Last week, TikTok creator Eric Sedeño posted a viral skit titled *“POV: You have a type B coworker.”* In it, the coworker strolls into the office well past 10 a.m., laptop barely clinging to 5% battery.
“I went to bed at, like, 4 a.m. last night,” he admits. “Seriously, work is so hard today,” he groans—before promptly dozing off on the office couch. When he *is* working, his headphones blast music while he multitasks on Instagram Live. “When’s that big presentation?” he asks casually. (Spoiler: it’s today.)
The punchline? “If you don’t have a type B coworker like this,” the caption reads, “it’s probably you.”
Comments poured in:
*“Type B people EXPECT everything to work out fine for them—and it always does.”*
*“This is literally the person who actually gets promoted.”*
On TikTok, “type B” content is having a moment. Videos celebrating—or venting about—this laid-back, chaotic energy have racked up thousands of views. The trend draws a sharp contrast: type A = hyper-organized, deadline-driven, and tightly wound; type B = relaxed, spontaneous, and effortlessly unbothered.
Much like Myers-Briggs types or introvert/extrovert labels, these personality tags offer a shorthand for explaining behavior—especially in the workplace. They can help us recognize patterns, play to our strengths, or even navigate team dynamics.
But here’s the catch: real people rarely fit neatly into binary boxes. What if you’re a meticulously scheduled type A at work but your personal life looks like a tornado hit it? Or if you’re an “introverted extrovert”—energized by people but drained by too much interaction? These contradictions are not just common; they’re human.
The truth is, personality exists on a spectrum. Slapping on a label can flatten nuance and misrepresent someone’s full range of traits. After all, you can be detail-oriented *and* flexible, ambitious *and* chill, structured *and* creative.
And neither type is inherently superior. We tend to romanticize the “best” traits of each—type A’s reliability, type B’s adaptability—while ignoring their downsides: burnout on one end, disorganization on the other.
Interestingly, a 2023 study in *Nature* found that startups with diverse personality types on their teams were more likely to thrive. Balance, it seems, beats polarization.
While the type A/B framework originated in the 1950s (when cardiologists linked certain traits in white, middle-class men to heart disease risk), it’s long since lost scientific credibility. Today, it functions more as pop psychology—a fun icebreaker, a dating profile quip, or a TikTok trope.
Still, the internet loves dissecting personality types. They’re relatable, shareable, and oddly comforting in their simplicity.
(For the record? I’m type A. An introverted extrovert. INFJ. And yes, I do color-code my calendar.)
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