Crying Woman Told She’s Not ‘Cut Out For Corporate Life’ After Complaining That She Was Asked To Work Nights & Weekends
“Toxic corporate culture is not made for this generation.”
Chay_Tee / Shutterstock.com Younger generations are questioning what a healthy work-life balance truly looks like. Unfortunately, old habits die hard and changing the ideals of hustle culture will take time and a lot of pushback.
It’s exactly what Mary, a young corporate tech employee, lamented in a recent TikTok video. “They’re blaming their ‘low-level’ employees for things their leadership teams aren’t doing. It’s too much. It’s embarrassing,” she said of her current corporate job, after stressing about a call with leadership that took a turn.
A corporate tech employee was told by her company’s VP that she wasn’t working hard enough because she didn’t work ‘nights and weekends.’
“Well, I’m still employed, but at what cost?” she started in a follow-up to her first video. “I’m just going to be honest because I’m sure a lot of other people have felt this way. These corporate jobs have got to stop treating us like we’re just animals or robots.”
Despite increasing discourse about the importance of work-life balance and professional boundaries, many employees, including Mary, are struggling to find peace in their corporate and professional roles.
Whether facing a toxic workplace environment or being overworked and underpaid, many corporate employees are losing hope in the dream of “stability, comfort, and happiness” they were sold when choosing to pursue a career. Their 9-to-5s have turned into 7-to-7s — for many, even that isn’t enough time to meet impossible corporate expectations.
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“We spend the majority of our lives here,” Mary said, “and to not even ask us anything personal, like where we live, but to immediately start criticizing … it’s demoralizing and dehumanizing.”
“To say that the expectation is to work weekends and nights,” she added, “like, I have nothing left to give.”
After crying while giving an update, a commenter said she ‘wasn’t cut out for corporate life’ to which Mary passionately disagreed.
“There were a few comments under [my video] that were similar to this … that I’m not made for corporate life,” she said. “Well, then, who is made for corporate? People who are okay with getting [expletive] on day after day?”
“If you look at companies like Google, where I used to work … back in the day they were so successful because they were hiring such diverse people and making the workspace match them and treating them like adults. So, maybe you don’t think that I’m made for corporate … but my Amazon and Google jobs and graduate degree say otherwise.”
These age-old corporate expectations that burn out employees — staying late, making work your entire identity, and putting a company’s needs above your own — are now being challenged. It’s Mary's experience and many others in younger generations that are adamantly challenging the struggles that older professionals have dealt with for ages.
The only difference between those struggles and the ones of recent years is that younger generations aren’t being paid enough to survive when they do make it home from work.
“So, I’d say that I’m just not meant for a job where I’m put down constantly and undervalued,” Mary said. “All I’m saying is that if you don’t fit the corporate mold, it’s not you.”
Most corporate cultures perpetuate a toxic environment, filled to the brim with overworked employees, unrealistic expectations, and poor work-life balance.
It’s what feeds that nagging “Sunday Scaries” feeling and knots up your stomach on your ride to work in the morning — a toxic workplace culture. It’s not normal, or at the very least, it shouldn’t be normal. Not only do toxic workplace cultures filled with impossible expectations, poor leadership, and misguided goals drive away employees, but they also traumatize them.
If you’ve ever worked a professional or corporate job with a similar culture, you know just how difficult it can be to transition into something new. Even if it’s healthier and more forgiving, you carry that anxiety, stress, and fear with you.
Gen Z and even some young millennials are starting to recognize that their experiences, with the exception of a few lucky ones, are not normal. Corporate life and your job shouldn’t have to be your entire life — your entire identity — or drain you when you return home.
You deserve grace, flexibility, comfort, and happiness without having to sacrifice your livelihood.
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a News & Entertainment Writer at YourTango who focuses on health & wellness, social policy, and human interest stories.