The Gen Z Boss and a Mini Video on TikTok Has Some Wondering If Gen Z is "Cringe"

For most of their lives, Gen Z have been the generation that was, almost by default, the coolest. This is often the case with young people, but as Gen Z has aged into the workforce, unprecendted new questions about them have started to emerge.

Is Gen Z cringe now? That's the question posed by the Gen Z Boss and a Mini meme that is now taking over TikTok. Here's what we know about the meme, the video it came from, and the existential question it is now posing about an entire generation.

The original video this meme is based on was posted by the beauty company TBH Skincare and features a group of young employees dancing and chanting in a circle as they each take turns describing their characteristics.

The video was inspired by a similar meme called "boots and a slicked back bun" in which three girls chanted in a circle and took turns describing their outfits.

The meme itself isn't all that complicated, but it eventually went viral, and as it spread, it got co-opted by various companies and corporate accounts. That's where this TBH Skincare video comes in. The video went viral in large part because many people thought it was "cringe" and was evidence of the kinds of events modern corporations often ask their employees to attend as a kind of "forced fun."

"Gen Z is very rapidly going through the process that Millennials went through that made them old and cringe," one person wrote on Twitter.

Gen Z have, until quite recently, been on the other end of that dynamic, making fun of millennials for their avowed sincerity and their love for things like Harry Potter and Taylor Swift. Now, it seems this video is being used by many as evidence that the worm is turning on Gen Z.

While the Gen Z Boss and a Mini meme has opened up an entire conversation about the aging of Gen Z, the video itself is relatively harmless. It's just a video that has gone viral largely because people are judging it, which unfortunately probably isn't what the skincare brand was going for when they pushed it out in the first place.

Keeping up with exactly what is acceptable on a platform like TikTok can be exhausting, especially because what is and isn't "cringe" can change with incredible frequency. For all of the talk about Gen Z being cringe, though, it's worth remembering that the video is also an example of the various ways that workplaces can try to make being in the office seem fun, whether you're being productive or not.

As long as nobody's getting harassed, it's all in good fun. The only issue with videos like this getting judged comes when people are attacked or bullied for being a part of a video. None of it really matters that much, and that's important to remember.