The study* investigated social media trends to unveil the terms and phrases that businesses, recruitment and HR professionals and Managers need to know to better understand their employees’ experience and expectations in 2024 and beyond.

Following the trends of ‘quiet quitting’ and ‘The Great Resignation’, thousands of Reddit and TikTok conversations were studied to identify patterns feeding workplace behaviours, with 11 brand-new expressions being uncovered.

Top 11 viral workplace expressions

1. Acting your wage – Putting in the considered appropriate amount of effort for the wage you earn
2. Monk Mode – Undergoing intense periods of uninterrupted focus and shutting out all external distractions to optimise productivity
3. Performance punishment – Being overloaded with colleagues’ work because you can take on more and operate above expectations
4. Loud suffering – Publicly sharing how busy you are, and how close you are to ‘burnout’, all in the hope of getting a pay rise
5. Fake happy – Putting on a happy face in the corporate environment whilst hiding true exhaustion
6. Woliday – Spending your annual leave working
7. Interview insanity – A long and strenuous interview process that doesn’t include any updates or feedback.
8. Office peacocking – When employers make their offices more attractive, hoping to entice employees back post-pandemic
9. Ghost jobs – Companies that post about jobs that don’t actually exist to make the organisation appear as though it’s thriving
10. Quitting guilt – Feeling guilty for quitting an unhealthy work environment and leaving colleagues behind
11. Interview post-mortems – A ‘grave’ term for post-interview debriefs

Chris Brown, CEO at Rippl, comments: “The world of HR moves incredibly quickly, bringing with it new viral terms and trends. Being able to keep up with these is really important for UK businesses, enabling them to understand how employees are feeling, where the gaps are in safeguarding their wellbeing and taking action to maximise and retain their teams.

“What’s most concerning about the latest trends identified here is the overall feeling of negativity arising from across the entire employee lifecycle – from interview to exit. This suggests employers need to do more to proactively create a candidate and employee environment that not only authentically values talent but ensures their experience is seen and heard so the workplace evolves with the wider, fast-changing landscape.

Prioritising a culture of recognition and offering employee benefits is just one key way that companies can deliver on their commitment to staff wellbeing, not only improving their sense of belonging but also prioritising employee mental health.”