TikToker DeAndre Brown Is "Super Serious" About Work-Life Balance

if you ever heard the term "Corporate Baddie," we guarantee you your boss didn't make that phrase up. Viral TikToker DeAndre Brown has created a movement as the Head of the "Corporate Baddies" club and continues to show us through his unique content and fun video commentary why he's one of the content creators to watch as the year continues. Generating over 500,000+ followers on TikTok and 80,000+ on Instagram has led this creator to one of his biggest accomplishments receivingAdweek's Career Creator Of The Year this past May.

In an interview with The Blast correspondent Ty Cole, the content creator shared how it "impacted" him a lot to accept the award.

"It really impacts me a lot," he shared.

"It means so much to me. I talk to my mom about this [yesterday] — the fact that so many people just resonate with my content, believe in me, and I'm not the only person at my job going through these experiences alone. It meant a lot. Also, participating in interview opportunities with people who are doing articles about Gen-Z in the workplace, I laugh because they tell me they are conducting a lot of research while  I'm posting videos as well as scoping the comments doing the same research they are doing. It feels like I'm a firsthand reporter."

We all are mindful about what we post on our social media, especially when employed because you never want to push your company into having a conversation with you about the content you're posting on your personal pages — which is why a lot of people do not accept their colleagues or have their social media pages locked from being viewable. 

Even a popular TikToker goes through the same thing as Brown shared he was reluctant in posting his videos on TikTok as he feared "losing his job."

"I was really scared at first because I thought I would lose my job and I was really going out on a limb," he expressed.

"A lot of Black people at my job know about my content and they love it. They always tell me to keep going, how I'm exceptionally great at this and don't stop. I'm in a rotational program and at the time I was working under a Black SVP. He was so supportive and a lot of other people were supportive, too. Now, I've had some shady comments come from others and not being so supportive. I remember a colleague once said to me when do I find the time to do my work if I'm always making videos. However, the support outweighs the hate. The people I care about and who I'm trying to reach, who is a minority audience, really enjoy it. Also, the videos you see of me where I appear off-camera is not me at all as I'm always camera-ready.

Friendships with your colleagues are always tricky.

Brown shares that while he doesn't mind creating friendships with colleagues, he does feel it should only remain at work.

"Friendships at the workplace should definitely be a thing, but I feel it should remain in the workplace if it makes sense," he expressed.

"You can be like my 9-5 friend or have friends at work. When you think about it, you spend a lot of time with people at your job when you're at work and more time working than anything else you do in your personal life. I think it's super important that you do feel comfortable where you work. I feel the best way at least for me to be comfortable and feel welcomed at a job is to build relationships with those people I work with. Building friendships and checking in on each other is super important. However, I will say that I feel like a lot of work relationships shouldn't be brought outside of work. I know some people do it. But for me personally, I don't. Maybe it's because I'm the youngest on the team and everyone is 50+ — we have nothing to talk about outside of work." 

Brown also shares his pet peeve in the workplace, which is a work-life balance.

"Because I work in banking, I would say not respecting my work-life balance," he shared.

"I take that super serious. I am a person and I have a life. I always say when it hits five'o clock, I'll see you tomorrow at 9 in the morning. I really do not like receiving emails past five'o clock — there are just certain things I won't tolerate. It's gotten to the point where I don't even have to deal with that because not only am I vocal about it, but I'm also vocal about it on social media so people may just say to themselves to not even bother him."

We all love some good trap music that gets us hype from time to time. Brown shares a few trap artists you may find on his playlist like Lil Baby and Future. 

"Okay, anything Lil Baby," he expressed.

"I like Lil Durk and Future. Love Future."