Toronto TikTok Is Obsessed With Rage Applying Amid Ongoing Layoffs & Here's What It Means
As the cost of living crisis in Toronto continues to rise, workers want more.
TikTok influencer Nathan Kennedy in his viral TikTok on Rage Applying.
Long gone are the days of a passive approach to a healthy work-life balance through what we now know as 'quiet-quitting,' where workers set up boundaries to avoid doing more than they are paid for.
A new approach, championed by several Toronto-based influencers on TikTok, encourages fed-up workers to be more proactive and 'rage apply' to as many jobs as possible whenever they feel underappreciated at work.
'Rage applying,' is almost exactly what it sounds like. The 'rage' is triggered by jobs involving long hours and added responsibilities with inadequate compensation, leading to motivation to 'apply' for better opportunities.
"When you passed me again for that promotion …. You ticked me off, and honestly, it was the kick I needed to start applying for other jobs," Nathan Kennedy, a Toronto-based financial literacy content creator, says to his "boss" in one of his viral TikToks about rage applying.
@newmoneynate The new quiet quitting is apparently rage applying lol #personalfinance #careertiktok #careeradvice #jobs #quietquitting #rageapply have you been rate applying? YOU SHOULD BE if you’re not happy with your employer! 😂
Kennedy is seen explaining how his bad treatment at work encouraged him to apply to 50 other jobs, which led him to land one which paid $35,000 more.
While he presents a hypothetical scenario, one worker called Ammar Nabulsi left a comment on his video about how the rage-applying strategy actually did lead him to find a job that paid $32,000 more and enabled him to break into tech.
Several others are seen sharing their own experiences with rage applying in the comments, which led to better jobs or raises.
Kennedy told Narcity in an interview on Monday that he had hoped his video, which amassed over 150,000 likes in its first two weeks, would motivate workers to understand the options available to them, despite ongoing layoffs.
"I think everybody sees the big tech layoffs. But if you look at the grand scheme of things...there is still a lot of hiring going on," he said. "I think our unemployment in the US and in Canada is near historic lows."
It is likely that more than 1,000 Canadians have been laid off as part of downsizing announcements from tech companies, including Google, Amazon and Lyft, according to Layoffs.fyi.
In another viral video posted this month, Canadian financial TikTok influencer, John Liang acted out a conversation demonstrating what rage applying looks like.
@johnsfinancetips Have you ever been so fed up with your boss or your job that you wanted to just quit? Well, instead of quitting, you could start rage applying. It’s a really simple concept - you just send out as many applications to jobs that you want. Then take interviews at those jobs, and once one of those offers comes in to your liking you take it. #rageapply #rageapplying #quietquit #quietquitting #newjob #personalfinance
His boss is seen demanding more overtime, quicker work performance, and denying him time off to see his newborn son, then asking if he was "quiet quitting."
Liang responds that he's actually "just quitting," after rage applying to over 20 jobs that have led to more lucrative job offers.
"[Rage Applying] is just the concept that you’re fed up with your boss, and you’re sending out a bunch of applications to get a new job and to move on to the next one,” he said in his video.
According to the 2022 Indeed Work Happiness Report surveying Canadian workers, employee well-being is continuing to grow as an important factor in looking for or keeping a job and "increased stress is leading to turnover."
As the cost of living crisis in Toronto continues to rise, young workers will continue to want and need more, according to Kennedy.
"It is encouraging behaviour around Gen Z and millennials … who are looking for a better thing," he said.
