Over the past year, multiple large-scale companies have announced intents to return to in-person work after years of remote work amid the COVID-19 pandemic. However, employers are observing some difficulty getting employees who became used to going remote on board. At companies like Apple and Google, the return to office has been slow, marked with attempts to track employees’ badge scans and threats of termination if they do not come back.
One TikTok user says she would take a lower-paying job that offers remote work over a higher-paying job that would have her working in office. And she’s putting her money where her mouth is.
User @lisalovesrandom refers to herself with the pejorative term “job hopper,” which is typically used to refer to those who take new jobs with regularity as they are seeking higher pay.
“How many of y’all would choose a remote job that pays a little bit less over a return to office job that pays more?” she asks in the video. “I just hit one year in my role and normally I try to transfer out and I don’t care if that makes me a job hopper because I feel like I get paid more than the average person that’s a few years into the career because I’ve been job hopping.”
She says she ultimately chose the remote work job because she values the time saved traveling to and from the office, as well as the flexibility that comes with remote work.
“But anyways, I was looking at the internal job postings and I saw a job that I qualified for, but I would have to return to office,” she says. “It turns out, I would choose a lower-paying job to stay remote instead of a higher-paying job to go back to the office. Turns out, I’m choosing my wealth in terms of time, happiness, and flexibility.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to @lisalovesrandom via Instagram direct message regarding the video.
@lisalovesrandom That one show taught me that #yourrichlife might look different than someone else’s rich life #corporatetiktok #jobhopper #jkkinda ♬ original sound – Lisa 💙
Many viewers shared that they were aligned with her thought process as far as the tradeoff between working from home and working in-office, even factoring in lower pay.
“Being home saves me thousands in travel and child care,” one commenter wrote.
“Pay cut for remote always over RTO,” another commenter wrote. “No commute and having that time back is almost priceless.”
“id take a dramatic pay cut to never go to an office again,” a commenter wrote. “I only need more money to cover all the expenses of leaving the house.”
Others shared that they had “job-hopped” to their advantage, finding employment that pays more and allows them to work from home with greater flexibility. According to a CNBC report, up to 60% of people who switched jobs in early 2022 saw significant increases in pay due to market conditions.
“Job hopped and my remote job actually paid me 30k more,” one commenter wrote.
“Job hopped here and I now make 6 Figures!” another commenter wrote. “Nothing wrong with going/wanting more.”
“Job hopping is the way to go,” a commenter wrote. “You will earn more job hopping than People who stay in a role over 3 years.”
