The Gen Z college grad who made headlines after tearfully sharing her struggles adjusting to a nine-to-five job on TikTok has recently been laid off with no emergency fund.
Brielle Asero, who lives in New Jersey, revealed that she lost her first post-grad job, a position that took her five months to secure, in a recent video that has garnered over 500,000 views.
‘I got laid off from my first post-grad job – the one that took me five months to find, and for which I moved to New York City,’ she said, adding that it’s not her fault.
The University of South Carolina alum said she doesn’t have an emergency fund because ‘everything goes toward living expenses, commute, and everything else.’
The layoff comes after she broke down in tears in October, sharing her struggles to find time for a life outside of her four-hour round commute and long workdays.
Brielle Asero, 21, who made headlines after tearfully sharing her struggles adjusting to a nine-to-five job on TikTok has recently been laid off with no emergency fund
She made headlines in October when she cried about her struggles to find time for a life outside of her four-hour round commute and long workdays
The stressed Gen Z worker branded herself as ’emotional’ and ‘dramatic’ for worrying about how she would make time for her a personal life, such as dating and maintaining friendships, outside of her first job
Brielle, 21, landed her role at a startup after five months of searching and sending out ‘hundreds’ of applications daily.
The young woman emphasized that she did nothing wrong because her boss had previously called her ‘one of the smartest people he has ever had working under him.’
‘It’s not my fault before we start,’ she said. ‘They didn’t have the workload or the bandwidth that they needed to train me and to give me work to do,’
The recent college graduate said that the hiring process would not start until January 2 and is expected to take at least two to three weeks to get her on board.
‘I can’t wait that long. I need a job immediately,’ the 21-year-old said with visible stress, clenching her fists in front of the camera.
She continued: ‘The job that I was working nine-to-five from, I wasn’t making enough to live. I don’t have savings because of that job.’
‘We are working so much,’ she said. ‘And I still don’t have an emergency fund. I don’t because I wasn’t making enough to save any of it.’
In tears, she exclaimed, ‘Everything was going toward living expenses, commute, and everything else.’
She previously gained attention when she complained about her nine-to-five job, that left her with no work-life balance
The University of South Carolina alum said she doesn’t have an emergency fund because ‘everything goes toward living expenses, commute, and everything else’
She covered her face while bursting into tears and said: ‘To go through the whole entire hiring process again is going to actually kill me.’
She said the hiring process was ‘so defeating, so disappointing, and makes [her] feel like [she] is not good enough.’
‘I know that I am. I know that I am a hard worker,’ she said, recounting her portfolio and freelance experience in college.
‘I have done everything I possibly could have, and it’s still not enough,’ she said in disappointment.
Her followers flocked to comments sharing their experiences of being laid off, offering their empathy.
One person wrote: ‘Don’t panic I’ve gotten laid off 3 times and last year and 2 years ago was right before Xmas and 2 of them were start ups my advice as a 27 year old.’
Another social media user chimed in: ‘I got laid off twice 2x this year, it’s horrible! I feel u. I’ve been doing side hustles/unemployment rn. Get on unemployment ASAP!’
The video has garnered more than 500,000 views and amassed thousands of likes and comments on TikTok, where Asero has amassed almost 200,000 followers.
The video has garnered more than 500,000 views and amassed thousands of likes and comments on TikTok, where Asero has amassed almost 200,000 followers
She previously gained attention when she complained about her nine-to-five job that left her with no work-life balance.
The young woman explained in a viral video that she had no option but to move to New Jersey for her New York-based job, because she couldn’t afford sky-rocketing rent prices in the city.
The teary-eyed woman divulged it took ‘f****ng forever’ to get to and from her workplace, admitting that it would be easier if she lived within walking distance.
Brielle continued: ‘I leave here and get on the train at like 7.30am and I don’t get home until 6.15pm earliest. I don’t have the time to do anything.’
In a later video, she told her TikTok followers that sometimes she does not make it home until 7.30pm.
‘I want to shower, eat my dinner and go to sleep. I don’t have the time or energy to cook my dinner either,’ added Brielle.
‘I don’t have energy to work out, like that’s out of the window. I’m so upset. Oh my god.’
She reflected that it ‘could be worse,’ stating: ‘I know I could be working longer, but I get off and it’s literally pitch black, like I don’t have energy.’
The stressed woman branded herself as ’emotional’ and ‘dramatic’ for worrying about how she would make time for her a personal life, such as dating and maintaining friendships, outside of her first job.
Balancing work and personal life would be easier if she worked from home, according to the graduate.
She later spoke to Rolling Stone in her own defense, telling the magazine,’ ‘I don’t even understand how this has turned into a political argument when all I was trying to do was open a conversation.’
Brielle, 21, spoke to Rolling Stone in defending a TikTok she’d posted about the exhaustion she was feeling after starting a nine to five job
‘Different news stations picked up my video and painted post-grads as entitled and lazy which is far from the case,’ explained Brielle. who also made it clear she considers herself ‘lucky’ to have found a full-time job in her dream field.
‘My student debt would make me feel guilty for not using my degree right out of college, she said.
‘I knew the schedule would be tough for me to get used to since most of my college was online due to Covid, but once I was offered this job I took it to get my foot in the door and gain experience.”
‘I didn’t expect it to cause a media frenzy,’ she continued of the controversy-courting TikTok. ‘I was just trying to be relatable to my followers that also have to work a job with long hours.’
She went on to describe that ‘haters’ have ‘been flooding’ her personal social media accounts with ‘horrible comments.
At this, she took a stand on behalf of her generation.
‘[Gen-Z] works just as hard as people before us, with lower salaries and higher costs of living,’ she argued.