It’s well known the digital world and its influence on the physical one has heavily impacted the way we all communicate, both personally and professionally. With this in mind, business leaders need to be aware of the latest professional lingo used by their employees.
Although some may be silly and awkward, understanding their meaning is important. Even the most outside-the-box terms provide insight into how tomorrow’s workforce will approach their jobs.
1. Performance punishment. The idea of performance punishment is nothing new and has always been a balancing act for workers and their managers. CFOs, especially those who came through the public accounting track, likely dealt with this at some point in their careers. The term is used when an employee who is performing well is given more work as a result, without a boost in title or compensation.
2. Loud suffering. When an employee makes their burnout and high stress levels evident, they are loud suffering. The idea is managers will take notice and respond with increased compensation to make it stop.
3. Woliday. Workaholics may find themselves on a woliday, or a working holiday. Working or making yourself available during PTO, which many CFOs can relate to, can be considered part of this term. It also can be used when someone decides to get work done during a company holiday.
4. Ghost jobs. To appear as if they are doing better than they are, some companies have been accused of posting ghost jobs, or jobs that are never intended to be filled. While this trend picked up in Q2, many job seekers are cognizant of the demoralizing possibility that the job they are applying for may not be real.
5. Quitting guilt. When an employee quits a job, they may experience quitting guilt for leaving former colleagues with a larger workload or unfinished business. For business leaders, the creation of a succession plan eliminates this factor, but for managers and mid-entry-level employees, their departure usually results in their teammates picking up slack.
6. Interview insanity. Job seekers who go through multiple rounds of interviews and then are either left in the dark about their progress or ghosted altogether may experience interview insanity or frustration with the communication or redundancies in the interview process. With the ethics of the interview process being largely debated lately, some organizations may start developing guidelines or implementing technology to address these issues.
7. Monk mode. Similar to how Ogilvy’s global CFO Stacey Ryan-Cornelius refers to her Kevin Costner-inspired mental clearing ritual of “clearing the mechanism,” undergoing intense periods of uninterrupted focus and shutting out all external distractions to optimize productivity can be referred to as going into monk mode.
8. Mouse jiggling. With software and hardware readily available to allow employees to do this, mouse jiggling is when someone uses a tool to create mouse movement, making themselves appear active in a virtual workspace. The term gained traction when Wells Fargo axed over a dozen people for mouse jiggling in May.
9. Anti-perks. Things an employee gets from a company that could be bad for their well-being, mental health, productivity or time management can be referred to as anti-perks. Although they usually stem from efforts by employers to create culture and excitement in the workplace, younger workers reject things like free food, alcohol, massages, nap rooms, video games, fitness rooms, pet-friendly offices and “mandatory” fun events for their lack of authenticity.
10. Green collar jobs. Those working in environmental industries have dubbed their roles green collar jobs. Green collar workers are professionals focused on sustainability, including roles such as environmental consultants, engineers in renewable energy, green building architects, landscape architects, organic farmers, environmental lawyers and sales staff in eco-friendly products and services. This group also includes those in waste management, recycling and conservation efforts.
11. Hush trip. Similar to a quiet vacation, a hush trip is when a remote employee works from a location other than their usual workspace without approval from their boss. While some argue this should be a fireable offense, others argue that this is a perk of the flexibility of remote work environments and that as long as productivity remains consistent, the work location shouldn’t matter.
12. Workfluencer. Employees using the workplace to develop a social media following can be referred to as a workfluencer. QuitTok trends fall into this category as well, but workfluencers are more so individuals who create content while on the job. Companies like Chick-fil-A have developed strict policies after some of their workers used their jobs to develop large followings online.
13. Social loafing. Employees who have their productivity drop when working around others may be unknowingly social loafing in the office. This term refers to the inability to maintain the same productivity levels around others as when an individual is alone. A common term in psychology, social loafing is more common as workers return to the office, many of whom have worked in remote environments for much of their careers.
The terms performance punishment, monk mode, loud suffering, interview insanity, woliday and quitting guilt were defined in recent research from Rippl shared with CFO.com.
