When you make a mistake at work, you might expect a manager to take you aside and confront you about what happened.
However, many workers note that this isn’t actually the case. Rather than handling the issue on a one-on-one basis, a manager will occasionally decide to bring in the entire group and go over the issue that led to the mistake—effectively making the entire team work to resolve a personal issue.
Needless to say, some employees aren’t too happy about this arrangement. Now, a user on TikTok has gone viral after making a video satirizing the situation.
In a video with over 1.4 million views as of Saturday, an employee of the Sky Zone in Whitby, Canada (@skyzonewhitby) writes, “Makes one small mistake at work.”
They then zoom out to an empty conference room, adding a mock manager statement that reads, “‘Hey team just a friendly reminder!’”
@skyzonewhitby classic #skyzone #fyp #jump #whitby #trend #worklife ♬ Fluxxwave by Clovis Reyes – lunaar
Employment experts tend to agree that punishing a team for the actions of a single person, even if that punishment is minor like a group meeting, doesn’t actually work to solve the stated issue.
“The most common reason a team punishment is used is because the manager doesn’t have the confidence or skill to confront the individual directly…so they hope that the person will ‘get the message’ when it’s talked about in an open forum,” explains a post on Coaching for Leaders. “People rarely get a message this way…The original problem goes unresolved and the manager is left with a worse situation than they started with.”
That said, the lack of effectiveness for such a method hasn’t stopped managers from employing it, according to TikTok commenters.
“This started to happen A LOT while i was being silently fired,” a user wrote.
“Then they say it while making eye contact with only you,” offered another.
“‘U guys did amazing with the close, just one little thing,’” a further TikToker quoted mockingly.
The Daily Dot reached out to @skyzonewhitby via TikTok comment.
