"Resigned bloggers" flock to Xiaohongshu, and "unemployment" has become the password for traffic

As layoffs at large companies become the new normal, more and more former employees have begun to share their resignation experiences and subsequent life changes on platforms such as Xiaohongshu.

But it is not an easy road. Users’ aesthetic fatigue of workplace bloggers and the involution of content creation make “resigned bloggers” the first track to be “falsified” in 2024.

This article provides us with an in-depth analysis of the current phenomenon of bloggers leaving their jobs on social media, revealing the traffic logic, risks and commercialization challenges behind it.

As cost reduction, efficiency improvement and layoffs become the new normal, more and more employees of large companies are starting to share their lives before and after leaving their jobs on social media.

Three years ago, it was popular to show off “My day at work at ByteDance” and work badges. Three years later, the most popular text was “Quitting your job, medical beauty is more suitable for Chinese babies”.

How much compensation will you get, 2N or N+1? Money-related issues are highly discussed. How to enjoy the world after leaving your job? Studying for a master's degree, starting over, or changing your lifestyle? Each of these is a hot word that makes Internet users sensitive.

Big companies are not only the halo of workplace bloggers, but also a label that bloggers who leave their jobs must carry. Last year, the person who caused a second uproar because of her resignation was Meng Yutong, the former successor of Gree. Now she has 1.464 million fans on Xiaohongshu, and is a top blogger. In May this year, Baidu Vice President Qu Jing posted a short video that caused a lot of controversy, and ended up leaving at the speed of light, from a domineering president to a resigned employee of a big company in a second. There was only an apology statement on her Douyin homepage.

Image source: Xiaohongshu account @孟羽童Morita

Under the premise of the unclear environment, being a self-media has become the second ultimate dream of many young people besides taking the civil service exam. After all, being an Internet celebrity is a very cost-effective job with its own traffic-attracting attribute. Bosses are also eager to try. Dong Mingzhu, the chairman of Gree, who prints artistic photos on the body of a bus, is a pioneer among entrepreneurs in becoming an Internet celebrity. Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi, has become the male protagonist of a cool article and a top star in the car circle this year.

As a person working for a large company, you can become a workplace blogger no matter what content you post. Resigned bloggers appear as a "leading by example", allowing many people in the workplace to find similar people, and they are able to gain traffic and favor in the short term. But after the emergence of homogeneous content, is it still easy for resigned bloggers to go on?

01 The content formula for “quit” bloggers

Over the past 10 years, the scale of Internet companies has grown step by step, but when the demographic dividend and traffic dividend are exhausted, the development model of exchanging scale for growth becomes unsustainable. Large companies emphasize cost reduction and efficiency improvement, and news of personnel optimization comes out almost every month.

According to Shijie.com, at the end of December 2021, the total number of employees of Internet giant Alibaba reached a historical high of 259,316. ​​However, due to the loss of many business lines and investment returns falling short of expectations, the company's overall revenue increased but profits did not, and its staff continued to shrink. As of the end of March this year, the total number of Alibaba employees had decreased to 204,891, a total reduction of 54,425 in more than two years. Among them, the number of employees decreased by more than 14,000 in the first quarter of this year, setting a new record for the number of layoffs in a single quarter.

Correspondingly, users' attention to workplace topics is increasing day by day.

The "2023 Douyin Annual Observation Report" jointly released by Douyin Hotspot and Julebao Suansu revealed that from January to October 2023, workplace ranked eighth in the video playback volume ranking of Douyin's knowledge category.

According to the latest survey by Qiangua Data, in the past year, the volume of notes related to "working people and workplace" on Xiaohongshu has increased by more than 440%, and the total estimated interaction has increased by more than 128%, showing a high popularity. On Xiaohongshu, we can search for workplace bloggers working in various Internet companies. They share interview experiences, teach reporting skills, complain about colleagues and superiors, and comment on bosses. Many of them have gained fans and business orders through this.

After some research, Kas found that a sub-track under the workplace category - "resignation bloggers" has taken shape. According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 100 Xiaohongshu accounts with a certain number of fans that emphasize "resignation from a large company" on their homepages or videos. Among them, the top workplace blogger @姜Dora has accumulated 285,000 fans on Xiaohongshu and nearly 2 million fans on the entire network, and has long become a full-time self-media creator.

Image source: Xiaohongshu account @姜Dora这是一个

The halo of a big company is an important reason why bloggers who have resigned or quit their jobs can attract fans. The "2023 College Student Employment Research Report" released by Zhaopin.com shows that among the industries where graduates of 2023 expect to work, IT/communications/electronics/Internet account for 25%, ranking first.

Kas summarized the content template of the resignation bloggers: the first step of their entry into the track is usually to announce the resignation, post a comparison of photos before and after the resignation, use their work badge to prove their identity, and add a cheerful background music. Or, like the official breakup announcement on the Weibo of a celebrity: Goodbye Alibaba/ByteDance/Tencent, be well, and see you again.

Celebrity entrepreneurs also use the "resignation" trick. In May 2023, the founder of boise, a gender-neutral clothing brand, announced his resignation in a high-profile manner. He said that he would devote himself to "content entrepreneurship projects." The first note on his Xiaohongshu account @Bill Liu Guangyao was titled "I resigned after working as a CEO for five years." Now, the total number of fans has reached 112,000, and most of the video content is spoken into the camera.

Second, become famous by sharing resignation arbitration and negotiation experiences, or live-stream the entire mental journey of being laid off or planning to resign.

Third, the internal news broadcast of large companies is like a "large company tea room bot" account. The content includes but is not limited to: ByteDance's afternoon tea selection and tasting, Last Day's all-knowing talk, Tencent's intern group interview, management speech analysis, and Alibaba's business line layoffs and changes, and internal network gossip posts.

Of course, voluntarily resigning is more eye-catching than being laid off. Kas often sees people posting notes to warm up before leaving, with titles like "I will quit XX company after 100 likes", and netizens will also raise the number of likes to thousands or even tens of thousands in the spirit of helping others.

Officially announcing resignation is not a universal password for traffic. Bloggers who use resignation as the starting point or gimmick of their account must have certain skills or specialties, and it is best to conceive of the unique selling point of their account in advance.

Some people become digital nomads, some start global travel, and some record their daily life in Dali. The latter two have left the scope of "workplace" and "office" and entered the circle of travel bloggers and life bloggers, practicing the creed that "life is not a track, but a wilderness." These two tracks are relatively broad, with a large space for topic selection, but they also test the blogger's continuous creative level.

Image source: Xiaohongshu account @YuleWo

Some people take a different approach and start their own business from the day they quit their job. Success or failure does not seem to be the most important thing, and recording the process of "being their own boss" is the core.

The blogger will start publishing content from the “Countdown to Quitting My Job”, recording “the XX day of wanting to open a coffee shop”. The title of the note with the best data is usually “With an annual salary of XX million, I finally quit my job at a big company”.

In most cases, opening a coffee shop is a money-losing business. An article published in April this year by Sanlian Life Weekly recorded the story of employees who left big companies to open coffee shops. The title was "Leaving big companies to open coffee shops: "Nothing is more cost-effective than working"". One of the shop owners also responded to netizens' concerns on Xiaohongshu, "The experience of big companies is difficult to replicate in physical operations."

Image source: Xiaohongshu account @HEA Radio

Perhaps because the track of former bloggers is too hot and there are too many samples, some people have already set their sights on a new track - studying former bloggers.

The account @大厂退职博客主观察者 started updating on May 30th, mainly updating the new whereabouts and mobility trends of bloggers who left big companies. In just 7 days, it attracted 5,000 followers, which has exceeded the achievements of many workplace bloggers who have worked for a year. If we want to summarize the reasons for this blogger's rapid rise, it is probably that "water sellers are easier to cash in than gold diggers."

Image source: Xiaohongshu account @大厂离职博客主观察者

02 Who will pay for the blogger’s departure?

It is true that the workplace is a hot topic and company ID cards are a distinctive account label, but this label has become somewhat devalued after becoming prevalent.

From the content level, the first risk of bloggers who have left their jobs is that many users often appreciate the bloggers’ work experience in large companies rather than their personal charm. After they leave their identity as “large company workers”, users are likely to lose the motivation to continue paying attention.

Second, the background of a large company is a double-edged sword. It can bring glory, but it also carries the risk of reputation damage.

During the May Day holiday this year, an account with the profile of Baidu Vice President Qu Jing posted 4 short videos on the Douyin platform and gained nearly one million followers. However, the views in the video caused widespread controversy and became a hot search on Weibo, such as "I approved my employees' resignation immediately after breaking up", "Whoever makes more money pays", "PR people have no holidays during the Spring Festival weekend", "The biggest regret of working women for their families", etc. In addition, the news that the account was purchased and the number of followers was strange also sparked discussion.

In the early morning of May 9, Qu Jing apologized on WeChat Moments, "Before posting the short video, I did not consult the company in advance, which was not in line with relevant procedures and did not represent the company's position. I hereby clarify and apologize. There are many inappropriate and inappropriate parts in the video, which caused misunderstandings about the company's values ​​and corporate culture and caused serious harm. I also sincerely apologize here."

Image source: Qu Jing’s WeChat Moments

On the same day, the media reported that Qu Jing had submitted her resignation documents, and her status on the internal communication app Ruliu was shown as "resigned". Some netizens used Qu Jing's previous video to make a joke in the comment section - Robin: "I approved the vice president's resignation in seconds."

In addition to content risks, the commercialization of workplace bloggers also has strong limitations. There are three main ways for workplace bloggers to monetize (including bloggers who have left their jobs):

First, paid knowledge, involving interview consultation, resume modification, course sales, etc. This type of workplace blogger will closely tie topic selection and monetization, trying to make profits through paid content, such as teaching others how to find fresh offers on Xiaohongshu, or how to pass interviews, how to optimize resumes, or how to grow self-media.

However, the homogeneity of general workplace courses such as sideline business creation, emotional intelligence training, and job description packaging is serious. Whether they can actually bring results will also become a golden line to measure the ability and character of bloggers. Kas noticed that recently some college students began to post on their account homepages that they "accepted orders for resume modification". Their confidence came from their internships in large companies. After users sent notes questioning their qualifications, the college students quickly deleted the posts and disappeared.

There are also many negative discussions about "employees who have resigned from large companies turning into career growth bloggers." Some users expressed doubts on social media: "Is it true that those who are doing side jobs don't have time to teach others?" "They want the aura of a large company, they want freedom, they want to be sophisticated and rich... Those who teach people to monetize their side jobs after graduating from large companies are precisely targeting users' psychology of wanting both."

Second, advertising and connecting with brands, such as education and training institutions, health care products, etc. Relatively speaking, workplace bloggers can only contact a limited number of brands. Before they break through the circle on a large scale, it is difficult for them to become the target of choice for brands with large advertising demand and generous spending, such as beauty and automobiles.

There are very few bloggers like Meng Yutong who have strong commercial capabilities (partners: well-known brands such as L'Oreal and La Mer). They have high requirements for content quality, shooting and editing presentation, which are difficult for many bloggers who have left their jobs and work alone to achieve.

Third, live streaming brings goods and charges commissions and slot fees. Similar to the second monetization method, the competition is fierce, the product selection range is narrow, and the possibility of users paying is low.

In the context of increasing labor disputes, there are many Internet company employees who have become unemployed or resigned and transformed into workplace bloggers, but this is not a good track. Because users are becoming more rational and content creation is also very inward-looking, "resigned bloggers" may be the first track to be "falsified" in 2024. If "naked resignation" was still the password for traffic last year, this year, after aesthetic fatigue, users have become tired of workplace bloggers.

Resigned bloggers can produce popular articles and videos, which is partly due to traffic bonuses, but more importantly, it is stressful. Whether it is a resigned blogger or a working blogger in a broader sense, it is not an easy road to take.