22-year-old exits job interview when asked to work on weekends: 'Weekends are for football, not work'

Workplace stress and a lack of work-life balance are two of the top reasons people quit their jobs. “When it comes to what makes them choose an organization to work for, good work/life balance and learning and development opportunities are their top priorities,” the Deloitte Global 2022 Gen Z and Millennial Survey found. Justin Ross—better known on TikTok as @hey9Letters—left a job interview for a part-time position after finding the position required working weekends. In a video that's now going viral, the 22-year-old can be heard asking, “Yeah, I’m sorry, you said it was a weekend job?” The interviewer says it is. “Yeah, that works,” Ross replies, before abruptly hanging up.

In the caption, he stated that NFL RedZone, which airs all day on Sundays during the NFL regular season, "comes first.” Ross says there's a generational gap in how people see work-life balance. “One thing that is really slept on with our generation is that we’re trolling on the internet and we make light out of dark situations, but we are in tune to a lot of things at the same time,” he said in an interview with NBC News. “And I think the older generations, it looks to them like we’re lazy or we’re not following through on things they followed through with, but there are more factors that go into it.”

Ross thinks that young people have fewer reasons to be devoted to or appreciative of any one company when it appears that many of them undervalue employees or fail to satisfy their requirements. These changing views are consistent with Gen Z's propensity to establish more rigid limits both at work and throughout the job search. According to Ross, a California resident, it is almost hard for Gen Zers today to work a minimum-wage job and generate enough money to afford a one-person apartment. Instead, he claimed, taking on extra employment on the side to barely make ends meet has become the norm. According to the Deloitte poll, 43% of them have added a part- or full-time paid job to their current employment. “If the job is not respecting you or giving you value in the way you see fit or meeting your scheduling standards or things like that,” Ross said, “it’s time to find a new opportunity because there’s more out there and it’s not even worth it.”

Regarding his video, Ross didn't anticipate such a display of unity. The sample was initially shared on Snapchat, but when his followers started swiping up to comment on how funny the scenario was, he made the decision to upload the video to TikTok. The majority of people who commented on the article endorsed the choice, with some expressing surprise at the audacious action and others stating they would follow suit.

Ross said that his interviewer hasn't contacted him with any follow-up questions since his abrupt withdrawal from the interview. He asserted that he believes the interviewer "knew what it was." He made the decision to end the conversation without hesitation. Ross stated that he absolutely loves the sport, even though his TikTok video was "just for jokes." Even though he is no longer on the field, he still makes it a point to watch the game every Sunday as a fan because he has been playing the sport since he was 5 years old. “Football has always been a part of me,” he said.

Ross stated that he will keep working on his music while attending junior college for the time being. And as long as it doesn't conflict with his Sunday football schedule, he's glad to secure a part-time position.