JUNE 8, 2022
A TikToker says that he doesn’t speak up during work meetings in a now-viral video, sparking debate about work-meeting culture in the comments.
In the video posted by TikToker Yasir Khan (@theimprovementjournal), an executive coach, on Monday, he says he stopped contributing to discussions during company meetings because he felt that his contribution wasn’t being rewarded.
Khan explains that his company would have required Zoom meetings that “were boring and had nothing to do with your job.” He continues that at these meetings, the facilitator would ask a question to “get [them] to engage” but no one would chime in.
“After the fourth or fifth time they asked the question, I figured let me help them out. Let me just raise my voice and contribute to the discussion,” Khan says in the clip. “The person facilitating the discussion said ‘OK, does anyone else have any thoughts?'”
Khan explains that he felt like there was no point in helping the facilitator with the lack of engagement, even though his coworkers praised him for his contribution and question in the Zoom chat.
“I could have stayed quiet, but I just wanna help out and that’s how you’re going to reward engagement?” Khan continues. “I’ve learned that sometimes it’s not about whether you’re confident but about whether it’s worth speaking up at all.”
The video has over 83,000 views as of Tuesday, with commenters sharing their own frustrations with corporate meeting culture and unnecessary engagement.
“I don’t care about my company’s problems above the minimum I’m required to get my pay cheque,” one user said.
“If you speak up they don’t give credit, if you don’t they think you’re shy. You can never win,” another wrote.
“All a facade for management to feel entitled,” a third added.
Others feel like remote work meetings add to the expectation of unnecessary engagement from employees and take away from time that could be spent being more productive.
“All the Zoom meetings I have are full of people who love the sound of their own voice with nothing to add,” one commenter shared.
“Mine has a 15-minute huddle every day and every day someone from staff leads it and drives me crazy,” another said.
“This happened to me as well. I spoke up recently last week. 30 people on the call. Facilitators are programmed just to get ppl to participate,” a third wrote.
The Daily Dot reached out to Khan via email.
