7 Workplace Words, From Quiet Quitting to the Glass Cliff: Where They Come From and What the Research Found

Start hereNew words for working life spread quickly online. Here are 7 of them, with where each was first recorded or who coined it, and what the research and surveys found.

A handful of newer words now name things people have long done or felt at work. They cover doing only what the job asks, being bored, working while ill, support that fades, top jobs handed over in a crisis, a backup plan, and a wave of resignations.

Below are 7 of those words. Each card says where the word was first recorded or who coined it, what it describes, what the research or surveys found, and how sure that evidence is.

01Words about how much you give

Three of the words are about effort and energy: holding back, too little to do, and working while unwell.

1. Quiet quitting

Quiet quitting means doing your job and no more, often after frustration with pay or conditions.

Dictionary.com defines quiet quitting as deliberately doing the bare minimum at one’s job, often in response to frustration with working conditions, expectations or pay, and dates it to 2022. Its slang dictionary says the term was popularized in 2022, partly through viral social media posts, and that its ultimate origin is uncertain. It adds that the practice itself is older: in trade unions, “work to rule” means working exactly to the contract as a form of protest.

In a June 2022 survey of 15,091 US employees, Gallup estimated that “quiet quitters” made up at least 50% of the US workforce. Gallup says many quiet quitters fit its “not engaged” group: people who do the minimum required and are psychologically detached from their job. The rest were engaged (32%) or actively disengaged (18%), and Gallup calls the second group “loud quitters”.

So the 50% figure comes from Gallup’s own engagement survey, sorted by Gallup’s own groups.

For example, someone who stops answering messages after hours but still finishes every task would fit the dictionary’s sense of doing the job, and no more.

Something to notice: whether the line you hold at work is set by your contract, by habit, or by how tired you are.

How sure: Moderate the word spread in 2022, though its first use is uncertain, and how many people do it depends on how a survey sorts them.

2. Boreout

Boreout names the other side of burnout: feeling dissatisfied and demotivated by too little challenge.

Dictionary.com describes boreout as dissatisfaction and demotivation from being bored and unchallenged at work. It says the term is thought to have been coined by Philippe Rothlin and Peter R. Werder, who used it in the titles of two books published in 2007 and 2008.

A Dutch study of 6,315 employees found that boredom at work could be told apart from both work engagement and burnout. In the same data, boredom went with lower job satisfaction and commitment, and with a stronger intention to leave. A 2021 paper that built a French scale to measure it says bore-out is recently defined and that few studies have looked at it.

These links come from people’s answers to a questionnaire, so they do not show which comes first.

For example, a clerk whose tasks fill two hours of an eight-hour day might feel demotivated by having too little to do.

Something to notice: whether a flat, drained feeling at work comes from too much to do, or too little.

How sure: Limited the research is young, and most of it so far builds ways to measure boredom at work.

3. Presenteeism

Presenteeism means going to work while ill, and as a word it is the oldest on this list.

Dictionary.com defines presenteeism as coming to work despite illness, injury or anxiety, often with reduced productivity, and dates its first record to 1930–35. It gives a second sense too: working long hours at a job without a real need to.

A 2009 review in the Journal of Organizational Behavior defines presenteeism as attending work while ill, and looks at the various ways it has been defined.

A 2016 meta-analysis of 109 samples and 175,965 people found that working while ill went with poor general health, limits on taking time off such as strict absence rules and job insecurity, and high job demands and stress. It also found links with positive attitudes: job satisfaction, engagement and commitment.

A 2016 review of 12 longitudinal studies found that most linked working while ill with later sickness absence and lower self-rated health, but that there was no agreement yet on physical and mental health.

For example, someone who comes in with a heavy cold because a deadline is close, or because absence rules are strict, fits the term.

Something to notice: what made you come in the last time you worked while unwell. Whether to rest is a question for a doctor, who can look at your own situation.

How sure: Moderate a large meta-analysis maps what goes with it, but these are links, and the long-term studies measure it in different ways.

02Words about bosses and who gets the top job

Two words describe what happens around a worker: support that fades, and a leadership role handed over at a risky time.

4. Quiet firing

Quiet firing describes a job made worse, or support held back, until the person leaves.

Dictionary.com calls quiet firing an informal term for employers making conditions worse with the intent of driving some employees to quit. It says the practice long predates the term, which emerged in 2022 after quiet quitting.

Gallup uses the word more broadly, for managers who fail to give coaching, support and career development, which pushes the employee out. It argues that many managers do this without meaning to, by not helping people perform, develop and feel appreciated.

In Gallup’s surveys, only 37% of managers strongly agreed that they invest in their employees’ development, and 25% of employees strongly agreed that their manager invests in theirs. Only 34% of employees strongly agreed that their manager recognises them when they do good work.

The two definitions differ: the dictionary’s is about intent, while Gallup’s includes managers who simply stop helping.

For example, a manager who stops giving feedback and stops offering new projects could fit Gallup’s sense, even without meaning any harm.

Something to notice: when you last had a talk about your progress at work, and who started it.

How sure: Limited the figures come from one firm’s surveys of managers and employees, not from studies of quiet firing itself, and Gallup’s page does not say when or whom it surveyed.

5. The glass cliff

The glass cliff names a pattern researchers have tested: women being handed leadership roles at risky times.

Ryan and Haslam, researchers at the University of Exeter, named it the glass cliff, extending the metaphors of the “glass ceiling” and the “glass elevator”. Their work began as a reply to a November 2003 article in The Times that linked women on company boards with weaker performance.

Their 2005 study of FTSE 100 companies found that, while the stock market was falling, firms that appointed women to their boards were more likely to have had consistently bad performance in the five months before than firms that appointed men. Later experiments by the same team found that a woman was more likely to be picked over an equally qualified man when the organisation’s performance was declining.

A 2009 study of US chief executive appointments from 1992 to 2004 found no glass cliff for women chief executives.

A 2020 meta-analysis, noting that earlier evidence was mixed, found some support for a glass cliff for women in all three of its analyses, with a small effect in studies of real appointments that depended on the kind of organisation. In selection experiments, it found women more likely than men to be picked in times of crisis, more so in countries with more gender inequality. It found that the pattern also extended to members of under-represented racial and ethnic groups.

One of the four authors of that meta-analysis is Ryan, who co-named the term.

For example, a new chief executive hired during a slump starts with a harder job, whoever they are.

Something to notice: when you read about a new leader, what state the organisation was in when they took over.

How sure: Unsettled studies disagree; the 2020 meta-analysis found some support for women, with small effects that depend on the setting.

03Words about leaving

The last two words are about the exit: keeping one open, and a wave of people walking through it.

6. Career cushioning

Career cushioning means lining up other options while you still have a job.

Dictionary.com calls career cushioning an informal term for lining up future job opportunities while still employed at one’s current job. It says the term gained usage at the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, though the practice is older. A common theory, it says, is that the term comes from the earlier dating slang “cushioning”, keeping backup partners in case of a breakup. Unlike quiet quitting, it says, career cushioning does not imply putting less effort into the current job.

We found little research under that name: a 2024 journal editorial discusses career cushioning, but we found no study that tests it. What the research says about switching jobs, raises and networks is on our career moves page.

For example, someone who updates their CV and catches up with a former colleague while still employed is career cushioning.

Something to notice: whether your backup plan is something you do now and then, or something you never get to.

How sure: Limited a dictionary dates the word, but we found no study of the practice under this name.

7. The Great Resignation

The Great Resignation named the wave of people quitting their jobs during the pandemic.

A Texas A&M University story credits management professor Anthony Klotz with coining the term. It defines the Great Resignation as millions of workers deciding to quit their jobs during the pandemic. It says the phrase went viral after an interview for Bloomberg News in May 2021.

Klotz pointed to four trends: resignations put off during the pandemic, burnout, people rethinking their priorities, and reluctance to give up remote work. In January 2022 the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that quits had reached a series high of 4.5 million in November 2021.

For example, someone who left an office job in 2021 for a remote role would touch two of the four trends.

Something to notice: which of the four reasons, if any, sat behind the last job change you saw around you.

How sure: Moderate the quit figure is from official US statistics, as first reported in January 2022; the four reasons were one researcher’s forecast.

04Why so many new words?

Several of these words put new names on old practices.

Dictionary.com notes that some people criticise quiet firing, quiet hiring and quiet quitting as unnecessary buzzwords for tactics used long before the terms existed.

Our reading: a new word can still be useful when it gives people a shared name for something they had already noticed.

05Where to learn more

• Gallup’s “Is Quiet Quitting Real?”: the survey behind the 50% figure.
• Dictionary.com’s slang dictionary: origins and examples for newer workplace words.
• The University of Exeter’s case study on the glass cliff: how the research began.
• Our career moves page, for what the research found on switching jobs, skills and networks.

06Quick answers

07Use this

08Quick quiz

How we checked this · Last checked November 2026

• Dates and coiners come from Dictionary.com, the University of Exeter's case study on the glass cliff, and a Texas A&M University story on the Great Resignation.
• Research findings come from the papers' abstracts, read through PubMed and Crossref, and from Gallup's published survey pages, which we credit to Gallup.
• The quit figure comes from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics release of January 2022.
• We found no study of career cushioning under that name, only a 2024 journal editorial.
• Quiet hiring, coffee badging and job hugging were left out because we could not find a dated first use in a source we could open.
• What the research says about switching jobs has its own page, so it gets a link here.

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