A former company employee went viral on TikTok after claiming most of her previous jobs didn’t have a formal onboarding or training process.
User @corporateamericaburnout merged a video from another creator, Jenna (@jennahushka). “What were you unprepared for in the corporate world?” Jena asks.
“That most companies don’t have formal training,” replies @corporateamericaburnout.
The creator then shares her experiences, noting that two of her three corporate jobs were unskilled. In the ten years she’s been in the industry, she says most people don’t know what they’re doing. She claims that “everyone finds out over time.”
In one example, the TikToker finds that she was not informed about the legal aspects of corporate communication with customers at her job. “Nobody told me anything about the legality of communicating with your client,” she says.
She claims there were legal restrictions on sending text messages and contacting people on the opt-out list. “These have serious implications and I didn’t know it,” says @corporateamericaburnout.
In the caption, the creator shared her shock at the lack of exercise she witnessed. “I’m surprised many companies don’t train their new hires in Corporate America,” she wrote.
@corporateamericaburnout #stitch with @jennahushka I’m surprised a lot of companies don’t train their new hires on Corporate America #corporateamerica #corporateburnout #onboardingprocess #corporateamericaburnout #hrtok ♬ Original sound – CorporateAmericaBurnout
Data on employees’ lack of confidence in their professional training supports @corporateamericaburnout’s opinion. According to a Gartner survey, 70% of workers feel they haven’t been given the skills they need to be successful at their jobs. This has consequences for companies without formal training. According to CHRON, this leads to dissatisfied employees, high turnover rates, low production rates, unsafe work environments and more.
The video has been viewed over 92,000 times as of Sunday, resonating with viewers as they share stories similar to @corporateamericaburnout.
“I just started my first job and was blown away by how unprofessional and disorganized everything is. And one more thing, can you drop the planner?!” one viewer shared.
“Girrrlllll…..tell me about it! I wrote a training manual for the roles of two departments because I was tired of seeing people fight,” said a second.
“I was barely educated and people had the audacity to get mad at me for doing my job and wonder why I decided to leave,” said a third.
Other viewers expressed frustration with American companies in general.
“By the time a training program is implemented, it is already obsolete. We will find out months later that we did something wrong!” one person complained.
“And the missing documentation! There should be an SOP [standard operating procedure] for all these. But instead, everything lives in people’s minds. Turnover = knowledge lost forever,” commented a second.
“Exactly!! Then you’re wondering why there’s a high Turner rate; people mostly just stay for a year or two so they can have the experience and dive in,” said a third.
The Daily Dot reached out to @corporateamericaburnout via TikTok comment.
We crawl the web so you don’t have to.
Sign up for the Daily Dot newsletter to get the best and worst of the web delivered to your inbox every day.
*Initial publication: September 25, 2022 at 2:24 pm CDT
melody hero
Melody Heald is a culture writer. Her work can be found in Glitter Magazine, BUST Magazine and more.
