I'm 22 and make viral TikToks mocking Gen Z and millennials at work. I've learned that despite the stereotypes, we're not all that different.

• DeAndre Brown makes viral TikToks that poke fun at generational stereotypes about the workplace.
• He said there's some truth to jokes about millennials and Gen Z, but they also agree on a lot.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with DeAndre Brown, and it has been edited for length and clarity.

As a 22-year-old working in consumer banking, I'm the youngest person on my team by far. Everyone else is settled with families and vacation homes, and I'm a recent graduate living in a little apartment in Dallas, Texas.

This is what inspired me to join TikTok in August 2021. I wanted to talk about my experience of being the only young person in a corporate working environment.

My TikToks — which often involve me roleplaying Gen-Z and millennial employees to mock the generational stereotypes — have become really popular on the app, and I've felt that by using humor to talk about important topics, like maintaining a work-life balance, I've been able to inspire my own generation and also bridge the gap between millennials and Gen Z, who both seem to enjoy my content.

Generational discourse often goes viral on TikTok, so I decided to use the trend to educate people

Stereotypes about Gen-Z and millennials are all over TikTok. Millennials, who range in age from 26 to 41 in 2022, according to the Pew Research Center, joke that Gen-Z, born between 1997 and 2012, is a generation obsessed with star signs and TikTok dances. Meanwhile Gen-Z mock millennials for being way too into Harry Potter and taking photos of their coffee.

The way Gen-Z employees conduct themselves in the workplace has also become a sort of meme, with people saying that we don't like to work hard or know how to function in a professional environment.

I personally feel like there's some truth to many stereotypes about generational differences. When I speak to my parents and grandparents, for example, it feels like work meant everything to them. They'd put everything aside to complete assignments on time and get good raises and promotions.

However, I think a lot of Gen-Z employees value mental health and life outside of work more than climbing the career ladder. In my videos, I often over-exaggerate this Gen-Z stereotype for comedic effect.

I've made a lot of sketch-style videos, where I'd play the character of a Gen-Z student in a job interview, and talk about how I don't want colleagues to call me outside of office hours, or how I'm prepared to be bold and ask for a higher salary.

Even though my videos aren't entirely serious, young people have still told me that I've encouraged them to set boundaries at work and helped them to feel more entitled to healthy working life.

My TikToks have helped people across different generations to learn from each other, and brands are taking notice

When I first started making TikToks, I wanted to use my experience in banking to educate other Gen-Z professionals about how to become successful.

I initially made more serious videos, giving advice about how to format your resume and how to maintain a strict daily routine. However, my TikToks weren't performing well until I started using humor.

When I put out a few TikToks about slacking off at your job, particularly when working from home during the pandemic, they started to receive hundreds of thousands of views each. I realized that I could use a more entertaining format to answer the same questions about corporate life and becoming employed.

I now have 228,000 followers who I call my "corporate baddies," because I've found that using slang and relatable language has engaged my younger audience a lot more. I'm really passionate about bringing diversity into the corporate world by encouraging young talent, and I've found that my funny videos have made professional life seem more accessible to them.

I've also noticed that millennials, as well as Gen-Z employees, really enjoy my content, and it's inspired them to create work-life boundaries too, and to form a new mindset around their jobs.

From making my videos, I've learned that Gen Z and millennials actually see eye to eye on a lot of things. In my comments section on TikTok, older and younger people have started sharing advice and learning from one another, which has been really wonderful.

Thanks to the following I've grown on my platform, I'm now able to earn money from social media on top of the income I earn at my job. Over the last four months, I've made six figures from brand deals with companies like Google, Microsoft, and LinkedIn.

It makes me happy that big companies are starting to learn how important it is to use social media to attract younger employees, and I hope my TikTok continue to encourage people to set boundaries and prioritize their mental health at work.

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