#worktok: The surge of venting about the worst of work

Workers across the world have picked up their smartphones to vent about the 9-to-5 on TikTok, the social media app with a billion monthly users.

The app, in which users dive down an infinite scroll of short videos filmed by other users, attracts thousands of workers complaining about and making fun of work and their day jobs, mostly in the form of short comedy sketches filmed on their phones, often set to music and sometimes peppered with explicit language. The videos are filed under the popular hashtag of #worktok (as well as #careertok and simply #work) and are watched by millions.

 The experiences and nuances of corporate life and working in an office are relatable and almost universal.

Whether it's the annoyance of turning cameras on for Zoom calls or the whiplash of sudden check-ins with your boss, no work-related quirk is safe from ridicule.

Many users on #worktok – a tag that has more than a half-billion views – found themselves ending up on TikTok out of lockdown malaise, when their companies implemented remote-work policies more than two years ago.

#worktok shows how so many of us go through the same experiences, regardless of what our jobs are.