The Overwhelming Anxiety of Corporate Millennial TikTok
How young people are using wit and dry humor to overcome toxic work culture
When I saw TikTok influencer Rod’s recent video about his morning routine, I breathed a shuddering sigh of dread and relief. With Shania Twain’s “I Feel Like A Woman” playing in the background, Rod gets ready for his day. “Let’s go girls,” he lip-syncs to the song, motioning toward two personalities set to accompany him on his remote office job: “Anxiety about getting fired” and “Addiction to coffee.” “Just one of many guests I have throughout the work day,” the caption reads. Rod looks up at his minions, already exhausted. “Come on,” he says with a resigned sigh.
I had, foolishly and narcissistically, assumed I was the only person I knew filled with the relentless anxiety that I was going to lose my job in one way or another. Any misstep, any small mistake or awkward comment, could result in a manager saying, you know what, I’m over this employee. Bye.
But of course, I’m not. How could I be? Young people — a term I use to encompass both millennial and Gen Z adults under 40 — face job precarity, financial insecurity, and mental health struggles unlike anything seen in decades. Rod’s honest admission to his own neuroses, charmingly cloaked in humor, is a reminder of the many…
