To me it feels like they are feeling undervalued for the work they already do. I'm not certain the concept of "looking to move jobs if your current one doesn't value you" originated on tiktok.
The important part of all this is that ever-pervasive "feeling undervalued". That's a mindset, pure and simple. I can't imagine where this idea came from that third parties have to coddle you and tell you how great you are, and make you feel appreciated and "valued". My god. Do they wipe your ass for you when you go to the can?
I don't mean this to be cruel or "old man"; it's just the reality of the false expectations that permeate our society today. I need to be loved at work. I need perfect strangers to call me the exact pronoun I demand. I need my television to be perfectly non-offensive, regardless of what anyone else wants. I need my social media to tell me in real time how much I'm liked. We've morphed into a society that is like Skeever said; that you do a task and get a reward. Life isn't a video game like that. You don't defeat the boss and get a chest of gold and neat swords as a reward.
I can count on two hands the number of people that I really, well and truly care what they think about my value and two of them passed this past year. Yeah, I care that my friends - bigger than two hands, blessed - feel appreciated, but at the end of the day, if my friends aren't rewarding me with sufficient praise, that's between me and my therapist. They don't exist to build my ego. Work is well on the other side of that.
I hear you.
I have never felt undervalued at all. I actually have never even considered myself something that has currency worth. I am not a commodity that can be bought or sold for a price. But the way I look at it, we live in a capitalist society, therefore, I am only worth the amount of work effort I put in. If I show a high work ethic of getting the job done, doing what the job entails, even better if it's efficient and correct, then that's what should be valued.
I applied at a fast food place to work and make money. My main priority when I am clocked in is making that money. I just recently became a shift lead, which I could've been earlier, they were waiting for me to ask about it but I told them I felt I wasn't quite ready yet (mainly because I have to deal with customer/coworker bullshit). Now that I am sure I can handle my emotions when dealing with customer/coworker interactions, it aligned that my boss asked me to take on that position because it was needed and I was the only one he could think of. This is because I am there to do the job, I don't complain, I actually get along with my other coworkers (amazingly), and I can handle running the line on all the stations.
When I applied, I understood what this kind of job would entail, I didn't go in expecting anything less. I was also told upon hiring that our store is the busiest store in our city, compared to the other stores where they don't even come close to amount of customers our store gets. So straight off the bat, I understood there's going to be times where it's going to be constant orders coming, and you will have to prioritize certain tasks while also multitasking to get those orders out on time, and that there will be times where you can't get a break at all.
But, with regards to those younger people on tik-tok. They're just realizing the reality of how this system works. How work is just one cog in the wheel that keeps the system running. And they are realizing the many other cogs in the wheel and how each one has an effect on the other. Such as the housing market, and how that cog isn't functioning correctly, and it's rising costs for apartment housing is starting to rise above the amount of income they are getting from working at these places. It's to the point where they are questioning whether to continue working there or to search for something better. And honestly, I feel some are feeling helpless and don't want to work harder to achieve a better life. It's like they don't understand, the more work and effort you put into it, the more you will be worth. You're building an empire for yourself, your placing value in your skills/talents and utilizing those to make an income.