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Young woman sitting on a bench (symbolic image).
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The younger generation speaks publicly about layoffs and unemployment.
And I don't want to be put under pressure to do any job.
A layoff is typically a private experience: an HR representative breaks the news to an employee who may be shocked or upset.
But last month, Brittany Pietsch, a young account executive at tech company Cloudflare, made public the conversation in which she learned she was losing her job.
“Enjoy the trauma!
:),” reads the beginning of a 9-minute video posted to TikTok that shows the emotional rollercoaster of Pietsch’s conversation with human resources representatives she had never met before.
Pietsch is frustrated when she is told that she has not met performance expectations.
She says she got good reviews from her manager and pushes for an explanation as to why she is being fired.
Many companies are laying off their employees, especially in the USA
"It must be very easy for you to have these 10- or 15-minute conversations, tell someone they're fired, destroy their whole life and that's it," Pietsch tells human resources representatives in the video.
For her, it felt “like a slap in the face.”
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Cloudflare did not immediately respond to a
Washington Post
request for comment.
Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince said on he wasn’t efficient.”
As thousands of workers in the technology, media and financial industries have been laid off in recent months, videos like Pietsch's continue to emerge in which young people speak openly about their unemployment.
The young workers say they find catharsis and connection in recounting the devastation the layoffs have wrought on their finances and mental health.
They complain about the impersonal nature of job hunting in the age of artificial recruiters and are also willing to leave work that doesn't fulfill them.
Unemployment used to be something shameful
Their openness represents a significant change from the shame and silence that previously accompanied unemployment.
While some have criticized these workers as naive to the realities of the job market, experts say the impulse to share is helping young workers process a painful aspect of working life.
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"There are a lot of benefits to having people say, 'Hey, this is what the world of work actually looks like,'" says Morgan Sanner, a Gen Z expert in Columbus, Ohio, who also works in human resources.
“It gave people the opportunity to feel less alone in the company.”
Almost immediately, Pietsch's post sparked outrage and recognition online.
Some praised Pietsch, who did not respond to the Post's request for comment, for sharing her experience and shamed the company for its impersonal approach to layoffs.
Others argued that releasing the video, which has already been viewed over 2 million times, could damage Pietsch's career.
According to labor market experts, publishing complaints online could cause further problems.
In some states, for example, it's illegal to film people without their consent, explains Chambord Benton-Hayes, an employment lawyer in Oakland, California.
“An employee who feels they have been treated unfairly may feel that it would be helpful to use social media to communicate the firing process,” Benton-Hayes said in an email to The
Post.
“I would not normally recommend that my clients record their dismissal process unless they suspected illegal behavior and wanted to prove it.”
Andrew Roth, founder and CEO of Gen Z consulting firm dcdx, said workers in his generation are particularly uncomfortable with the uncertainty that is pervasive amid layoffs and the many changes brought on by the pandemic.
“When a lot of things are out of our control, it becomes a much more daunting process,” Roth said.
Suddenly unemployed – young TikToker doesn’t want to go “hunting”.
On Instagram, Chloe Shih, who worked for Discord, cataloged her growing unease as job cuts swept through the tech industry earlier this year.
Last month, Discord announced it was cutting 17 percent of its staff, or about 170 positions.
“Twitch just announced major layoffs, it scares me,” she said on Jan. 11, referring to another company thinning its ranks.
“It is what it is, no one is safe.”
The next day, she videotaped herself reacting to the news that she had lost her job with wide eyes and hands over her mouth.
“Holy [expletive], dude.
Is this what I'm supposed to do?" Shih did not respond to requests for comment from
The Post
.
Generation Z, poised to become the third-largest age group in the workforce this year, and younger Millennials are more likely to experience work-related burnout than older generations, according to 2022 Gallup data.
According to the Gallup report, workers who experience significant burnout are more likely to leave their jobs.
Shortly before Christmas, Piper Phillips left a job that she loved and for which she had no other prospects.
For more than a year, the 23-year-old had enjoyed working remotely as the marketing director for a start-up company in New York City.
But after a work trip where she enjoyed the company of her colleagues at meetings, happy hours, and dinners, she decided she wanted to work in person.
The day before she quit, Phillips wrote in her journal and promised herself not to stress about the job search.
Instead of desperately “hunting” for a job, she framed the process as more of a carefree “job shopping.”
She wanted to explore the possibilities and find something suitable, she explained on TikTok, where she documented her search.
“If I'm in a positive mood, I'll have an easier time finding a job than if I'm in an unhappy situation,” Phillips told
The Post.
Pandemic has made forming relationships impossible
Phillips knows that leaving her old role is a "great privilege" and that not everyone can be picky (she had savings to fall back on and uses the money she makes from TikTok toward her rent) .
She's heard from many people that quitting her old job was "ridiculous" and told her that work "shouldn't be fun."
But what she has heard most from are other young workers who feel encouraged by her positive attitude when looking for work.
"I got so many comments: 'Oh my God, I did that too and it was the best thing I could have done,' or 'I wish I could do that,'" Phillips said.
Many younger workers are struggling to navigate the job market because the pandemic has affected their ability to build relationships, according to career counselor Mimi Gonzalez.
Some are “afraid” to talk to people they don’t know, she said, which makes networking and interviews difficult.
“There are so many young people who have to find their way in this strange world because they didn’t have any help,” Gonzalez said.
But on social media, young workers can find others with whom they can exchange ideas.
Meolah Delinois has been looking for a part-time job that she can start immediately and a summer internship since the fall.
The 22-year-old student in Delaware is frustrated because recruiters reach out and then don't respond for months.
She has repeatedly shown up for virtual interviews only to be turned away.
Although the only non-negotiable for her is the same salary as her last internship, more than 130 applications have yielded nothing.
She had to move back in with her parents.
“I've been working since I was 16 and I've never had as much trouble getting a job as I do now,” Delinois said.
Like Phillips, Delinois also shared her journey to unemployment on TikTok.
In a video she describes how difficult it is not to compare yourself to others.
In another, she portrays a nervous breakdown taken from the TV series “The Bear.”
Something that feels stressful and “a little embarrassing” in person is much easier to share on the social media platform, says Delinois.
Many people have come forward after seeing her TikToks to share their own job search struggles, including close friends who she didn't know were struggling.
“Being able to share it on this app and have lots of different people talk about and relate to their experiences,” Delinois said, “that’s just so powerful.”
About the author
Taylor Telford
is a reporter for The Washington Post covering corporate culture.
We are currently testing machine translations. This article was automatically translated from English into German.
This article was first published in English on February 10, 2024 at the “Washingtonpost.com” - as part of a cooperation, it is now also available in translation to readers of the IPPEN.MEDIA portals.