Workers are partaking in a new social media trend. They are filming themselves being laid off from their jobs and posting the exchange on TikTok.
Brittany Pietsch, a San Francisco technology worker, posted a clip of herself being laid off at cybersecurity company Cloudflare in January. The video was viewed by millions of people across social media platforms and inspired other workers to share their own experiences in real-time.
“I have, like, really given my whole energy and life over the last four months to this job, and to be let go for no reason is like a huge slap in the face from a company that I really wanted to believe in,” Pietsch told Cloudflare representatives in the video.
@brittanypeachhh When you know youre about to get laid off so you film it 🙂 this was traumatizing honestly lmao #layoffs #tech #techlayoffs #corporate
On TikTok, workers across various industries share their experiences — from fast-food restaurants to teaching and office jobs.
“We’re seeing it across every industry,” Jason Dorsey, the author of “Zconomy” and the president of the Center for Generational Kinetics, told CBS News. “The vast majority of the time that we’re seeing it is real. People are filming getting laid off, they’re filming walking out, they’re taking the snacks on their way out.”
The trend echoes companies laying off thousands of employees across the tech, media and retail industries over the past year. As these layoffs are now happening to workers in their own homes instead of in an office, they are feeling empowered to share the experience on social media as a way to find support.
“What’s important is that many of the young people we see that post this on TikTok — remember, they’ve grown up on TikTok. They shared their setbacks, they’ve shared their breakthroughs — it could be a break up with somebody, it could be getting into college,” Dorset added. “For many of them, [it’s] the very first time they’ve ever been laid off. So of course they want everybody to know and then wait for the feedback to tell them whether or not it was the right decision.”
Some experts warn that sharing such videos may be in violation of severance agreements and backfire against the worker.
“Generally speaking, such moves are a double-edged sword. The literature on whistleblowers, a more extreme form of publicly sharing bad practices, shows that people get stigmatized for doing so,” Ben Voyer, an ESCP Business School professor told Business Insider. “Generally, society doesn’t reward people that engage in behaviors that some may see as a betrayal. Pushing such content online is a way to get moral support on the one hand, and a little revenge on the other hand.”
Others highlight that the trend speaks to a larger movement of workers being empowered to hold companies accountable and strengthening employee solidarity. It mirrors the recent employee strikes and unionization efforts in the United States.
“The public sharing of layoff experiences on platforms like TikTok reflects a shift towards greater transparency and a desire to share personal stories in a digital world,” Farah Sharghi, a San Francisco-based tech recruiter, told BBC. “It also underscores the emotional and professional impact of corporate decisions on individuals. It’s one thing to talk about being laid off – it’s another to experience it with the person being impacted as it’s happening to them in real-time.”
She adds that posting such videos can shift the blame towards the company while noting that the layoff has more to do with a company-wide initiative than a result of the employee’s overall performance.
“The company [may try] to shift the blame of the layoff onto the employee — when in reality, if it’s a mass layoff, it could either be the failing of leadership or a shift in technology that’s driving change,” Sharghi added. “These videos are exposing the failings of companies.”
