Fi Buzzwords

The HR Buzzwords of 2024: What Were They … and Will They Carry Over into 2025?

Published by
13th January 2025

The HR world has been known to love a buzzword – ‘quiet quitting’ immediately springs to mind as one from the previous years that has loomed particularly large.

And whilst buzzwords are inherently designed to be catchy, memorable phrases, they also signify potential issues that employees are having and help guide employers in the direction of identifying the root cause of these issues and correcting them.

So, in that spirit, let’s take a look back at some of the new, popular buzzwords and phrases that emerged in the last year, and see which of these may still be something for employers to look out for as we head into the bulk of 2025:

  • Hushed Hybrid – many companies were issuing return to office mandates over the course of 2024, and this consequently saw the emergence of ‘hushed hybrid’. This is when, despite company policy, managers would continue to quietly allow some employees to continue working from home or working flexibly. The debate between working from home and working in office has been ongoing ever since lockdown was lifted, so it wouldn’t be far-fetched to assume that this topic may continue to be prevalent this year.
  • Quiet Vacationing 37% of millennial workers admitted to ‘quiet vacationing’ in 2024 – that is, taking time off work without telling their managers under the guise of working remotely. However, whilst this sounds like millennial workers slacking off from work and using the autonomy of remote working to do so, there may actually be a deeper reason behind the emergence of this trend. Most notable, millennial employees tend to be the ones who have school-aged children/elderly parents to care for, so is ‘quiet vacationing’ happening in response to a lack of flexible working arrangements being offered?
  • Workation – in contrast to quiet vacationing, a workation acts as a combination of ‘work’ and ‘vacation’ and is defined as taking a break from the work environment but not the work itself. This has emerged as an innovative way to seize the benefits of remote working and the fluidity of working across time zones, as now employees can work remotely during the day and then enjoy the fruits of a vacation in the evening. However, does this work for all employers? And should employees have to disclose whether they are on a workation?
  • Coffee Badging – it may sound a bit strange, but ‘coffee badging’ is when an employee comes into the office very briefly, taps in with their identity card, then grabs a coffee and mingles with colleagues for a short stint before leaving to work the rest of the day from home. It’s a presenteeism cheat sheet in the face of the increased return to office mandates, and further highlights (much like hushed hybrid!) that the conversation around in-office working and remote working is still very much an ongoing one.
  • Resenteeism – a new term that has emerged which was coined by RotaCloud, ‘resenteeism’ describes an employee who remains in their current job despite being overtly unhappy there and resenting the environment they work in. This trend has emerged because of the cost-of-living crisis, as with the economic uncertainty that this has brought, employees have become less willing to sacrifice the security of their current job despite their rising resentment. 

As we can see, there is some clear overlap in the above buzzwords and what may have ignited their creation, and it is also clear that many of the catalysts for these catchy phrases are still issues that employers are grappling with today…so, if you would like to discuss the causes surrounding these trends and how we can help manage them, please get in touch with us today!

Or, if you would prefer to have a chat with one of our experienced HR professionals immediately, you can now book in an hour slot with an OrgShaker of your choosing to discuss anything and everything to do with HR, where we can offer you immediate advice and strategies right there and then. To find out more, head over to the OrgShakers CL!CK page on our website.

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