As workplace culture continues to evolve, remote and hybrid work schedules are here to stay– and newly flexible schedules are shaping employee behavior and office culture in ways that demand new vocabulary. Every day, it feels like new terms pop up in the workplace lexicon to describe new trends that have emerged. From #Worktok to polyworking, here are 2024’s biggest workplace buzzwords, inspired by the 2024 State of Hybrid Work. You’ll notice that many of them are shaped by the popularity of hybrid and remote work.
Coffee Badging
Coffee badging is a term for hybrid workers who come into the office just to show face. It refers to the idea of a hybrid employee coming in for just long enough to swipe their badge and have a coffee before returning home to work remotely. Last year, 58% of hybrid workers practiced coffee badging; in 2024, that number was closer to 44%, with 70% of employees who coffee badged admitting that their employers had caught them before. That’s still enough of a trend to seriously shift the in-office culture of a workplace.
Polyworking
Polyworking can define a range of different activities but boils down to juggling multiple roles or projects concurrently. Some polyworkers are balancing a full-time role with a side hustle, but others are managing to work two full-time jobs at once. Polyworking has risen in popularity as more workers take advantage of remote work and hybrid, flexible schedules to transition between tasks for different jobs and companies during daytime hours, rather than just “moonlighting” in the evenings.
Over 1 in 4 (28%) of workers in 2024 are polyworking and taking on at least one additional job. 14% more plan to start next year. The main driving force is additional income, but other reasons employees might polywork include enjoying a side project or being able to pursue a true passion.
Interestingly enough, managers have a far higher rate of polyworking than individual contributors – 32% of employees in manager roles polywork, compared to just 19% in IC positions.
Workcation
A workcation is pretty much exactly what it sounds like– a working vacation. With more and more companies embracing location flexibility to employees, it’s possible for WFH employees to take some time away. It’s not a substitute for a typical vacation, since the employee is still responsible for meeting deadlines, responding to emails, and executing on the tasks their role requires, but a workcation can be a good way to partially recharge and combat burnout as a remote worker. With only 62% of employees working full time in the office, down slightly from 6% in 2023, there’s a bit more wiggle room for some employees to work from a new destination for short stretches.
Calendar Block
Calendar blocking, also known as time blocking, is a way of scheduling tasks to reserve certain blocks of time for a specific purpose. In theory, it’s a time management technique that can boost productivity in the workplace, help employees stay organized, and create transparency with coworkers about availability for meetings. However, like all tools, calendar blocking can be used well and misused. 58% of employees admit to “calendar blocking” with pretend meetings to preserve blocks of time in their day. In-office workers are more likely than their remote and hybrid peers to block off parts of their day in this way to protect it from meetings. 64% of calendar blockers are full-time office workers. Caretakers are also about twice as likely to strategically calendar block than non-caretakers.
No Sick Day/ “Work from Bed”
“No sick day” is exactly what it sounds like– there’s been a longtime trend of “no days off” in U.S. work culture, with many employees pushing through illness and still coming into the office. While there are rumbles of this trend shifting as more Gen Z employees enter the workforce and take more sick days, with an eye to work-life balance, the general trend of not taking time off to recover is still going strong. 72% of hybrid and remote workers say they’re less likely to fully unplug and take a sick day when they’re ill.
WorkTok
#WorkTok may be a trending hashtag on TikTok, but it’s gone beyond just a social media trend to reshape workplace culture at lightning speeds. #WorkTok is often used to mark job-related content that is authentic– and it’s where employees are honest about all aspects of work, both what they love and what they hate. In fact, 34% of employees have posted negatively about their employer on social media. WorkTok spans the whole range of the human condition, from motivational and funny content to frustrations, career and interpersonal advice, and even resignations. It’s exposing people everywhere to new perspectives and helping folks realize they’re not alone in their professional experiences.
We look forward to seeing how workplace trends and vocabulary continue to evolve. As artificial intelligence becomes more and more common in the workplace, with 72% of employees using AI tools regularly and nearly half (47%) of employers using AI to replace or augment current employee roles, there’s big potential for AI to also generate new terms and trends as it shifts how work is done.
