A woman on TikTok is sharing her experience changing careers from working as a server to working in an office. The video, which has over 1.3 million views, inspired many to share their own stories of realizing that their lower-paying jobs required more skills than their higher-paying ones.
The TikTok was posted June 7 by Ellen Therese (@ellen_goeswild), who said she worked as a server for 11 years before working in an office. Comparing the two occupations, Ellen shared that she had become disillusioned by what she had seen.
@ellen_goeswild #femininerage #rage #wtf #beinganadultistheworst ♬ original sound – Ellen Therese
“I don’t fucking understand how all these people are getting paid all the time to do fucking nothing and I was busting my ass for 11 years,” she says in the video. “I am so mad, and other people are like, ‘shouldn’t you be glad that it’s easy, and you know what you’re doing, and that it’s semi-whatever?’ No! I have been lied to this entire time.”
Ellen continues to say that office workers have been “gatekeeping” so that they can remain “cushy” in their offices doing nothing while making people who work in the service industry feel like their jobs are “worthless.”
After changing careers, Ellen realized that her new job doesn’t help anyone, unlike her previous occupation.
“I helped more people serving tables than I’m going to do sitting in this fucking cubicle,” she said. “But no, I can’t get paid appropriately for actually giving a fuck about human beings.”
“Does anyone have a job that fucking—is actually doing something in the world? And getting paid for it and not doing nothing?” she asked.
In the comments, some users shared their own experiences of realizing how different the performance expectations of their previous jobs were from their office jobs.
“I spend half my day at my adult job doing nothing,” one commenter wrote. “Did I need my 8 years of school to do this job? No. I need 8th grade math and google.”
“Genuinely the anxiety that comes with ‘looking busy’ instead of having actual work to do is soul crushing sometimes,” another commenter wrote.
“I wouldn’t say my office job is easy, but it’s tedious and boring and I help no one and I feel like I’m wasting my life because I want to help people,” another commented.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Ellen via TikTok comment. She did not immediately respond to the request for comment.
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