. Once you have stepped into their shoes, managing them may come a little easier.