How TikTok’s head of U.S. security finds a option to log out social media

It isn’t straightforward for Eric Han to get away from work or social media. Han, 35, is the pinnacle of U.S. security at TikTok, which noticed its user base skyrocket throughout lockdowns. Since 2020, the social media app has additionally acquired increasing scrutiny over the way it handles the unfold misinformation, disinformation and graphic content material in a unstable world information cycle.

Han has spent 14 years within the belief and security area and began his profession as a content material moderator, all of which is to say work is all the time busy. However given his intense workload, Han says it is important for him to decompress by taking significant breaks, and to mannequin it as a pacesetter to his staff.

“To be fairly sincere, for belief and security of us, particularly for myself, it is form of a push to get us to take PTO,” Han tells CNBC Make It. “The sector attracts lots of altruistic people who find themselves mission-driven and have a mentality of wanting to maintain the platform secure.”

However the sort of tradition can lead individuals to burn out, even at an organization like TikTok that gives U.S. workers 17 trip days per yr. “We’ll inform individuals who have not taken trip shortly, ‘You have to decelerate to hurry up,'” Han says.

Right here, Han shares how even a belief and security skilled at a social media firm can unplug from work.

How he changed his journey pastime throughout Covid lockdowns: I am the kind of one that plans journeys and has sufficient Google docs, Lonely Planet and TripAdvisor tabs open to crash a pc. However through the pandemic, my spouse, who works in drugs, and I could not take our regular large journeys to Southeast Asia or Europe. So, we constructed a backyard.

I’ve informed my staff, “I will take two days off to simply plant seedlings.” I by no means thought I might be the kind of individual that has a favourite tomato — which is black krim, by the best way — however two-and-a-half years into it, that is the place my peace aspect is. There is a profit to the place I can have a Zen interval and simply go exterior all through the day. I can pepper it in all through the day or take a day or two off to simply sit in my backyard.

The significance of redefining what time without work seems like: Contemplating the work we do in belief and security, and given the heavy information cycle lately, we acknowledge our staff wants additional time to decompress. From a management perspective, we’ve got to verify we not solely have the best intention in place, but in addition be certain that at an institutional degree we’ve got sources baked in, like psychological well being days and emotional help providers.

Tricks to cease checking social media on trip: I’ve used an app referred to as Freedom that limits my entry to sure websites and apps. Different instances, I am going to simply delete social media like Reddit, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok off my telephone. The problem is all the time sticking to it.

I do not carry my telephone to sure locations. Generally I am going to depart it locked within the resort. My mother and father grew up in a village in Malaysia, so once I go to I could be intentional and assume, “I will part of the nation that does not have good reception anyway.” I can flip off my Twitter mind or not have a look at Instagram.

I additionally do lots of pictures once I journey, so I can give attention to that.

Why he and his staff are continually encouraging breaks: We’re speaking about time without work on a regular basis. It is similar to saying, “Hey, how are you? What’d you do that weekend? And, oh, do you want additional time without work?”

We’re all very expressive individuals and we deal with one another. A whole lot of that’s constructed into our tradition, by way of ensuring that we verify in and encourage one another to do enjoyable issues.

What he’d inform his 25-year-old self about taking time without work: Be extra adventurous.

Each 5 to seven years, I might go on journeys with my mother and father to the place they grew up in Southeast Asia. In my 20s, I’d a lot slightly be going out with my pals in Vegas. I in all probability had a youthful perspective of, “I will a village with no reception?” Now, I can not wait to do these issues.

It took me some time to think about how a lot of a privilege it was to attach not solely with my household, however my ancestors and the place I got here from. These had been among the extra transformative moments I’ve had as a person studying the place I got here from.

This interview has been edited for size and readability.

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