Career cushioning replaces quiet quitting as the new workplace trend

Move over from ‘quiet quitting’. Increasing layoffs and job insecurity has given prominence to ‘career cushioning’, which loosely translates as employees being ready with a plan B. This time, the workplace has borrowed this trend from the dating industry. In romantic relationships, cushioning is a strategy to soften the blow of a breakup. In the workplace culture, it means to leave your options open and take steps to ‘cushion the landing’ if anything unexpected happens.

Anshuman Das, CEO and Co-Founder of Careernet, suggests that employees should keep the right balance between high-growth and stable career opportunities. High growth does not assure stability, and when the job market is seeing attrition, such an industry will be targeted first.