New Terms (Again) for 2024!

Early last year (see https://www.abelnmagy.com/blog/what-language-is-this-2023-terminology), I wrote that we had experienced and internalized enough changes in terminology from the ‘COVID period’ that our speech patterns would need no further adjustments.  Well, I was wrong (again).  Here are the latest and greatest (at least a few) of the terms we will need to know for the coming year:

• Zirt (or Zhirt) – this is the only ‘repeat’ term from last year’s Blog.  I list it again because Zoom (and Teams) meetings are clearly here to stay!
  • This is the top of an outfit worn by a Zoom attendee.  (NOTE – apparel companies had a run-on shirts and blouses right after COVID started and Zoom meetings became the norm; they did not have equivalent sales on skirts or pants.)  
• Bare Minimum Monday – more of us want to ease ourselves into the workweek.  We have given ourselves permission to do so, especially after a long or extended weekend. 
  • The hashtag #bareminumummonday has received over two million views so far!
• Coffee Cup Test – a ‘test’ given to candidates during in-person interviews at the company location.  Candidates who don’t offer to take their empty cups back to the kitchen at the end of their interview are unlikely to get a job offer. 
• Phygital Convergence – the boundaries between live and digital are blurring and overlapping.  Organizations are redesigning customer interaction models to attract and retain customers regardless of how they like to interact.  The business models that embrace this should achieve greater customer engagement and retention. 
• Career Cushioning – a strategy in which employees add security to their careers by taking proactive steps like attending networking nights, updating their resumes and LinkedIn profiles, and perhaps even applying for jobs.
• Polywork – workers who have a ‘side-hustle’ (most of whom are office workers).  The most common reason today for Polywork is the need to make ends meet. 
• Quiet Cutting – we have all heard of “Quiet Quitting”; this may be the organization’s response.  Quiet Cutting is when companies intentionally reassign employees to a different or to lower-profile roles in hopes they quit on their own.
• Job Cuffing – hunkering down in a job that you don't love just for the winter. 
  • The term is a play on ‘relationship cuffing,’ when someone gets into a relationship just for the cold months – to have someone to attend holiday parties with and to get cozy with when it's freezing outside. They don't want to stay with their partner long term.
• Coffee Badging – a term describing workers who show up long enough to have coffee and earn a ‘symbolic’ badge for being present (in the office) before they return home to work. 

Each day, the news provides additional terminology examples of how we are adapting to our changing world.  I’ll try to keep the list updated – for publication again in the future.