I once had a boss who loved to remind me that her name was on the door of the business, not mine. She wanted me to respond to her messages after hours, tackle tasks outside of my job description, and tolerate her toxic management style with a smile on my face because, in her eyes, she was more important than I was. Her name was on the door, after all.
We had the same amount of education under our belts but because I was younger and in a less swanky role, I was her minion for as long as I wanted her to keep on signing my paychecks. And I’m not alone.
Plenty of professionals work their fingers to the bone for employers that don’t actually appreciate them. Case in point: an employee who shared on TikTok that after putting in her two weeks’ notice at her job — where she had worked for nearly 10 years — she was abruptly locked out of her company laptop just 20 minutes later.
@authorvaleriethompkins Unless your name is on the building, its never that deep. Take your PTO. Work will always be there. #quit #job #corporate #blackgirl #remotejob #techjob #hr #foryou #fyp #jobtok #corporatetiktok #quittok ♬ It Do Not Matter – cheech
In her now-viral video, TikTok user @authorvaleriethompkins sits outside and carefully applies her lipgloss and puts her sunglasses on in a seemingly stress-free moment, while the onscreen text explains that she resigned from her job of ten years and was locked out of her computer just 20 minutes later.
She goes on to share a bit of wisdom from the experience, “You are just a number to your employer. Everyone is replaceable. Don’t work too hard, your name is not on the building. Take plenty of time off and never feel guilty. Live your life,” and quiet quitters all over the country applauded.
Commenters shared their thoughts, too with one user reminding employees to “act their wage” and another lamenting that if you have to Google how to survive a toxic job, you should quit it immediately. After all, if your name isn’t on the door, it’s not your problem, right?
It’s also not surprising that we continue to see trends like ‘quiet quitting‘ and ‘bare minimum Mondays‘ continue to grow.
