Gen Z love to romanticise the office

Young employees who started jobs during the pandemic say going into the office is a 'novelty'.

Young employees who started work during the pandemic say going into the office is a 'novelty'.

Few employees would view the daily grind of office work as something to document and share with friends. For Generation Z, however, posting highlights of their nine-to-five on TikTok is a way of “romanticising” their job.

Graduates who joined the workforce when the pandemic meant their jobs were home-based now find going into the office a novelty, a trend experts say employers are happy to exploit.

Meena Kirupakaran, 23, works in publishing in Toronto and shared a “day in the life” TikTok video of her job at HarperCollins. The video, which showed her building and the views from her downtown office, got more than 100,000 views.

@meena_k15

Come to work with me 📚☕️ #publishingcareer #workinginpublishing #publishingjobs #dayinthelife

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“People in the comments were like, ‘Manifesting this’,” Kirupakaran told The New York Times. “And I was like, this is literally me taking snapshots of what I do at work.”

Kirupakaran, who is now a freelancer, said: “A lot of content creators spread the message: Don’t work in person! But I do think there’s something beautiful when you romanticise going into work.”

Angela Copeland, the head of marketing at Recruiter.com, an employment platform, said that employers would use the trend to entice workers back into the office.

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