A TikToker Bailed On A Job Interview Over A '6-Day Work Week' & A 'Barely Liveable' Salary

A TikToker says she quickly turned down a job once she learned that she'd be required to work six days a week, and her story has many people feeling shook by the state of the job market in 2023.

TikToker Lauren Morgan recently posted a video sharing her experience of a phone screening interview with a recruiter for an entry-level operations role at Pulsd, a New York City-based app.

In the video, Morgan explained that she got on a phone call for the job interview and everything seemed to be going well until she was informed of how demanding the job was going to be…literally.

During the interview, Morgan says she was shocked to learn that the job required her to work six days a week, with one of those days falling on a weekend. Not only that, but the recruiter also informed her that she would need to check her work email and follow up with people even after she left the office.

“We get to the very end, the very end, and he's like, ‘yes, so I do just want to let you know this is five days a week, in the office,” Morgan recalls in her video. “And you need to be making sure that you're still checking your emails once you get home, and just following up with people also you do need to be in the office one day over the weekend, so Saturday or Sunday.”

For Morgan, this was a deal breaker. Despite the recruiter's niceness and the potential for the role, she knew that the lack of work-life balance and the low salary just didn't make it worth it.

When the recruiter asked Morgan for her thoughts she replied saying, “Yeah, so I'm feeling like with the salary and not really having any work-life balance, being that it is a six-day work week and still having to, you know, do my job when I get home. It's just not aligned.”

“But I really hope that that you find what you're looking for,” Morgan says before making the hand motion of shutting the phone call.

Morgan's video quickly caught other TikTokers' attention, with many users expressing disbelief at the employer's demands.

One user even questioned the importance of a job that requires such an intense work schedule, asking, "What could possibly [be] that important? Like, jobs aren't real. The emails can wait a day.”

Morgan replied to the comment by saying, “They want you to literally bare your heart and soul at a minimum pay.”

"Everyone trying to move to 4 days. [A] random company, 'How about 6 days and keep working after you leave the office?!'" Another user commented.

One person commented, “And then the salary is like, $42,000 a year."

Morgan responded by saying that the salary offered was "barely livable after rent and necessities," although she didn't say how much they pay.

As many users pointed out, work-life balance is important to potential employees in 2023, and they expect to be paid fairly for giving up an extra day off!

There were two job openings for Pulsd listed on their website in early April when Morgan posted her video. It's unclear which job she applied for, but it may have been the role of Business Operations Associate*.

Although the job description didn't explicitly say it requires the candidate to work six days a week, it does indicate that the role would be quite a time-consuming and demanding position.

The pay for the role was listed between $50,000 to $60,000 and under requirements it shares that the candidate would be required to work on weekends as well as weekdays.

"Ability to work in-person in our SoHo office during the week with the option to work from home for weekend coverage," read the job description.

Narcity reached out to Pulsd for a comment but did not hear back as of press time in April.

Pulsd had updated the job description and the salary for its Business Operations Associate role by July, increasing the pay range to $70,000-$80,000 a year. That’s a $20,000 bump.

A Pulsd spokesperson disputed Morgan’s six-day work week claim in a statement to Narcity in July, although they didn’t address the specifics of Morgan’s claims in her TikTok video.

The spokesperson says the role previously asked for someone to work two days of the week and both days on the weekend. They added that they’ve since updated the job description to ask for someone who will work four days of the regular work week and one of two days on the weekend, amounting to a five-day work week.

“Given the needs of the business, this isn’t straight M-F job,” they wrote. “But it certainly wasn’t/isn’t 6 days a week, and it certainly isn’t for a $42,000 salary.” That last part appeared to be a response to the TikTok comment about other jobs offering low salaries over a six-day work week.

They added that with benefits and bonuses, the Pulsd job amounts to a “$110k package for an entry level person.”

The role remained open as of July 11.

*This article has been updated to include comment from Pulsd and new details of the job description and salary, which were changed after this story was originally published on April 18, 2023.