Techweb reported on May 7 that users all over the world are keen to use the short video platform tiktok for leisure and entertainment, but some American employees who used to work in tiktok said they are under great pressure, often lack sleep, need to work overtime on weekends and have to work across time zones**
Tiktok, a popular short video platform, seems to have endless entertainment content, and the platform also says it is the happiest place on the Internet.
But employees of tiktok's U.S. office said that the company's internal management style is more strict, which is very different from the lively public image.
Many of them are senior employees from other large technology companies. They said that tiktok emphasizes unremitting work and strict confidentiality, which is not common in the technology industry.
Tiktok continues to grow at a high speed, resulting in a faster and faster pace of work in the U.S. office. According to the data of sensor tower, an analysis company, tiktok, established six years ago, recorded a record number of APP downloads in the first quarter of 2022.
As of mid-2020, tiktok's U.S. office has approximately 1500 employees. Tiktok said last year that the number was expected to increase to 10000. Most of the work of tiktok's American employees includes transforming the products developed by the parent company in the Chinese market into American products, and constantly developing the American advertising market.
At tiktok's U.S. office headquarters in Los Angeles, some employees complained that frequent weekend overtime and cross time zone work caused them to lack sleep.
Several former U.S. employees said they had an average of 85 hours of meetings a week while working in tiktok and had to squeeze in more time to complete the work at hand. Another employee said he persuaded his boss to stop working late continuously after submitting the medical test results that staying up late could be life-threatening.
Some tiktok former employees He said that he had to seek medical consultation due to negative conditions such as weight fluctuation, increased stress or depression. One of them said that he continuously attended meetings during his work in tiktok and felt great pressure. He didn't even have time to take tampons during menstruation.
Amazon's e-commerce culture can also be used for reference. Tiktok executives often repeat Amazon founder Jeff Bezos Jeff Bezos's famous saying tells employees that "always the first day".
The walls of tiktok's office are covered with maxims such as "pragmatic and dare to do", "frank and clear". To some extent, the performance of employees depends on their adherence to these ideas.
Tiktok said that some adjustments have been made to the management method and work culture in order to achieve the goal of "building and cultivating a global team that can support our continuous growth". In a written statement, the company added: "we encourage a culture of transparency and good feedback and are committed to building a fair platform and business so that our communities and employees can thrive."
In fast-growing technology companies such as tiktok, it is nothing new for employees to work long hours and have a tight deadline. Many companies also have the problem of staying up late and working overtime. But several people who have worked in other technology companies in the United States say tiktok's American employees are under more pressure.
Some former tiktok employees described their work experience in the U.S. office on social media such as youtube and medium. Some people describe themselves as emotionally volatile in a tense working atmosphere. Many others listed challenges, large and small, at work, including interpreting internal documents written in Chinese, which are translated by software and do not always capture subtle differences in meaning.
Tiktok former senior product manager melody "The pressure of working in tiktok is beyond imagination, and it has taught me more about product strategy, execution and subtle differences across cultures," Chu said Even so, melody Chu, who claims to be a senior employee of Facebook, roblox and nextdoor, chose to leave tiktok last November.
She said she spent too much time on the phone with her Chinese colleagues at work and less time on the phone with her husband, so she had to seek marriage treatment. Melody Chu said that her weight dropped sharply and her sleep quality was poor. All his interests and hobbies, including time with his parents and mental health, were given to tiktok's job.
Melody Chu: "if I knew that working in tiktok would take so much energy, I would never enter the job." But melody Chu also added that after reflection, she did not regret joining tiktok, because doing so was to prove to herself that she had the conditions for success.
Many tiktok employees can endure long working hours and no boundaries between work and life for a long time because they may receive a large amount of remuneration if the parent company goes public. "You definitely want to get on the rocket," said pabel Martinez, a former Global Account Director for advertising sales at tiktok
Martinez left the company in February this year. He said that although the project he was responsible for was proceeding as planned, he personally opposed working all weekend, so he left. A manager replied to him at that time: "we don't do things like this here."
According to a person familiar with tiktok's business operation mode, tiktok's revenue reached about $4 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $12 billion this year. In contrast, Facebook didn't earn $12 billion in annual revenue until 10 years after its establishment.
According to former employees of tiktok, tiktok often has multiple teams working on the same project, competing with each other to see who can finish it fastest. This strategy is intended to encourage employees to finish their work as quickly as possible, but some former employees say it will make them pay special attention to whether they are lagging behind their colleagues or particularly frustrated when the project has never seen the sun.
Last year, Singaporean Zhou was funded to become the CEO of tiktok, replacing Vanessa Pappas, the interim CEO. Papas was transferred to chief operating officer of tiktok. In early 2020, American Kevin Mayer served as CEO of tiktok, but left three months after trump tried to force the company to sell tiktok business to American companies.
Tiktok does not provide employees with the organization chart of the company, nor does it prohibit them from creating and sharing the organization structure of their own department. The purpose of this policy is to prevent competitors from poaching. Some former employees said they were told they didn't need an organization chart because tiktok's structure was flat and anyone could contact anyone in the company.
But the result may confuse employees who should contact other teams or who is sending messages to themselves. Some former tiktok employees said that for months, members of the human resources and finance team in the New York office had not known that there was another team performing the same functions in California.
Jamie Lim Yin Yin, a former Singapore employee who left tiktok last December, said that when she received an email from her colleagues, she had to go to LinkedIn to find out which team they belonged to.
"Let's put it this way, LinkedIn is a tag that I often use on my browser," Lin Yinyin said in a video on youtube, explaining why he left after only four months.
Tiktok spokesman said that employees can view other employee information in one way.
Former advertising sales account director Martinez said tiktok's presentations often delete or blur some data, including his manager's request not to share some data with lower level employees.
"The signal I received was: 'we don't trust you,'" Martinez said, adding that tiktok's level of confidentiality was "very different" from other technology companies he worked for.
The fast-growing tiktok has attracted a large number of job seekers, but it also seems to be trying to solve the problem of high turnover rate. Lucas Ou Yang, a former tiktok engineering team manager in mountain view, California, posted on twitter that keeping in touch with his parent company colleagues and working according to their schedule led to the resignation of all 10 product managers he worked with about a year after taking office.
Last November, a team from tiktok's engineering department held a plenary meeting to discuss the departure of a large number of American employees. Then executives agreed to a new policy that if not all participants could speak Chinese, they would try to hold meetings in English. Although the company also provides translation services, some former employees say they miss too many nuances in meaning expression when they don't meet in a language they can understand.
Last year, tiktok's parent company said it would adopt the "1075" standard, which means working five days a week from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. But many employees say they still feel they will work longer hours.
Some former U.S. employees of tiktok said that in order to participate in online meetings organized by executives of their parent company, they often start a week's work on Sunday afternoon.
"In fact, I think I have a sleep disorder from working late into the night," Chloe Shih, a former tiktok California employee, said on YouTube. "Knowing that most people in the company are still awake when I should go to bed makes me anxious at night."
Former employees said that the issue of work life balance was mentioned at almost every staff meeting. In mid-2021, some US managers began to encourage employees to turn off the notification function of internal messaging tools after work, reducing the number of late night work processing requests. Some people suggest that employees make their own schedule to give themselves time to rest. However, many former employees said that in any case, the company's senior management will ignore the schedule of subordinate employees and arrange meetings at the corresponding time.
"While frequent meetings across time zones are typical of companies around the world, we will continue to focus on how to provide support and flexible methods for employees," said a tiktok spokesman. She added that tiktok encourages employees to use private time to rest, arrange no meeting time, and do not encourage sending work messages after work.
Xuezhao LAN, founder and executive partner of venture capital firm basis set ventures, said that the competition in China's technology industry is more intense than that in the United States. "Obviously, no one wants to work until 2 a.m.," she said. "When people try to understand different cultural differences, there is a lack of background."
Tiktok once sent many new American employees to work in the parent company for a week to get a close understanding of the working culture of Chinese colleagues and learn the operation mode of byte beat.
Many technology start-ups offer restricted stock to new employees, allowing them to accept lower daily salaries and wait for the opportunity to get high salaries after the company goes public. Tiktok did not begin to adjust its recruitment and compensation plan until the summer of 2020 to provide restricted stock incentives for most U.S. employees. When the company did so, it did not provide salary incentives for most existing American employees, which caused what some employees said was confusion and frustration.
Tiktok began asking some employees to convert their bonuses into restricted stock incentives. However, some former employees said that employees who scored high scores in two consecutive performance evaluations could receive the award.
They say performance evaluation is based in part on whether employees comply with the motto on the wall of the workplace, the so-called "byte styles". Many employees believe that the maxims of "pursuing the ultimate" and "being practical and daring" are so vague that managers can only reward the employees they like. Some employees said that people were afraid to speak freely within the company because they were afraid of going against the "byte model" such as "openness and humility".
According to former tiktok employees, TikTok US executives often choose to skip questions submitted by employees about restricted stock incentives at meetings.
According to people familiar with the matter, Dylan juhnke, who was responsible for the brand partnership for more than two years, asked tiktok's head of human resources in the United States why executives avoided questions about compensation for 50 consecutive weeks at a staff meeting held in April 2021.
Junk said that if tiktok did not intend to answer these questions, he should say it directly rather than divert his attention.
A copy of the email showed that shortly after, tiktok executives reprimanded junk by email for his behavior at the staff meeting. According to people familiar with the matter, the company's human resources department launched an investigation and discussed whether tiktok could fire junk. A few months later, junk resigned.
Tiktok did not comment on the specific experience described by the employee.
Tiktok describes itself as a platform for "happy, interesting, diverse and unexpected experiences". But in an internal memo released when he left, junk said: "tiktok treats employees in a way that is completely opposite to the image represented by the tiktok platform." (Chen Chen)