Until recently, Julie Ramirez was, well, not at the top, but she was on the right track. If you believe her numerous video diaries on Tiktok, her working day as a human resources manager continued Google in Seattle mainly from visits to the in-house massage therapist, the health food canteen, the company slot machine and the company gym.
So-called “A Day in the Life” videos are now a genre of their own. Fast compilations, in which only little time remains for the presentation of the actual work. The glamor factor is more important. At one of the FAANG companies (the acronym stands for Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google) until recently was considered enormously prestigious and associated with numerous amenities. Anyone who could put one of these company names on their resume was safe: stock options, paid housing for employees, and time dedicated to personal projects.
For the tech companies, the videos were a nice freebie in the past few years, when business was still good, to attract even more staff. Roughly speaking, the big corporations have laid off a few hundred thousand people in the past few weeks and months. That spoils the glamour. There were very few major advance warnings or even personal discussions with the HR department, instead the companies made do with automated e-mails. The access chips were simply turned off overnight.
Quite a few employees report jubilantly on their “journey” to even greater success
Julie Ramirez got it too. But even in the tech recession, she keeps posting. Recording and uploading a live reaction to the sacking has now become almost a standard reaction to the sacking, somewhere between breaking the bad news to the family and a tearful sigh. The hashtag “techlayoffs” is trending. And because we are still on the Internet, the general malice is of course great. It was to be expected, it was your own fault, welcome to reality! These are the even more harmless comments that can be found under the videos.
Of course, this only fits to a limited extent in the perfect world that people are otherwise so happy to share on social media. Pretty much everything is stripped bare without a second thought, with few taboos remaining. This also includes: setbacks and defeats have no place here. It’s better to remain silent and disappear from the feeds for a while.
Given that we live in a world full of whitewashed and filtered news, it might be a rare moment of authenticity to see how normal people deal with being kicked out. So is disclosing one’s own failure an act of self-empowerment? That would be something new in the social network: admitting to being at a loss and, yes, also desperate.
It is much more likely, however, that the dismissal influencers are just another shame barrier on the way to marketing your own life. Unemployment turns into a content idea. And indeed, there are quite a few ex-employees who are now reporting on their “journey” to even more success. It says “Day 34 of (F)Unemployment”. Topic of the day: becoming even more streamlined, even more humble and grateful. The defeat is another reason for self-optimization and thus once again plays into the hands of the pig system.
