From microshifting to coffee badging: whatever happened to just doing your job?
There’s another hot trend in the workplace – microshifting, and it’s about to revolutionize the workday by breaking the traditional 9-to-5 into short, flexible and non-linear bursts of activity rather than a continuous 8-hour stretch.Microshifting allows for a better work-life balance.Why not do a yoga class or pop to the shops during work hours? I mean, what is “work” anyway?Like bare minimum Mondays, where workers recuperating from weekend hangovers allow themselves to accomplish the least amount the day after, or coffee badging, which involves taking the time out of the workday to protest an employer’s in-office requirements by driving into the office, swiping your badge, having a coffee, then taking more time out of the workday to drive back home, it used to have another name, as the Guardian noted earlier this year: “Taking the piss.”Sadly, these are only a few of the trends that have allegedly been taking the workplace – and the media – by storm over the past few years.We’ve read about quiet quitting, where employees allow themselves to expend no extra effort to accomplish what is expected of them, because they’re ostensibly keeping an eye on the open door for other opportunities.
There’s career cushioning, where, instead of doing their jobs, employees spend a portion of their workdays lining up backup opportunities for other jobs.Quiet vacationing involves taking time off without formally requesting it.Or, in other words, playing while on the clock.Task masking is when you’re looking productive – attending meetings, sending work messages – while actually not doing anything.Quiet cracking has been offered as a mental health excuse for disengaging with your responsibilities, and resenteeism is when employees stay at a job they dislike – and I assume not doing well at it – if only to wait out the current wave of economic uncertainty.
Aren’t we all just a little tired of these trends? We’ve been inundated with them and, although they appear different on the surface, it’s all about the same thing: not working.Microshifting is essentially not doing work so that you can use the time to do other things.Coffee badging means not doing work so you can come into the office so that you get credit for being at work.Bare minimum Mondays means not doing work on Mondays.Well.
..you get the point.Whatever happened to actually working?When a company hires an employer to do a job there’s an implied assumption that the employee will actually do their job.Quiet quitting, quiet vacationing and career cushioning are all activities that are the opposite of doing your job.
All of these trends share the common trait of avoiding work,Yet none of them seem to require that the employer pays the employee less money while they’re avoiding work,In fact, it’s implied that while the employee avoids doing their actual work, the paychecks keep coming,Employers get accused frequently of wage theft when they fail to remit tips, overtime pay or mandated time off,But doesn’t that apply to employees too? When an employee spends their time not doing work because they’re quiet cracking or participating in resenteeism, it means they’re stealing money from their employer.
But rather than post this on social media, or deep diving into a subreddit, most employers ultimately find a way to terminate that employee – quietly and (hopefully) without fuss.These trends have been great for the cottage of industry of academics, journalists, HR teams and workplace “experts” who love offering their thoughts on why the latest movement is so important for employers to understand, and how ignoring these things will cause permanent, infinite harm to our businesses and our ability to attract and retain talent.But most employers I know see right through these explanations.The economy has slowed, the job market has softened and a looming threat of mass unemployment hangs in the air thanks to AI.But there will always be a strong demand for workers who have the right attitude, work hard, display discipline and simply get their jobs done.
People who succeed aren’t microshifting, coffee badging or working bare minimum Mondays.They’re working.Actually working.Which is why I’m sincerely hoping that we’re done with these silly non-working trends.
Labour challenges Farage over cost of private jet trip to Maldives
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Drip-feed of Reform UK controversies puts party’s policy drive in shade
It was a week that started with a candid admission from Nigel Farage. When asked if Reform UK’s vetting process was finally up to scratch, the party leader said: “I accept that at the last general election basically there was no vetting really.” He was speaking after the latest of what a senior colleague had described as a “series of abhorrent incidents”.That latest incident had involved a Welsh Senedd candidate, Corey Edwards, who was forced to step down last Friday after a picture of him appearing to do a Nazi salute surfaced online.Yet while Farage went on to tell reporters at a Heathrow press conference on Tuesday that they would find Reform was “doing pretty well now”, just two days later another frontline party member was in hot water
UK politics Q&A, as it happened: Andrew Sparrow answers your questions on Starmer, Reform and more
Reform UK’s housing spokesperson has been sacked from his role after he described the Grenfell Tower fire as a “tragedy” but said that “everyone dies in the end”.The NHS is bracing for the longest strike yet by resident doctors after last-ditch talks failed, prompting Wes Streeting to accuse the medics of suffering from “delusion”.Nick Candy, the honorary treasurer of Reform UK and a major donor, has sold his mansion in the Chelsea district of London for a reported £275m.Thank you for the questions everone. Happy Easter
Reform donor Nick Candy sells Chelsea mansion for reported £275m
Nick Candy, the honorary treasurer of Reform UK and a major donor, has sold his mansion in the Chelsea district of London for a reported £275m.The property developer declined to comment on the transaction, which was first reported by Bloomberg, but it is believed to be the most expensive on record in London and one of the biggest in the world.Providence House was the location of a fundraising event for Donald Trump in 2024, attended by the US president’s son Donald Trump Jr.The buyer of the Grade II-listed mansion, located in the grounds of Royal Chelsea Hospital with a lake and a swimming pool, has not been made public.The Land Registry records its current owner as Providence House LLP, a partnership controlled by Candy
Reform housing spokesperson sacked after Grenfell ‘everyone dies’ remarks
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