College Graduates Upset and Shocked by Reality of Working 9-to-5 Job

• A recent graduate shared how little time she had for her personal life while working a full-time job.
• Comments came out in support of the TikToker as they wrote they could relate to the same feelings.
• The 40-hour work week is a much-discussed topic on TikTok with some calling for it to be reformed.

Viewers rallied around a graduate who shared how upset she was about her first office job out of college, and the lack of time she had for a personal life or basic chores by the time she got home.

On October 19, a TikToker who goes by Brielle posted a video where she appeared visibly upset as she addressed the camera, alongside an on-screen caption that read, “in a 9-5 how do u have time for ur life.” According to her LinkedIn profile, she recently started a role as a digital marketing associate in the New York area.

In the upload, Brielle explained it was her first job out of college and she worked from the office, which meant she had to commute into the city even though it took “forever” as there was “no way” she could afford to live in the city at the moment. 

She said she gets on her train at 7:30 a.m. and doesn’t get home until “six-fifteen earliest” at which point she said she has no time or energy to cook dinner or work out, and she was “so upset,” not by her job specifically, but the nine-to-five schedule and the commute which wiped out her days.

At the start of the video, the TikToker said she was “probably just being so dramatic and annoying” and later in the upload acknowledged her situation could be worse and she could be working even longer hours, but questioned how people were supposed to make time for friends or to date.

“I don’t have time for anything and I’m like so stressed out,” she said towards the end of the video.

The upload appeared to resonate with many, as it received 1.2 million views and over 7,300 comments, many of which wrote they could relate to the situation, as they shared they too had limited time for their own lives after work, and found the repetitive routine difficult to deal with. 

“The 40 hour work week is beyond outdated and your feelings are totally valid,” one viewer wrote in a popular comment.

Others echoed how hard it was to work a full-time job while staying on top of household tasks, let alone trying to maintain a personal life, and questioned how they were supposed to one day make time to raise kids as well, as they spent more time at work than they did with their family.

“Gen Z need to collectively move up into management positions and then collectively enforce the 4 day work week,” one viewer wrote, as others agreed that this, or the option of remote work, should be the way forward.

In July, New Zealand-based nonprofit 4 Day Week Global released findings from a pilot program which featured a four-day work week in participating companies spanning the US, Australia, and the United Kingdom, and found, after a year of testing, work intensity dipped but workers were more efficient and had a better work-life balance, Insider previously reported.

The 40-hour work week is a much-discussed topic on TikTok, with a search term that has 42.8 million views and features videos from uploaders calling for it to be reformed, highlighting the lack of financial reward despite working the full-time schedule, or parodying those who push for longer hours.

Brielle did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider’s Digital Culture team here.