59 trending HR buzzwords, CHRO can’t ignore

HR buzzwords like #WorkTok, Quiet Hiring, Lazy Girl Jobs, Personality Hire, Boomerang Employees, Unretiring, Bare Minimum Mondays, Ghost Jobs, Career Cushioning, and Conscious Quitting reflect current workplace trends and attitudes. These terms can enhance employee engagement, foster a sense of community, and improve workplace culture. However, they also pose challenges such as potential overburdening of employees, perceptions of low productivity, misleading jobseekers, and higher turnover rates. Organizations must manage these trends effectively to balance the benefits and mitigate the risks.

HR jargon like silent resignation, ghost jobs, and sector hopping is often used on social media. People are using social media to share their perspectives about the job.

People are naming employment practices and sharing their tales and thoughts about work on social media, therefore, HR terms are becoming commonplace.

Employees can use social networking platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and TikTok to discuss workplace buzzwords, solicit feedback from others, and post personal ideas and anecdotes.

While these phrases may appear to be new, many of these behaviors have been present for years, albeit with trendy new names. Here are some of the terms:.

1. Employee experience:

Employee experience, or EX, relates to how employees perceive an organization and how they are treated throughout their employment. The employee experience encompasses all interactions with the firm, including the hiring process, employment, and leave. It differs from employee involvement, which focuses primarily on current employment.

Companies that focus on the employee and provide a positive experience realize many benefits, including the following:

More productive employees
Increased quality of work
Higher employee retention rates
Lower absenteeism rates
Improved customer relations

2. The Great Resignation:

The COVID-19 pandemic marked a shift in the way people worked, and millions of people began quitting their employment in 2021, kicking off what is now known as the Great Resignation. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 48 million people voluntarily left their jobs in 2021.

Some experts claim that the Great Resignation is still going on, with 4.2 million people departing in August 2022, which is a little difference from previous months. The average of 4 million people departing each month breaks the previous record established in 2019, which was 3.5 million.
Reasons people quit their jobs, according to a Pew Research survey, included the following:

Job insecurity
Higher pay
Better work-life balance
There are no opportunities for advancement
New career path
Child or elderly relative care
Not enough flexibility
Relocofation
Feeling disrespected at work
Number hours
Lack of benefits

3. Quiet quitting:

Quiet leaving entails performing the bare minimum to complete the task and establishing clear limits to achieve work-life balance. This indicates that employees are still doing their jobs, but they are disregarding hustle culture in order to impress their bosses. There is a strong distinction between professional and personal lives.

Quiet resignation may sometimes indicate that an employee is unhappy or burned out. It was featured in a TikTok video and quickly acquired popularity, sparking debate about whether it indicated that an employee was burned out or looking for appropriate boundaries.

4. Quiet firing:

Quiet firing, like quiet resignation, addresses the employee-employer relationship, but from the management perspective. Instead of firing someone outright, silent firing refers to mistreating or disengaging an employee to the point that they leave on their own.

Examples of how management can quietly fire an employee include the following:

Little or no salary increase
Micromanaging
Lack of respect
Leaving employee out of meetings
Singling employee out to answer tough questions in meetings
Reduced hours
Little time off
Reduced hours without explanation
Increased workload without increased pay
Leaving out of social gatherings
Keeping the employee out of the loop
Low pay

A manager can quietly fire an employee by assigning them the worst responsibilities and condemning minor errors. Quiet firing is a means of getting rid of an employee who a manager may dislike without risking a lawsuit, as firing necessitates documentation that leads to termination. If an employee quits on their own, the manager is not required to fill out this documentation.

5. Quick quitting:

As Americans become more comfortable leaving their jobs, rapid quitting has grown in popularity, with some departing after less than a year of employment. People are more likely to look for a new job if they are dissatisfied than to stay in their current position for an extended period of time. People are quitting for better compensation and work-life balance, therefore, they are constantly looking for new chances.

Quick quitting has grown in recent years, according to LinkedIn’s Workforce Insights.

6. Anti-perks:

Anti-perks are benefits that employees reject because they believe they would hurt productivity or their well-being. The word became popular after developer relations advocate Jessica Rose tweeted about anti-perks in IT professions. She stated that while these bonuses sound appealing, employees turn them down.

Some examples of anti-perks may be the following:

Free dinner
Catered lunches
Massages
Nap rooms
Video games
Unlimited vacation
Fitness rooms
Pet-friendly offices
Mandatory fun events
Alcohol

Employees are different. Some may appreciate these benefits, while others say they want more, such as higher income, a nice work environment, and respect. Unlimited vacation may appear to be a benefit, but some employees claim that it relieves employers of the responsibility of paying for unused vacation time when employees depart.

7. Digital nomad:

People are migrating from place to place, leading nomadic lifestyles, as remote employment possibilities become increasingly prevalent. Digital nomads can work anywhere with internet access, which includes the following:

libraries
hotels
temporary housing
cafes
coworking spaces
recreational vehicles

Some digital nomads may only do this momentarily, while others may spend more time traveling between nations. Some governments are even promoting digital nomad visas in order to attract people to temporarily reside and work in their country. These visas allow them to receive foreign money over an extended period of time.

Some of these countries and territories offering nomad visas are the following:

Anguilla
Bahamas
Bermuda
Cayman Islands
Croatia
Costa Rica
Curaçao
Dominica
Estonia
Georgia
Germany
Iceland
Mexico
Norway
Portugal
Taiwan

8. Industry hopping

Moving sectors is what industry hopping entails, not just changing professions. According to a McKinsey report, 48% of people who resigned their employment in the last few years found new jobs in different industries. According to the same survey, people are looking for higher-paying jobs that offer more freedom.

There are numerous low-cost training possibilities to assist people in transitioning professions, including boot camp coding courses, online classes, and certificates.

9. Emotional intelligence:

Emotional intelligence is how a person understands, perceives, uses, handles and manages their emotions. People with higher emotional intelligence recognize their emotions and use tactics — such as taking time to slow down, performing self-care and stepping away from the situation — to guide their behavior.

The five components of emotional intelligence are the following:

Self-regulation
Self-awareness
Social skills
Empathy
Motivation

Employers often test emotional intelligence to ensure employees can handle stressful situations in leadership.

10. Skills gap:

The difference between the skills employers want in a candidate and the experience the candidate has is called the skills gap. Work is constantly changing due to emerging technologies, such as machine learning, AI and automation, which change the skills employers need. Because of this, there is now a skills gap.

Eighty-seven percent of companies worldwide said they are already facing a skills gap or will in the near future, according to a survey from McKinsey. To manage this skills gaps, companies are reskilling and training existing employees, shifting workers to new roles, hiring freelancers or contractors, hiring talent and acquiring other firms.

11. Soft skills

Soft skills are not tied to one specific job and are interpersonal skills to help people work with others. Soft skills help employees fit into the workplace and include aspects such as the following:

Attitude
Flexibility
Motivation
Personality
Manners
Communication
Time management
Problem-solving
Teamwork
Leadership

Soft skills are typically the reasons employers promote or keep employees because technical skills, or hard skills, can be taught and are easier to learn. Hard skills are specific to the job, such as understanding coding for a developer, while soft skills apply to all jobs, such as problem-solving.

12. Ghost jobs

Ghost jobs are postings that companies have no intention of filling in the near future. These postings may stay online after someone is already hired for a position, may be posted early for a position in the future or the job may not exist at all.

Companies do this to gauge the talent pool, and ghost jobs are a way of looking for talent. Recruiters may also use ghost jobs to keep resumes of qualified candidates so they have contacts if an employee leaves or a new position opens.

13. Hustle culture

Hustle culture refers to the mentality that employees must work more than normal hours to advance their careers. The term hustle means to push someone to move faster and more aggressively, according to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary. Hustle culture is also called grind culture or burnout culture.

Hustle culture encourages employees to work longer hours and get work done at a more rapid pace. Employees who buy into this culture may think about work during their time off.

Quiet quitting has been termed as rejecting hustle culture with a better work-life balance by setting boundaries with work.

14. Labour hoarding

Labour hoarding describes when companies keep employees during tough economic times — such as a recession — instead of laying them off because they feel it will save money in the long term. Layoffs may subside some costs in the immediate future, but when the economy recovers, companies spend large amounts of money on recruiting, rehiring and training staff. Labor hoarding allows companies to avoid these additional costs.

The pandemic changed the way companies think about layoffs, according to a survey by Employ and Jobvite. Companies are more reluctant to let employees go after being shorthanded during the pandemic and during the Great Recession.

15. Gaslighting

Merriam-Webster named gaslighting as the word of the year for 2022. Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation used to mislead someone. The gaslighter forces a person to question their own version of events, causing self-doubt. Typically, gaslighting happens over an extended period and the victim questions their own thoughts, becomes confused and loses confidence. Gaslighting can lead to emotional and mental instability, and the victim may become dependent on their gaslighter.

The term came from the 1938 play Gaslight, where a protagonist husband convinces his wife she is going crazy even though she isn’t. For example, the husband tells his wife that she is imagining the dimming of the gas light in their home.

Fake news, trolls, conspiracy theories and deep fakes can be considered forms of gaslighting and are common in today’s news cycle.

Gaslighting can happen in the workplace. Signs of gaslighting include:

Hearing persistent negative accounts of performance
Questioning perception of reality in the workplace
Hearing negative gossip
Pointing to mistakes that are not true
Being told something wasn’t said when it was
Being criticized publicly but hearing praise in private
Feeling belittled about emotions, perceptions and efforts
Excluding someone from meetings or events related to their job

16. Side gig or side hustle

A side gig, or side hustle, is a job that a person works in addition to their primary job to provide supplemental income. Sometimes referred to as moonlighting, a side gig can be full-time, part-time or freelance work. Around 45% of Americans have a side hustle, according to a survey from Self, and 30% of people with side gigs say they need the extra income to cover expenses.

Side gigs grew in popularity when the cost of living increased and wages did not keep up with the rising inflation. With the rise of work flexibility, some people can complete these side jobs from home.

The creator and gig economies enable people to earn money on the side. Some people choose to continue their full-time job until their side gig can grow to cover their needed income. With creator jobs, the person decides on the tasks and compensation. Gig economy jobs are company standardized with set payments, such as Uber or Instacart.

Examples of side gigs include:

Accounting
Delivery driving
Fitness coach
Freelance writing
Graphic design
Photography
Selling clothes or crafts
Software development
Tutoring
Video blogger
Web developer

17. Green-collar job

A green-collar job refers to employment in the environmental sector. Green jobs use environmentally friendly policies, designs and technology to improve sustainability and conservation. Job opportunities in the clean energy industry grew twice as fast as the national average — growing at 46% versus the norm of 27% in the first eight months of 2022, according to Advanced Energy Economy’s report. The passage of the federal Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act will advance the clean energy workforce, the same report states.

Green-collar jobs focus on conserving the environment, decreasing pollution and improving energy efficiency. Types of green-collar jobs include areas such as:

Agriculture and forestry
Alternative fuels
Carbon capture
Clean electricity
Conservation
Energy sourcing
Engineering
Environmental science
Government regulation
Public transportation
Recycling
Research and design
Solar and wind power
Waste management

18. Quiet hiring

Quieting hiring is a term that describes businesses adding new skills and filling gaps without new full-time employees.

Employers may give current employees new roles or hire short-term help, such as contractors and freelancers. Moving employees to short-term roles can fill immediate needs and help companies prioritize their business needs. But there can be mixed reactions to this type of hiring. Some people are excited to learn more about a company, while others feel they are being spread too thin with more responsibilities for the same pay.

19. Rage-applying

Rage-applying is the act of a person applying to several jobs when fed up with their current role. Rage-applying is a term from TikTok, coined when a user named Redweez (or Red) posted a video saying she applied to 15 jobs because she was unhappy in her role, getting her a significant raise at a new company.

Workers are not afraid to leave their current role for a new job if they are fed up. Nearly 75% of survey respondents from a Lattice Survey study said they were either open to new opportunities or actively looking in the next 6–12 months.

20. Polymath:-

A polymath is someone with extensive knowledge in various subjects. A polymath is different from a generalist who knows a little bit about various subjects because the polymath has greater knowledge. Another term for polymath is a Renaissance man (or woman).

The term polymath is derived from the Greek root words poly- (meaning many) and manthanein (meaning learn). Some notable polymaths in history include Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Galileo and Thomas Jefferson.

For example, Leonard da Vinci was an amazing artist, mathematician, engineer and inventor. Not only are polymaths knowledgeable on topics, but they also have abundant skills, like da Vinci. A modern-day polymath may be athletic and artistic, with extensive knowledge of subjects such as history, law, science, and literature.

21. Tech shame

Tech shame refers to feeling judged for having technical issues at work. Tech shame can keep employees from engaging in meetings or speaking up when there is a problem. Younger employees are more likely than older employees to experience tech shame, according to a recent HP survey of 10,000 office workers worldwide. One in five younger workers felt shame, whereas only one in 25 older workers did.

22. Rolling recession

In a typical recession, organizations reduce their workforce and consumers slow down spending, which causes the economy to shrink. In a soft-landing recession, the economy slows down to a steady pace with limited labor market cuts while waiting for inflation to decrease.

In 2022 and 2023, news about a recession was met with some contradicting statistics. As of February 2023, the U.S. unemployment rate of 3.4% is at its lowest since May 1969, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Economists are using the term rolling recession to describe economic conditions. A rolling recession does not involve one large job layoff across industries, but instead occurs when sectors take turns making cuts. In late 2022 and early 2023, tech layoffs dominated news cycles, with big tech companies laying off thousands of employees. However, other employment sectors remained strong.

23. Quietly thriving

Quiet thriving is an alternative to the term quiet quitting. With quiet quitting, people do the bare minimum of their jobs to get by. With quiet thriving, people make changes to their workday to shift their mentality and feel more engaged.

Instead of focusing on negative aspects of their jobs, people turn to the positive and make notes of what they enjoy. Ways to quiet thrive in a job include:

Craft the job with management to do more likable tasks.
Join a committee or group to feel connected.
Make friends with coworkers.
Create an accomplishment list and keep adding to it.
Get advice from a career expert or mentor.
Set clear boundaries with work by setting firm deadlines.

24. The Great Regret

The Great Resignation has led to a new trending term: the Great Regret or Great Remorse. During the Great Resignation, 50.5 million people quit their jobs in 2022 and 47.8 million in 2021 for better pay, work environment and work-life balance, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, a recent study of people who quit their jobs during the Great Resignation shows that one in four people now regrets it and has resignation remorse, according to Joblist.

The same study also found that 42% of respondents said their new job is not meeting expectations, and 40% also stated that finding a new job was harder than they expected.

25. Hush trips:

Hush trips involve an employee working from a vacation destination and not revealing their location to their managers. Because more people are working remotely, they don’t think or feel it’s necessary to tell their employer when working from another location. People are working remotely from various destinations to take advantage of leisure activities after work.

There are a few concerns when employees take hush trips, such as secrecy. Employees who can’t be honest with employers may have more issues. Security is another concern, as employees may take company-issued computers out of town and use unsecured Wi-Fi networks. There may also be tax implications for companies depending on the length of time the employee works in certain states or countries.

26. Toxic workplace:

Toxic workplace environments harbor negative behaviors, such as manipulation, belittling, yelling, and discrimination. These behaviors make it hard for employees to do their jobs and work with coworkers.

This culture can lead to low productivity, conflict, lack of trust and high-stress levels. Employees may feel anxious, depressed or defensive. Employees may also find it difficult to speak up because of fears of punishment, rejection or humiliation.

Signs of a toxic workplace include:

No room for mistakes
Lack of trust
Role confusion
Excessive stress
Office gossip
High employee turnover rates
Unhealthy work boundaries
Lack of career support
Low morale and negativity

27. Great Betrayal

The Great Betrayal differs from the Great Resignation, which was about finding a better job. The Great Betrayal refers to employees feeling that the loyalty and stability of the workplace are not always what they seem.

Workers are choosing to freelance over full-time employment to enjoy freedom and flexibility. This mindset became more popular when massive tech layoffs started in late 2022. Employees felt there was no stability or security, no matter their job performance. The feeling is also fueled by the tight labor market, recession talks and financial concerns.

As laid-off employees started posting about their job losses on social media, others began questioning whether their employers were as supportive as they claimed. Employees are turning to the freelance market for more control.

28. Proximity bias:

Proximity bias describes the tendency of leadership to favor employees in the office. Managers with proximity bias view remote workers as less committed and productive than those in the office. The outdated assumption that people are more productive in the office than at home is a key driver of proximity bias.

Examples of proximity bias include:

Excluding remote employees for important meetings or events
Offering interesting projects to onsite employees only
Evaluating the onsite employee work higher than remote employees
Giving onsite employees more promotions or career advancement opportunities

29. Quittok

A new TikTok trend follows people on camera quitting their jobs. The new hashtag #quittok is becoming popular as people post these videos to the social media platform for others to see.

Coined as “loud quitting” instead of quiet quitting, these videos are garnering mixed reviews. While some people enjoy the videos and may take inspiration from them, HR professionals discourage this practice. The risky practice leaves a digital footprint and can be found on the internet for years to come, which may affect the person’s future employment.

30. Productivity theater

Productivity theater is a way for an employee to seem more productive by hacking digital communications, such as Slack or Teams. The employee wants to seem more available and busier than they are. They may appear to be working overtime or longer hours than in actuality.

Productivity theater isn’t just for remote workers. In-office employees may also engage in productivity theater.

Here are some examples of productivity theater:

Responding to an email or instant message quickly.
Keeping a laptop screen active when not working.
Scheduling an email to be sent at a future time.
Attending unnecessary meetings.
Completing extra research to stay busy.

31. Workfluencer:-

Workfluencers share work content on social media platforms such as TikTok and LinkedIn. Since more people work remotely, employees don’t feel they have the normal “water cooler” opportunities to discuss work with other coworkers, so they are turning to social media to talk about frustrations, advice and day-to-day work lives. Some topics are controversial, such as pay transparency, and some posts are behind the scenes to give career advice to followers based on how they handled a work issue, such as getting a raise or dealing with difficult coworkers.

These workfluencers are turning these videos into a side hustle to earn extra income. The hashtag #CareerTok has more than 1.3 billion views.

32. Perk-cession

Companies are scaling back on some of their fun benefits or perks, known as the perk-cession. These benefits once helped increase employee satisfaction and loyalty. Companies are doing these to prepare for a potential recession because benefits and perks tend to coincide with the strength of the economy.

Examples of perks companies are cutting back include:

Free food
Commuter benefits
Fertility assistance
Fitness classes
Pet insurance
Barista-brewed coffee
Free laundry and dry cleaning

Companies offered these benefits when competing for talent, but with financial cutbacks, they may not be hiring or feel losing these perks could save money.

33. Social loafing:

Social loafing is a psychological term that describes how people exert less effort when working in a group setting versus working alone. Reasons for social loafing include lack of motivation, no individual recognition and lack of accountability.

To prevent social loafing, divide tasks out, give individual assignments for accountability, and set expectations. Be sure to recognize the team for their efforts. Avoid making groups too large where employees have a hard time dividing out tasks.

34. Glass Cliff:

Glass cliff describes when women are promoted to leadership positions during difficult times, such as during a company crisis or recession. These settings can position women for failure. The concept of a glass cliff expands on the notion of the “glass ceiling,” which alludes to obstacles that women frequently encounter when trying to rise to leadership positions.

The term was originally coined in 2005 by researchers at the University of Exeter in the U.K. They found that promoting women to leadership often comes with negative associations and is compared to standing on the cliff’s edge – they fail and fall off.

Examples of recent leadership promotions that were considered glass cliffs include retailer Bed, Bath & Beyond’s CEO Sue Gove and Twitter’s CEO Linda Yaccarino.

35. Unretirement

During the Great Resignation, many older workers decided to retire early. Now, these workers are choosing to return to the workforce and “unretire.” Reasons for unretirement include the costs of inflation, finding a new sense of purpose and numerous employment choices.

These employees may return as consultants, mentors, or contractors, sharing their experience with others.

36. Empathy gap

Empathy gap is a cognitive bias that describes when people find it difficult to understand or relate to the experience and feelings of others.

Having an empathy gap can make it challenging to understand others from different cultural backgrounds, socioeconomic levels or marginalized groups. People may find it hard to relate to or understand someone going through a certain emotion for a circumstance they have not personally experienced.

37. Body doubling

Body doubling is a technique to help people with ADHD focus and complete a task. Body doubling involves having another person around, either physically or virtually, to help the other person get started or focus on a task.

The body double doesn’t help with the actual work, but instead keeps the person on task by working simultaneously and holding the person accountable by checking in.

38. Quiet ambition

Quiet quitting started the debate on work ethic and personal life balance. Now, quiet ambition describes a switch in person’s goals from job success determining fulfillment to finding careers supporting their personal life.

A person doesn’t work strictly for moving up in a company or improving the bottom line, but instead working toward personal dreams and fulfillment. They look for a career to fit around their life versus shuffling their personal life around their job.

39. Talent debt:-

Talent debt describes a group of disengaged employees that are unproductive and expensive to retain. During the Great Resignation, workers left positions for new jobs, and companies held on to workers to help cover the loss of talent. Employers fought to retain workers, but many are disengaged and underperforming.

The number of disengaged U.S. employees is the highest it has been in 10 years, according to a Gallup report. The lack of enthusiasm is creating talent debt.

40. Threat rigidity

Threat rigidity describes the tendency of businesses to respond to problems by stifling innovation and concentrating on what has worked in the past. The drawback of threat rigidity is that it ignores any changes in the business environment, which can limit a company’s growth and innovation.

Organizational psychologist Barry Staw first coined the term in the early 1980s. The term has been used lately as CEOs implement strict return-to-work requirements that seem out of touch with their workforce and their needs.

41. Loud quitting

Around one in five global employees is disengaged or loud quitting, according to a Gallup report. Loud quitting is different than quiet quitting because employees aren’t afraid to show their unhappiness at work and are directly acting out by taking actions that can harm the organization.

Some actions include bad mouthing superiors, completing tasks incorrectly and leaving online negative comments about the company on sites such as Glassdoor and LinkedIn.

42. The Big Stay

After the mass exodus of employees during the Great Resignation, more employees are sticking with their jobs in 2023. Coined “The Big Stay,” the next phase of the employee landscape started in 2023.

The rate of Americans leaving their jobs is down nearly 5% from 2022. Job openings also fell around 20% in March 2023 compared to March 2022, according to an ADP Research Institute report.

43. Bare minimum Mondays

A new viral trend suggests reducing Monday performance pressure to alleviate anxiety for the start of a new work week. Bare minimum Mondays encourage workers to do the least amount of work possible to start the week. It helps employees feel less anxious over the weekend and less overwhelmed on Monday mornings and Sunday evenings.

Studies show that one in four employees participates in bare minimum Mondays.

44. Lazy girl job:

The phrase “lazy girl jobs” describes flexible, well-paying jobs that allow for free time. The hashtag #lazygirljob is going viral on social media sites as workers brag about having time to unwind at work without sacrificing productivity.

This phrase is part of the rebellion against hustle culture. It went viral in May 2023 and has received more than 32.6 million views on TikTok.

45. The Great People Shortage:-

Experts warn of the Great People Shortage. Reports estimate that there may be a shortage of around 85 million people globally by 2030, equal to the size of the population of Germany.

When millions of people left their jobs during The Great Resignation in 2021, the labor market shifted, and some industries saw more employees leave than others — such as food service, manufacturing and health care. More employees want work-life balance, so remote or hybrid work is in higher demand. There are also skills gaps, creating an issue in finding the right employees.

46. Quiet cutting

Quiet cutting is a passive move by employers to reassign employees to new roles in the organization. However, these new roles are typically less prestigious, pay less and are more demanding. This is a tactic to push employees to quit, so employers do not have to pay severance. Employees are told their current job is cut and they need to move into the new role as part of an organizational restructure.

Quiet cutting plays on the fear of a weakening job market. However, some companies may use this tactic to keep employees instead of letting them go.

47. Sick guilt:

Sick guilt is when an employee feels obligated to go to work even when they are sick. They do this to prove how sick they are to their manager. The employee may even feel remorse when they are sick because they can’t perform their best or come to work. Sick guilt is tied to a toxic work environment because employees feel their managers do not trust them.

48. Employee burnout

Employee burnout is a problem in the workplace caused by a mismatch between job resources and job demands. Employees may feel workload pressure and work in a bad environment. Symptoms of burnout include severe exhaustion, mental detachment and a feeling of loss of control. Burnout can lead to more serious mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.

Around 44% of global employees felt stress at work. 2023 was the second year straight year with record levels of worker stress, according to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace: 2023 Report.

49. Boreout

Unlike burnout, which is the result of excessive work without adequate recognition, boreout stems from a lack of purpose and engagement in one’s tasks. The employee repeatedly works on tasks they perceive as pointless and has trouble finding value in their work.

Symptoms of boredom include heightened anxiety, sadness, depression, procrastination and physical ailments such as headaches.

50. Well-being washing

Well-being washing refers to the practice where companies prioritize projecting an image of being focused on employee well-being for external public relations benefits, while internally neglecting their staff. The outer appearance often contrasts with the reality of the workplace environment, where toxic practices persist, and well-being resources are limited.

Companies may be in the early stages of building a sincere well-being strategy and project the culture to be more complete than it really is.

51. Coffee badging

The practice of showing up for a few hours at work and leaving right away is known as “coffee badging.” This approach is used by those who operate in flexible or hybrid models. They enter the office to fulfill the requirement of remaining on the property for a certain amount of time, such as long enough to get a coffee, but leave promptly after.

52. Office peacocking

Another way companies are trying to entice employees back into the office is by creating a swankier office. This is known as office peacocking.

Companies are trying to make the workplace more inviting by creating spaces with comfort in mind that resemble a home-like environment. Forget the traditional cubicles. These offices resemble living rooms or lounge spaces with comfort items such as sofas, video monitors, rugs and modern décor.

The company may also offer free perks — such as coffee or food — to lure employees into the office.

53. Monk mode

When someone is in “monk mode,” they shut out all outside distractions and give their whole attention to a single job. This way of thinking maximizes productivity by eliminating all distractions and focusing on a single job and going into a deep state of labor. This way of working is modeled after the austere lifestyle of monks. It is a useful strategy for preventing burnout from handling too many tasks and projects simultaneously.

54. The Great Gloom

Now that the Great Resignation is over, a new era has arrived — The Great Gloom. Employee engagement continues to decrease as more employees are unhappy. A recent study found employee happiness continued to have a steady decline from 2020. Bamboo HR’s study also found that 2023 saw a steep and steady decline that was at a rate 10% faster than previous years. Happiness levels are now worse than during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Part of the reason for this unhappiness, according to Bamboo HR’s study, is that workers are struggling with remote options, return-to-office mandates and record inflation.

55. Emotional paycheck

An emotional paycheck is what goes on top of the traditional financial compensation. Employees are looking at how employers view their work-life balance by offering options such as hybrid work and flexible hours. This emotional compensation shows the company values employees for more than productivity and trusts employees to manage home responsibilities — such as caregiving — while still completing their work duties. According to a survey by The Conference Board, flexibility is a high priority for most employees.

56. Quiet management

Quiet management takes the term “quiet” over to the manager’s side as it addresses employee-employer trust issues associated with remote work. Quiet management refers to a more hands-off management style, allowing employees to complete work with fewer distractions and micromanagement. This gives employees a sense of empowerment.

57. Fractional work

Fractional work is another term for part-time work that is typically paid on a monthly retainer. Fractional employees may resemble full-time employees but pay less and require fewer hours weekly. The duties of a fractional employee may be the same as those of a full-time senior employee. Due to the cost savings, businesses are choosing fractional leaders to manage budgets, oversee marketing teams, provide sales direction and establish a creative direction without finding a full-time senior employee.

These fractional employees are experts in their field and typically have more than 10 years of experience. Because they are not working full-time hours, they may provide guidance to several clients at a time.

58. Resenteeism

Resenteeism combines the words absenteeism and resentment, which describes workers who are not content with their jobs but are trapped for reasons such as financial obligations or lack of other employment options. They are psychologically absent and resentful of their current role. Some individuals may even express their dissatisfaction to management and other employees, creating a toxic work environment for those around them.

59. Quiet vacationing

Quiet vacationing is a new trend where employees work from different locations without informing their employers. They still engage in work-related activities to appear present but work remotely from vacation destinations. They take these hush trips to avoid using PTO or vacation days. Some employees even schedule work emails to be sent during work hours and use “mouse jigglers” to appear active.

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