qwerty Toronto Job Market 2023: How TikTok Is Influencing Employees

Toronto Job Market 2023: How TikTok Is Influencing Employees

by | Mar 22, 2023

TikTok Workplace Trends Are Influencing the Toronto Job Market 2023 – Here’s What Employers Should Know

Quiet Quitting, Rage Applying, Bare Minimum Monday . . . you may have heard the terms that are shaping the Toronto job market in 2023 (and the job market across Canada and the world). Many of these trends are originating on TikTok. 

With 1.8 billion monthly active users – most of them in their prime working years – TikTok has had an enormous impact on how people view work in 2023.  

As an employer, it’s critical to know what’s out there in the zeitgeist so you can better prepare your workplace to accommodate expectations – and also prevent some of the most potentially deleterious job market trends from hurting your business. 

TikTok Job Trends in 2023

Let’s now examine some of the work trends that are gaining traction across TikTok: 

  • Act Your Wage
  • Antiwork
  • Quiet quitting
  • Ghosting
  • Rage applying
  • Bare Minimum Monday

Act Your Wage

What Is It: Act Your Wage is a term used to describe only doing what is asked of you in your job description – and not going above and beyond. The goal being to avoid workplace exploitation by not providing extra, uncompensated work for employers. 

Reach: The #ActYourWage has gained traction following a number of sketches and posts on the social media platform that exemplified doing only what is explicitly demanded of workers, and not going giving that extra time and effort. The #ActYourWage has had 100s of millions of impressions at this point. 

What It Means for Employers: Employees are increasingly averse to putting in extra efforts due to a perceived lack of incentives and a greater focus on worker exploitation.

Antiwork

What Is It: Antiwork encompasses a growing number of people who are disillusioned with the workplace overall, instead opting to exit the job market and live simpler lives with little to no expenses. This is a companion of a popular trend in China known as “lying flat” which is a response to a perceived hamster wheel job market that doesn’t hold the same opportunities (house, vacation, retirement) that it once promised. 

Reach: If you combine the antiwork and lying flat movement, then the reach of this trend has been seen by hundreds of millions of people at this point. 

What It Means for Employers: Workers are more conscious of work-life balance and are taking more steps to equate the two.  

Quiet Quitting

What Is It: Similar to Act Your Wage, Quiet Quitting is about only doing what your job entails. It goes one step further, however, in that it’s about achieving the bare minimum to avoid firing or performance reviews, whereas the Act Your Wage trend is more focused on avoiding exploitation outright by performing duties beyond what you’re paid to do (but doesn’t say you shouldn’t perform the duties in your job description to a high standard). 

Reach: One of the first TikTok workplace trends to really gain traction, Quiet Quitting has been written about by many, many outlets in addition to its place of prominence in the TikTok community and wider social media sphere. 

What It Means for Employers: Employees that aren’t engaged and feel there is an absence of incentives for superior work will begin to commit to only the bare minimum outputs. This is also a response to extreme citizenship behaviors, which is when colleagues help each other out on assignments, stay late after work, or go beyond to finish a project or task. While this is normally a good job trend, 93% of employees in one survey reported ‘extreme’ versions of this, leading to burnout, and the flip side being the growth in the Quiet Quitting trend.

Ghosting

What Is It: Borrowed from a dating term which means to stop answering texts/calls with no explanation, as a Toronto job market trend in 2023, ghosting means to stop showing up to work with no explanation, call, or warning. This includes leaving without submitting two weeks notice. This is seen as a response to workplaces having done the same things in the past – not answering emails regarding interviews, cutting people from shift work without warning, hiring managers skipping interviews, etc. 

Reach: One of the lesser known trends and harder to identify due to its shared name with a dating term, it still has gained a measure of popularity across social media platforms. 

What It Means for Employers: Employees are more likely than ever to leave without warning or simply stop showing up to work. 

Rage Applying

What Is It: When people get fed up with their job, it’s natural that they look for alternative employment. Rage Applying refers to when a worker has a particularly bad day (or run of bad days) and begins applying to a large number of new positions in an effort to both blow off some steam and find a better job/better pay.

Reach: First appearing on TikTok, this has become a popular trend as millions of people on the platform have engaged with the #RageQuitting.

What It Means for Employers: Employees are more ready to swap jobs (or at least entertain the prospect of switching jobs) following tough days at work or performance reviews. 

Bare Minimum Monday

What Is It: Essentially Quiet Quitting, but limiting it to the first day of the week. The idea being to leave heavier, more complex tasks to later parts of the week, while on Monday you simply move through your checklist of must-dos and take a more relaxed approach. 

Reach: Another trend appearing on TikTok over the past few months. As a newer trend, it hasn’t had the same reach as others on this list, but shares similar DNA with other terms on here, speaking to a larger issue in the global and Toronto job market. 

What It Means for Employers: Employees are looking for ways to avoid burnout by avoiding going ‘above and beyond’, whether that’s only on Monday, or throughout their entire work lives. 

Fight the Toronto Job Market Trends 2023 – Find Qualified Employees Today

Employment agency Toronto

Aside from offering more incentives to employees and making sure they feel valued and fairly compensated at work, employers can also be sure to thoroughly vet employees in order to find the best fits for their business. And the best way to achieve that is through one of the top Toronto recruitment agencies: TDS Personnel. 

TDS Personnel is a premier Toronto recruitment agency which has been in operation since 1975. We’ve partnered with businesses operating in a variety of industries within the GTA, helping them meet their staffing needs. 

Our team has a proven track record of identifying top candidates, helping them advance their careers, and placing top talent with some of the best organizations in Toronto, with always keeping an eye towards culture fits. Get in touch to see how TDS Personnel can help you with your staffing needs. 

Beth Title
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