This week, we distill insights around I Quit viral resignation - millennial Marina Shifrin quit her job at a Taiwanese animation company by posting a video on YouTube, which got picked up by Gawker.com and immediately went viral. For more about I Quit, visit: http://peopleslab.mslgroup.com/peoplesinsights/i-quit-viral-resignation-peoples-insights-volume-2-issue-39/ 100+ thinkers and planners within MSLGROUP share and discuss inspiring projects on reputation, employee engagement and citizenship on the MSLGROUP Insights Network. Every week, we pick up one project and do a deep dive into conversations around it -- on the MSLGROUP Insights Network itself but also on the broader social web -- to distill insights and foresights. We share these insights with you on our People’s Insights blog and compile the best insights from the network and the blog in the People’s Insights Quarterly Magazine, as a showcase of our capabilities. We have further synthesized the insights to provide foresights for business leaders and changemakers — in the ten-part People’s Insights annual report titled Now & Next: Ten Frontiers for the Future of Engagement, now available as a Kindle eBook. For more, see: http://peopleslab.mslgroup.com/future-of-engagement

1. Reputation | Employee Engagement | Citizenship
I Quit! Viral
resignation
People’s Insights: Volume 2, Issue 39

2. What is I Quit?
In September 2013,
millennial Marina Shifrin
quit her job at a Taiwanese
animation company by
posting a video on
YouTube. The video was
picked up by Gawker.com
and immediately went viral,
sparking a global online
debate.
Her employers responded
with a letter to Gawker and
a parody video to
showcase their point of
view and announce that
they had a job vacancy.
Source: Dailystar.co.uk

3. 16 million views in 2 months
Shifrin’s video shows her
dancing in her office at
4:30am, while working the
midnight shift, to Kanye
West’s Gone. Her video
received 16 million views
and 18,000+ comments
within two months.
Source: Dailystar.co.uk

4. People’s response to the video
She's got my support. Some are so quick to bash
her, but people deal with some crazy, illogical,
psychological crap on a job, and I can only
imagine the narcissism she put up with, the office
egos, the feeling of oppression and having your
talents squandered, and even the disgust at
watching a company deteriorate because of poor
management and ethics. Dance on, Marina!
YouTube user Blackbyrd
Many people applauded
Shifrin’s initiative to quit a
job she was unhappy in,
Some people also shared
the same dissatisfaction
with their jobs and
identified themselves with
her.
Others didn’t approve the
decision to quit, and
wondered why Shifrin
didn’t contribute to a
solution at the company.

5. ‘Is it okay to quit in such a public
manner?’
The video also inspired
discussion around personal
branding and the eternal
memory of the internet.
Comments focused around
the question ‘Is it okay to
quit in such a public
manner?’
A YouTube user noted that
in a world driven by the
number of views and clicks,
this video demonstrates
Shifrin’s understanding of
the medium and makes her
a talent worth hiring.

6. Initial backlash towards the
employer
The video inspired a lot of
backlash towards Shifrin’s
employer Next Media
Animation (NMA), and
brought up people’s
perception of Asian
employers as sweatshop
drivers. These responses
actually moved the
company to respond and
share their side of the story.
Source: Gawker.com

7. Employer’s quick response and Q & A
session
NMA’s Mark Simon
responded to the video with
a letter to Gawker, and by
publishing their own video –
a quick three days after the
original video was posted.
He spoke well of Shifrin,
and sought to clarify some
of the concerns raised by
viewers across the globe.
In addition - he invited
people to ask their
questions on Gawker and
answered them in the
comments.

8. Impact of the response
NMA’s quick response,
openness to discuss the
issue further and continued
respect for Shifrin ensured
a lot of support from the
web population.
NMA also reportedly
received 100 applications to
the position vacated by
Shifrin.
Source: bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24394754

9. Working in a different cultural
environment
Both videos encouraged
discussion around the
cultural differences involved
in working in a different
country.

10. What happened to Marina?
Shifrin became an instant
web celebrity, and was
invited to share her
experience on The
Huffington Post and on
The Queen Latifah
Show.
Shifrin was offered a job
by Queen Latifah, but
appears to have turned it
down. According to her
social channels, Shifrin is
pursuing her dream to
become a comedian.
Source: Daily News.com

11. Was this a PR stunt?
Several people joked about the
authenticity of the videos, some
said that it would have made for
a very successful PR stunt.
TIME magazine’s Laura
Stampler wrote:
“Shifrin’s video accumulated
almost 8.5 million views in only
four days, while Next Media
animation’s respo is up to
500,000 in just one. The whole
thing makes us wonder, was
this all some sort of viral
marketing scheme? Does that
puppet master Jimmy Kimmel
have anything to do with this?”
Source: Times.com

12. Millennials & Personal Branding
Some people wondered if
the buzz around “millennial
workers” was responsible
for boosting the viral reach
of Shifrin’s video. Indeed,
the video did spark some
reflection on millennial
attitudes and personal
branding.
Source: blogs.wsj.com

13. Read People’s Lab insights & foresights
The People’s Lab team shares the insights and foresights from the
MSLGROUP Insights Network on the People’s Insights weekly blog , quarterly
magazine and annual report.
MSLGROUP
INSIGHTS NETWORK
100+ MSLGROUP planners
share and discuss inspiring
projects on reputation,
employee engagement and
citizenship.
PEOPLE’S INSIGHTS
WEEKLY BLOG
PEOPLE’S INSIGHTS
QUARTERLY MAGAZINE
We deep dive into
conversations around one
project to distill insights and
foresights.
Every quarter, we compile the
best insights from the network
and the blog into a magazine,
as a showcase of our
capabilities.
For more, visit http://peopleslab.mslgroup.com/peoplesinsights

14. People’s Lab: Crowdsourcing Insights &
Innovation
People’s Lab is MSLGROUP’s proprietary crowdsourcing platform and
approach that helps organizations tap into people’s insight for innovation,
storytelling and change.
For more, visit http://peopleslab.mslgroup.com/peoplesinsights

15. For People’s Lab solutions,
please contact:
pascal.beucler@mslgroup.com