While it may have once been a trend to quit quietly, a growing trend of doing it louder has started to gain traction on social media, with many dubbing it “Quit-Tok.”
The practice involves unhappy workers deciding to make their feelings known vocally and publicly by sometimes recording and posting their quitting on social media.
But the trend isn’t all it’s cracked up to be for some who say they are facing repercussions for their actions.
Paige, a 24-year-old hospitality worker who decided to quit on TikTok, spoke with Fox News about her experience, sharing that while she felt disrespected and validated in speaking up, she doesn’t look back on her actions fondly.
“It seems like a cool way to show that you have power over others, but the next day I felt like it was stupid,” she shared, adding that “It was not the mature thing to do.”
Neil Costa, the Boston-based founder & CEO of HireClix, also spoke with Fox News about the trend, sharing that the practice of posting videos of you quitting on social media carries a revenge aspect that other employers view as unprofessional.
“This often includes publicly dragging their employers for alleged misconduct in some way,” Costa said. “Similar to a train wreck that you can’t look away from, these videos are so shocking that they’re going viral.”
While it may gain the quitter views and short-term notoriety online, Costa says that the “world of work is much smaller” than some would think.
“As the way we look at work shifts, in terms of blurring the lines between personal and professional, it’s more important than ever for employees to think through the potential long-term repercussions of posting on the internet,” he shared with the outlet.
Last year, workplace consultant Mike Jones, founder of Better Happy, a consulting firm that focuses on employee engagement, echoed this point while speaking with CBS News, sharing that the younger generations should do more to protect themselves and their careers.
“The way in which it’s done needs to be considered,” Jones said. “If it’s done with a bad attitude, that will reflect badly on them in the future, and it’s difficult to make something disappear from the internet. Even if your employer treated you poorly, you’ll have a video of yourself being unprofessional following you the rest of your life.”