“#Jesigns”: in the United States, a TikTok trend in the image of a post-Covid world of employment

Published on : 11/19/2021 – 10:11Modified : 11/24/2021 – 10:48

According to our Observer in the United States, it was the Covid-19 pandemic that made it possible to better understand the value of work, the futility of the “metro-work-sleep” and the corporate culture, as well as the importance of finding a work-life balance, after suffering years of stagnant wages despite inflation.

“People are now taking back control of their lives” “

Allison Peck quit her job as a program manager in August, largely because she didn’t want to return to the office after starting telecommuting during the pandemic. She has since found a new job, which allows her to work from home. A new life that she shares via videos on TikTok.

With the Covid, I started teleworking from home, and I discovered that I loved it. I no longer had to waste my time traveling to work and could make time to hit the gym in the morning and make daytime medical appointments if I needed to. So when my job asked me to come back, I realized I didn’t want to go back to the office. So I found a job that allowed me to work from home, much more suited to my new needs.

When we were all sentenced to work from home in quarantine at the start of the pandemic, many people lost their jobs because production collapsed. But now everything is starting up again. People are going back to work, but they are not going back to the same work as before the crisis. Some people who worked for the same company for decades were really mistreated or even fired during the pandemic. These people are now taking back control of their lives. Their relationship to work is changing.

I think a lot of people have come to realize with the pandemic that life is short and precious. So now they want to prioritize their life rather than their work. I see a lot of people making videos on TikTok that stress the importance of understanding your own worth in this job search process, and not taking the first job that comes along.

Large companies will soon have to offer very competitive salaries to retain their employees. The company I currently work for offers unlimited paid time off. I’ve never seen this before, and love it! They even give me meal tickets every week. Companies must now be imaginative in the benefits they offer, because salary alone is no longer enough.

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“These departures could have a lasting effect”

This should come as no surprise to Anthony Klotz, a professor of management at A&M University in Texas. He had announced the arrival of the “Great Resignation” in May, duringan interview with Bloomberg, regarding a possible spike in job rotations. The editorial staff of France 24 Observers asked him about the long-term consequences of such a phenomenon.

“There was an accumulation of resignations, between those who retained a position they would have left without the Covid, those who experienced increased levels of burnout, those who had ‘pandemic epiphanies’ leading to change lifestyle, and finally those who just don’t want to go back to an office environment.

During the pandemic, almost everyone was locked in and watched the news a lot – death was everywhere. We know that when people are surrounded by death and disease, they tend to have existential questions, such as: “am I living the best of my life?” Many found out that no, that they were spending 40 to 100 hours a week doing something they didn’t like. This huge collective revelation changed the way they viewed the place of work and brought about sweeping changes in their lives.

I think these departures could really have a lasting effect. Before the pandemic, for most Americans, work was essential and central to who they are, who they are as people. And I believe that place has shrunk, stepped aside, in favor of things like family, hobbies, travel, or whatever is important to them.

Anthony Klotz believes that this new sense of employee control over their own lives has been fueled primarily by social media, which has made people realize that they are not alone. He cautioned, however, about a possible flip side:

Social media has given people the impression that everyone is quitting, but we must not forget that, even if we hit a record number, it concerns a minority of workers. Social media has also normalized the resignation and turned it into something ordinary, when it is a major decision.

The “Great Resignation” was also felt in many European countries, notably in Germany, where 6% of workers left their work for reasons related to Covid, according to a recent study by the HR company SD Worx . According to the same study, this concerns 4.7% of the British and 2.3% of the French.

Nonetheless, it is a darker picture that looms in developing countries, where many people have lost their jobs due to the pandemic. In Latin America and the Caribbean, for example, 26 million people lost their jobs last year, during the virtual shutdown of the economy linked to Covid, according to a study by the International Labor Office.