Much has been written about employees doing “the bare minimum” at their respective vocations. Some end up receiving glowing reviews from management for putting what they believe to be their most mediocre foot forward. Others may not receive raises or pats on the back, but nonetheless, they boast about putting in the least amount of work possible to keep their jobs.
One Target worker has gone viral for posting a video about how she is constantly influenced to keep her job because of this “bare minimum” policy. TikToker @khristianb2 posted the video on May 18, and it has garnered over 868,000 views since.
@khristianb2 humbles me everytime #fy #fyp #khristianb2 #foryou #viral #fyppppppppppppppppppppppp #fypシ #blacktiktok #work #worklife #worktok #targetemployees #targetemployee ♬ original sound – $latt
In the clip, the TikToker sits in front of the camera while lip-syncing, “The fuck am I doing?” before ultimately putting on her work vest.
She writes in an on-screen caption: “when i think about quitting my job but i remember no one else is going to let me do the bare minimum for 15$ an hour, morning shifts monday-friday, be late, talk sh!t and be inside with the air conditioning.”
In an accompanying caption, she adds that the reminder “humbles [her] everytime.”
Employees bragging about doing the bare minimum at their jobs seems to have become somewhat of a social media norm. In May of 2023, Axios wrote about “bare minimum Mondays,” a TikTok trend where workers highlight examples of how they ease into the workweek by attempting to scrape by while doing the least amount of work possible.
This approach to work appears to be part of a larger conversation employees are having on re-prioritizing how they dedicate their time. A big part of this reorganization directly applies to sentiments folks have toward work: i.e., working to live and not living to work, which is the basis of the “quiet quitting” trend that has been oft-referenced throughout 2022.
In the comments section of @khristianb2’s post, other employees extolled the virtues of getting paid to do the “bare minimum” at their respective vocations.
“Me getting paid $17 to take 10 calls a day,” one commenter wrote.
Another penned, “Me getting paid $18 for part time retail.”
However, other folks didn’t think doing the “bare minimum” while working at Target was possible: “Bare minimum at target? Mannn I wanna be at your location.”
Someone else said: “target was the worst retail job i’ve had only stayed 4 months that job was so whack pay wasn’t worth it.”
The Daily Dot contacted Target via email and @khristianb2 via TikTok comment for further information.
