Name: Quiet hiring. Age: New for 2024. Appearance: Like quiet quitting, but much busier. I don’t even know what quiet quitting is. It’s when you remain employed but perform only the minimum duties required: no late nights, no non-mandatory meetings, no going the extra mile. In other words, having a job. A lot of people see it that way: a 2023 Gallup report found that quiet quitters comprised up to 59% of the global workforce. Good – that means I won’t stand out. It’s also led to something called “quiet firing” – where employers make a job so unrewarding that unmotivated employees resign. I dare my employer to try to make my job less rewarding. But it’s also led to this year’s big trend: quiet hiring. Which is what? Quiet hiring refers to the practice of offering new responsibilities and opportunities to existing staff, rather than going through a recruitment process to find new people. When you say “new responsibilities and opportunities” do you mean “more work”? It’s also a chance to get additional training, enhance your skill set and take on fresh challenges. All I’m hearing is more work. Think of it as promoting from within. It could lead to higher job satisfaction and better morale. I’m not coming in early for this. As well as a new job title. Would you like that? How am I supposed to squeeze in all these additional duties? If you’ve been quiet quitting for a few years, you may find you have some slack in your workday. Maybe. But I’m still struggling to see what’s in it for me. Obviously with greater responsibility comes greater reward: a salary increase would be part of the quiet hiring package. Great – how much? We can talk about that. Why quiet hiring and why now? First, necessity – there are more job opportunities than there are candidates to fill them. Second, money – recruitment is expensive so companies are hoping to increase their productivity without expanding their workforce. There must be some drawbacks to quiet hiring. A few: it can lead to higher stress levels, employee burnout and ultimately even more quiet quitting. Quiet quitting with a pay rise? I accept. You’re fired! Do say: “At least I didn’t have to interview to get this job.” Don’t say: “I quit!”