TikToker Explains Why Workes Now Have Zero Guilt for Not Giving 2 Weeks' Notice

A typical rule of business is that if employees are planning on leaving a job, they're expected to give upper management at least 2 weeks' notice before their last day of work.

There are tons of instances, however, where companies will expect and/or require even more notice than that, however, there are plenty of folks who don't think that any notice is necessary: they left their company knowing they're leaving and that's it.

A prevailing argument many make for the no-2-week-notice rule is as follows: if you're working for an at-will employer, which means that you can be fired at any moment for any reason (just as long as it it isn't for an illegal reason like discrimination or you were refraining from committing a crime that your boss or manager tried to get you to do, and no, letting someone buy a pair of pants they'd look terrible in doesn't count), then that relationship goes both ways.

If the boss or company that you work for wants to tell you to clear your desk within the next 30 minutes and get out of the door, or you suddenly lose access to your laptop mid-email while working remotely, then why shouldn't you be able to quit your job at a moment's notice?

A young man wearing a bright neon parka didn't think it was a problem either and posted a clip of him playing a tiny violin.

Graeson McGaha (@graeson.mcgaha.comedy) has talked about workplace woes in the past, especially when it comes to people quitting their jobs when they feel like they're being undervalued. He posted an add-on clip to the video of the man playing the world's smallest violin where he says, "People ask me all the time: what do you think has changed? What do you think has changed in the mindset of the American worker?"

He continues, "And my answer is simple: it's COVID. The average blue-collar worker, the American worker, watched the entire system turn its back on us. You had essential workers being told that they had to go to work while their children weren't going to school and we all got told: figure it out."

He went on to say that "essential workers" were constantly getting the butt end of the stick for the same amount of pay, while others were being told to self-isolate and stay indoors. Not them though: they have to keep the wheels turning. "Nurses and doctors treating 3,4,5 patients at a time, worried about bringing it home to their children, being told: figure it out."

He says that employees who were suddenly out of work after government-mandated COVID protocols were put in place with no immediate plan of action for them to follow were also placed between a rock and a hard place: "Service industry employees being told hey we're shutting the doors."

"Well, what are we supposed to do?"

"I don't know: figure it out."

Graeson went on: "Hard-working guys and girls working for companies for 20 years, that now the companies decided to close the door and do layoffs. 'What are we supposed to do?' Figure it out. You [also] had the people who never got to stop. Police, fire, medic, 'hey man there's some stuff going on and I'd like to be able to take care of my family make sure everybody's OK.'"

He goes on to say that emergency personnel didn't have the luxury to self-isolate or work from home and that they were threatened with losing their jobs if they didn't come into work. Graeson says that the American worker didn't forget how many businesses and government institutions were quick to turn their back on them during their time of need, so he doesn't blame them for not having any loyalty to those businesses.

"Now that companies are starting back up and everything's kind of going back to normal companies are wondering why they can't find employees. When we needed you, you turned your back on us and then we found out that you guys were getting money from the government to stay open."

So businesses were effectively stealing tax dollars from hard-working citizens under false pretenses: they were supposed to stay open to keep the wheels turning, but some took the money but also shut down operations and then opened up once mandates were lifted. Oh, and they fired tons of other workers in the process, too.

"Large corporations were getting money to stay afloat and then they still decided to cut people and record profits. 2 weeks' notice is based off respect and if you're not gonna have the respect to give your employees 2 weeks, well, then, what's the point? Corporate America is willing to have the mentality that your employees are nothing but replaceable assets, well then, we can have the same thing too: the job is nothing but a replaceable asset."

Graeson says that people will ultimately not fall back into the same mode of thinking regarding employers prior to COVID, as decades of mental training and perceptions towards that mindset have ultimately been altered: "We all got told the same thing for a long time: you better be grateful you have this job. We got a long list of applicants waiting to replace you."

However, he says that this claim is untrue, ending his video with a rejoinder to a business that makes this claim: "Yeah we've been short staff for the last 3 years it leads me to believe you don't have anybody."