First came Marina Shifrin, the young woman who quit her job by busting a move in her empty office at 4:30 a.m., filming the evidence and posting it to YouTube, where it's racked up more than 13-million views.
"For almost two years I've sacrificed my relationships, time and energy for this job," reads the caption as Shifrin pranced around the offices of Next Media Animation, which makes over-the-top re-enactments of pop culture's more regrettable moments. (NMA has responded with a rebuttal video, "We're hiring" being the takeaway.)
Now, a work-from-home mom is gaining traction for her own quitting video, complete with awkward mom dance moves.
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Brenna Jennings, who works from home as a Web designer, has had it with making everyone's beds when they're away at school or at their own jobs. "They trash my house," Jennings says of her family. "My kid's room is a hell hole. … I wash dishes while I work," continues Jennings, who's also tired of the "fresh pink hell" – her daughter's toys.
"I work from home, full-time, for a real organization with actual business hours and technological methods of ensuring I'm at my desk fulfilling my obligations between roughly 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.," she writes at her blog, Suburban Snapshots. "It's a great arrangement with one big flaw."
She explains that work-from-home moms get sucked into this guilt-loaded mentality: "Well, since I don't have to look at my laptop during this conference call, I'll just pick up all these shoes, make the beds, wipe down the bathroom sink, unload the dishwasher, put the dogs out and get a jump on grouting the bathtub." Not to mention household admin, from drawing up grocery lists to scheduling doctor appointments.
Shifrin's video motivated Jennings to make her own, and quit the part of her job "that doesn't pay me in money or medical benefits." Quitting family is a tad more problematic than Shifrin's exit, and Jennings slams the front door only to admit she's just stepping out for milk.
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Reactions have ranged from laudatory to judgmental. One loaded comment on Jezebel came from June Bug, who said she's a mom: "If she had time to make a video and she's that upset about the "flotsam in the sink" maybe she should have skipped movie-making and swiped a Clorox wipe through her bathroom real quick." That didn't go over well.
Other viewers recognized the humour in the exercise, while another had this tip: "Am I the only mean parent here who makes the kids do their own cleaning, or else no fun stuff?