There is a special kind of exhaustion that comes from smiling too hard at your coworkers while working under fluorescent lighting. TikToker @awalmartparkinglot learned that the hard way after working in corporate America for about a year and a half.
She took a job working for a real estate brokerage because her rent was increasing, so she needed the money. Her duties were to help the real estate agents with technology.
After about six months, the novelty of the new job began to wear off. She was left feeling really bored and discontented.
After around a year of working there, she decided to start caring about her job, but in a joking manner. It was a way for her to make her days more entertaining because doing the same thing each day was getting to her.
She always thought it was funny when people at the company were so happy about closing a deal or cared a lot about being the number one brokerage in the county, because to her, it didn’t seem to matter, especially since most of her colleagues were not commission-based employees.
During sales meetings, she would act excited and peppy about sales goals and technology. She waited for someone to say something and make fun of her, but no one ever did, so she kept pushing it further.
“I was like, if I get even more animated and act more like an insane person, surely they will know I’m joking, and that never happened,” she said.
“So, I started to go crazy, like fully insane. I would be like screaming in the bathroom. I was genuinely losing my grip on reality.”
Her mental health was in such a weird place at the time because she was pretending to be upbeat and enthusiastic at the job she hated, but her fake personality was being received positively.
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One day, management pulled her aside to tell her that they loved her recent attitude. They wanted her to keep it up and spread the good vibes to the other employees.
She started saving up her money so she could quit that job.
“I physically cannot remain in an environment where I have to be this fake because just having your actual personality be so far away from how you’re acting, but then have everyone love how you’re acting was a very weird, isolating experience that I do not recommend,” she concluded.
The lesson here is not to change your personality as a joke. Instead, take up something else to entertain yourself with if you’re in a corporate job you hate, such as listening to podcasts or some other hobby. In the end, a healthy hobby will be much better for your mental health.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
