Yahoo Lifestyle Who is ‘Corporate Erin,’ the satirical and relatable Gen Z employee?
Professionals on TikTok are getting “triggered” and “PTSD” from a viral character known as “Corporate Erin,” who has quickly become one of the most relatable figures on the app.
“Corporate Erin” is the brainchild of Lisa Beasley (@lisabevolving), a Chicago actor and comedian. She posted her first “Erin” video in 2021, but she has started to post on a more consistent basis since late 2022. On Nov. 13, Beasley posted her most successful “Corporate Erin” video, receiving over 4 million views.
“I had dipped off from acting and took five years and did corporate because I wanted to know what it was like to have money,” she told In The Know by Yahoo. “’Corporate Erin’ was all of them. That was the wild part is that it was so many of them, there isn’t one direct influence.”
Many viewers have offered praise for how “spot on” her posts have been for them, with commenters sharing that they saw aspects of their co-workers and bosses in her portrayals.
“This is SPOT ON. The corporate accent, the nonsense, the talking for 30 mins and saying NOTHING,” replied @charnell131.
“The intonation and curled words….insanely accurate,” commented @k3ls.
Although a performer now, Beasley spent several years at various levels in corporations and has used that to her advantage.
On her page, Beasley has 38 “Corporate Erin” videos in a playlist. Although she has begun posting more skits recently, there was a time when Beasley wanted to space out her posts because of the unexpected responses she was getting.
“Some people are DMing me like, ‘No, but for real I think I have PTSD,’ so that’s also shocking,” she said. “I used to take the triggering comments so seriously. So I’d come on, she’d get a million views, but then everyone would be triggered. And I’m like, ‘You know what? I’m gonna give people a break.’”
In the moments when Beasley gives “Erin” a break, she posts to another playlist of hers “Corporate Sprinkle Sprinkle,” which is a play on Leticia Padua, aka Shera Seven’s (@therealsheraseven) videos.
“She talks about relationships and things you shouldn’t accept from a man,” Beasley said. For “corporate sprinkle sprinkle” posts, Beasley’s character “goes live to say what you shouldn’t take from a job and treatment you shouldn’t take from a job.”
Regardless of which format she uses, Beasley sheds light on some of her least favorite characteristics of corporate culture and challenges many of the processes she saw as an employee — whether questioning why a meeting is at a certain time or asking to be reimbursed in a timely manner.
“I want people to start questioning the practices of the way America works because don’t nobody like it,” she said. “It’s the reason we all hate going to work, for real.”
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