About

Corporate Villain Era is a slang term used to describe a period of time when someone acts like a "corporate villain" to maintain a healthy work-life balance, meaning shirking work-related responsibilities and being a detriment to their workplace in general for the sake of their own mental health or wellbeing. Videos about entering the corporate villain era became popularized on TikTok in late May throughout June 2022.

Origin

On May 27th, 2022, TikToker^[1] @notkaityfuqua posted a video where she walks down the street with a yoga mat under the caption, "On my way back from a mid-day workout thinking about how I've officially entered my 'it's just a job' corporate villain era," suggesting she's taking time away from work for her workout, gaining over 96,700 views in two weeks (shown below). This is the earliest known video using the term.

Spread

On May 31st, 2022, TikToker^[2] @baewatch86 posted a stitch of @notkaityfuqua's video where she explains how the video changed her entire mindset towards work, realizing she has to make her job work around her life and not let her life work around her job, gaining over 1,500 views in two weeks (shown below). The term was used on Twitter^[3] for the first time that same day by user @quesadaaa, writing, "I’m in my corporate villain era where I don’t let clients or opposing counsel talk to me crazy."

Users continued to post videos and skits about entering their "corporate villain era" that month. On June 3rd, TikToker^[4] @rod posted a video about millennials entering the era, gaining over 1.4 million views in just under two weeks (shown below, left). On June 6th, TikToker^[5] @drewfinder posted a video describing their corporate villain era, including not working past 5 p.m. on Friday, not answering emails after 7 p.m. and refusing to work 60-hour weeks, gaining over 1.3 million views in a week (shown below, right). On June 14th, MEL Magazine^[6] published an article on the trend.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References