"Haenaetda" CEO Also Apologizes... Why Is Gen Z's "Noisy Resignation" a Big Deal?

12,000 TikTok Videos with 'Resignation' Hashtag
CEO Apologizes as Videos Spread... US Corporate Practices Likely to Change

Recent reports have drawn attention to the trend of "noisy resignations" gaining popularity among young people.

The UK Financial Times (FT) reported on the 18th (local time) that "among 'Generation Z' (born 1995?2005), it has recently become popular to reveal the resignation process through videos on social media (SNS)."

Reports have emerged that "noisy resignation" is becoming a trend among young people. The photo is for illustrative purposes only and is not directly related. [Image source=Getty Images]

On TikTok, a social media platform favored by Generation Z, there are reportedly at least 12,000 videos tagged with the hashtag '#layoff.' These individuals publicly share their resignation process, exposing workplace injustices, dissatisfaction with salary and treatment, among other issues.

Among these, a video of a woman named Britney Peach being fired earlier this year has surpassed 20 million views. Peach was dismissed from the global security company Cloudflare just three months after joining, but she did not receive a clear reason for her termination other than being told by the HR staff that she "did not meet expectations."

Videos on the social media platform TikTok with the hashtag '#layoff' [Image source=TikTok capture]

As Peach's video went viral, Matthew Prince, CEO of Cloudflare, apologized via X (formerly Twitter) two days after the video was posted, stating that "the dismissal process should have been kinder and more humane."

A woman named Christina Jumbo even recorded the moment she directly informed her boss of her resignation and uploaded it to TikTok. In the video, after much deliberation, she sends an email to her boss saying she wants to resign because she has become unhappy due to work. After the boss reads the email and they have a phone conversation, she sheds tears saying, "I did it." The video received over 2,000 supportive comments.

The FT analyzed that "noisy resignations" are also a way to change the employment environment by exposing poor working conditions and mistreatment by supervisors. It is especially known that distrust and dissatisfaction are high in sectors such as IT, where more than 312,000 people were laid off en masse since early last year, and among teachers, who have experienced a sharp increase in workload due to staff reductions during the COVID-19 period.

There is also analysis that the practices of American companies, where layoffs are relatively easier compared to other countries, will change due to these Generation Z movements. Nolan Church, CEO of the salary information platform company FairComp, said, "The craze for 'noisy resignations' has reminded people of the responsibility to treat individuals humanely during the layoff process."

He explained, "It can be fatal from the employee's perspective if the person responsible does not attend the layoff process or does not provide appropriate reasons," adding, "They feel that the social contract has been broken."