Young woman loses six-figure tech job after 20-second TikTok video

Michelle Serna thought the TikTok video was innocent, then she was fired. Photo / TikTok, @brokeasshorsegirl

A 24-year-old tech employee says she was fired from her six-figure job over a 20-second TikTok video.

Michelle Serna, who was working remotely in the US, was on a weekly team meeting when she filmed a funny video of her spilt coffee.

She said she had gone off camera because what was being discussed was not relevant to her.

“I did not use my big giant brain to think in the background of that video you could hear my chief product officer talking,” she said on separate video explaining the aftermath.

The next day Serna said she was called into a meeting with HR and the chief product officer.

“They said ‘Hey, someone sent us this video and we are immediately dismissing you from the company for gross negligence,’” she said.

Serna claimed confidential matters had not been discussed in the background to her original video and while she didn’t think she should have been fired, she did own the mistake.

“I f**ked up. It was an oversight. I will 100 per cent accept that,” she said.

In typical Gen Z fashion, Serna has said she is actually not all that bothered by the situation, has accepted it and is moving on with her life, using TikTok to help.

Serna has launched her own business, Bridle, selling software to equine professionals.

The young entrepreneur has promised TikTok users she is going to show them every step of growing the business.

Serna was still in school when she first made a name for herself giving talks, including TED talks, about the problematic side of pageants – prompted by a rodeo pageant judge once telling her she was “pretty but not queen pretty”.

In college, Serna was diagnosed with epilepsy after a head injury and dropped out of her studies.

She said she was depressed and had suicidal thoughts but after help she began public speaking again, and entered the tech industry via a start-up.

She said she got her first six-figure role working for a company that developed medical devices. She went on to work in big pharma before moving back to a start-up and getting fired.