BBC December 26 article, original title: Top 10 workplace buzzwords in 2023 This year's hot buzzwords are mostly social**, and they explain what employees want and what they want to be in a post-pandemic world. This year, as the boundaries between social** and work culture disappear, a new set of buzzwords is starting to define work in 2023.
Lazy Girl Job": In late May, short** user Gabriel Jia praised the advantages of "Lazy Girl Work": it's a remote, well-paid, and relatively low-stress job. At its core, a job allows you to find a healthy work-life balance, which resonates with people for a long time. As of December, the hashtag "Lazy Girl Jobs" had nearly 40 million hits on social media.
Summer of strikes': In February, British health workers staged the largest strike in the UK's healthcare history. Meanwhile, in the United States, more than 300,000 workers in the medical, entertainment, automotive, and hospitality sectors went on strike in the first eight months of 2023 alone. As of Oct. 31, there were 354 strikes in the United States, involving about 4920,000 workers. The wave of strikes was not limited to the warmer months, but soon the "summer of strikes" became a buzzword.
"Real": In late November, Merriam-Webster Dictionary named "true" as the word of the year for 2023. The US-based reference book publisher says it beats out competitors such as "deepfake" and "dystopia." The Word of the Year doesn't pay particular attention to workplace jargon, but nevertheless, the desire for "authenticity" has largely made its way into our work.
Minimalist Mondays: Last year, social user Marissa Joe Meyers came up with a way to "Sunday phobia" — the feeling of depression the day before returning to work after a weekend break. Meyers advises employees not to dive headfirst into work and instead embrace "Minimalist Mondays" and treat the first day of the week as a day to start over. The word's popularity has soared this year, reflecting a new mood at work, the need for hybrid work arrangements, reflecting employees' desire for work-life balance.
Coffee Badges: This year, employees are back at their desks to work, giving rise to the Coffee Badge. Many employees habitually enter the office, swipe their badges, and grab their free morning coffee.
"Secret travel": Some employees who can work remotely are doing "secret traveling," where they work outside of their homes, to maximize work-life balance.
"Wave of retention": According to some economists, the "wave of departures" of mobility over the past 3 years is over. Now, the data points to a "wave of retention," in which workers stay in their places of work to avoid the increasingly competitive labor market and fears of economic instability. However, those who stay in jobs that don't work for them become idle, inefficient, and more likely to struggle mentally and physically. Experts say that if employers want to stop employees from doing so, management has a responsibility to actively invest in employee satisfaction.
Personality Recruitment": Savvy employers may prioritize positive, friendly candidates, and Gen Z employees have taken it a step further by flocking to social** to praise the benefits of being a "personality employee." Social users often define "personality recruitment" as a way to compensate for their professional deficiencies with some kind of dynamism. Although the term may seem less serious, it still has some truth. Employees with high emotional intelligence can facilitate communication, increase team productivity, and help build a sense of social connection.
"Rolling recession": "Rolling recession", sometimes referred to as a "rolling adjustment recession," occurs when a recession only affects certain sectors of the economy. For example, while layoffs in the tech sector were a major topic of conversation in the first half of the year, other industries, including auto and manufacturing, are already starting to feel the pain.
At the same time, traditionally female-dominated employment sectors, such as education, care and hospitality, continue to bear the brunt of unemployment, but this has largely gone unnoticed. Economists and policymakers alike are struggling to avoid job losses, but a prolonged recession can be difficult to determine and lead to uncertainty about near-term economic trends.
Many workplace terms have one thing in common: they originate or spread under the label "work," which is a side of social's commitment to workplace culture. The hashtag has at least 2.3 billion views and covers everything from the life of a professional pastry chef to HR practices. Some experts say the rise of the term is inevitable because it creates a place for "pantry conversations" for many employees, especially young people. As more adults get their news from social**, it's likely that the platform will launch the next round of mainstream workplace terminology in 2024. (Written by Lillian Stone, translated by Chen Xin).