TikTok, owned by a Beijing, China, company called ByteDance, is filled with people sharing stories about their employment woes. We first heard about Quiet Quitting, a topic I addressed for Labor Day last year. Now a term has appeared called “Rage Applying,” which is promoted by those who, while claiming to feel overlooked, unappreciated, and undercompensated in their current job, shoot off resumes on the internet when at work for other career opportunities, touting their short-term success in doing so. An article in Forbes, among others, goes into more detail on the so-called trend. The Forbes article states that the adult population is primarily Millennials and Gen-Xers, which covers those born between 1965 and 1996, yet you and I both know (and other publications state) that our youth in K–12 (and adults of all ages) are spending an immense amount of time addicted to social media, especially TikTok.
The individuals promoting the binge-applying behavior take to social platforms, sharing stories of choosing to shoot off resumes on job boards when something upsets them at work instead of choosing to work through it and understand. All too often, if someone feels overlooked or unappreciated, it was not the antagonist’s intention. Feeling undercompensated is just that—a feeling—as it is all relevant to the monetization structure of the company. If you compare it to the millions a year media celebrities get to entertain those who just want to feel good, then most of us can consider ourselves undercompensated if we wish to plant that negative seed instead of focusing on how we might elevate our income right where we are.
Senator Marco Rubio has bipartisan support for his proposed bill on the ban of TikTok in the United States, which they coin “Digital Fentanyl,” stating it is “addicting Americans, collecting troves of their data, and censoring their news.” Rubio claimed the federal government under the current administration rescinded President Trump’s attempt to ban foreign apps, including TikTok, that are a threat to those who use them. I am sure every one of you knows someone who is beyond infatuated with TikTok.
The TikTok app was launched in 2016 in China, where it’s called Douyin. It went international in 2017. TikTok and the name is an apparent play on “ticktock,” onomatopoeia for clocks, and a term for countdowns and minute-by-minute action.
If that is the case, what are they counting down to? Do you realize that according to data the federal government has collected, 80 million Americans are active TikTok users, and the average user opens the app eight times a day and spends over an hour and a half combined on the platform?
Sources, such as Search Engine Journal and Statistica, post the top-10 lists of monthly average users and social media platforms, with Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Instagram still doubling TikTok worldwide. LinkedIn and Twitter are ranked nine and ten and are in the quarter of a million instead of million range for monthly active users. Do you think it is because LinkedIn and Twitter are not designed to entertain but inform and educate, and unfortunately, individuals gravitate toward a moment of “feeling good” as opposed to an exercise that will build further on their accomplishments?
Ralph Waldo Emerson was the youngest student of his day to be accepted into Harvard at age 14. He was the leader of the transcendentalism movement in America, where writers shared a key belief that each individual could transcend or move beyond the physical world of the senses into a deeper spiritual experience through free will and intuition. Below, I have taken a few of his famous lines of proven wisdom and applied them to your career path today, and if you want to read all 150 listed on parade.com, pondering on one a day will bring you wisdom and peace of mind instead of destroying your mind.
“For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.”—RWE
Rage applying is like a teenager mass texting their friends about how awful their parents are because they denied them something they can’t provide instantaneously. The action is fed by so-called friendly and helpful message replies, escalates beyond text, and typically produces unfavorable consequences duly avoided by a choice to control an initial thought of unnecessary anger.
“The good news is that the moment you decide that what you know is more important than what you have been taught to believe, you will have shifted gears in your quest for abundance. Success comes from within, not from without.”—RWE
The book of Proverbs is full of wisdom that most people in the world across many religions share an agreement with. Most likely, you were exposed to these teachings at some point as a child. When thinking about rage applying, I recalled some of my favorites:
Proverbs 16:32, “Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city.”
Proverbs 21:5, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.”
Proverbs 15:7, “The lips of the wise spread knowledge, but the hearts of fools are not upright.”
“Shallow men believe in luck or in circumstance. Strong men believe in cause and effect.”—RWE
A step back and a scheduled time to go to the source that made you feel a certain way or denied you a certain request will help you to understand your part in the action that led to the reaction of parties. After over twenty-five years in employment consulting, when candidates and companies refer to luck or circumstance, those terms are justification for the choices they chose to make at the time.
“Make yourself necessary to somebody.”—RWE
I assure you, if you understand the expectations for your job, perform it to your best ability, and come to work with a positive attitude every day, your employer will notice, and you will be rewarded in due time. Looking back on the decades of placements, those who live the philosophy of making themselves necessary to somebody are the most fulfilled in the workplace. They have their moments of feeling “less than,” like everyone else. They just know another thought is coming—that of the truth.
“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.”—RWE
Your mind is your mind and one of a kind. Anything not in moderation is damaging to it. Fentanyl is so deadly that small amounts can cause addiction or even, if combined with other substances, such as alcohol, instant death. TikTok is deemed that dangerous, and when you combine the platform itself with the substance of workplace misanthropes, while you may not physically die from it, you could experience a slow mental death.
All employers know well that “skill can be taught, but attitude and aptitude cannot.” You may think you can control your thoughts, yet Emerson also proved that “once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.” Wouldn’t you rather decide to fill your mind with actions that build your emotional intelligence—most often defined as the ability to perceive, use, understand, manage, and handle emotions?
“Our greatest glory is not in never failing but in rising up every time we fail.”—RWE
If you have a wrong attitude in the workplace, the first step is to ask for help. Next is to receive the help and not feed the negative addiction. It starts with what you choose to see and hear. After all, “You become what you think about all day long.”—RWE
To Right Thoughts for Formidable Actions,
Suzanne Breistol
It’s so true that people on TikTok share things, and do things, that can ruin their careers. Great article!