A lot has changed since, in the summer of 2022, 24-year-old engineer Zaid Khan inadvertently set off a firestorm with a short TikTok video about how he was "quitting the idea of going above and beyond at work."
Amid persistent inflation and the Federal Reserve raising rates in attempts to combat it, the economy turned fast and many industries are in the midst of widespread layoffs. While there is still a persistent labor shortage across the country, the overall atmosphere is one that leaves many workers fearing for – or at least less confident in— their jobs.
DON'T MISS: Another Workplace Trend Is Making Employers Even Angrier
Even though Khan's idea of putting in no more than the minimum when it isn't recognized resonated deeply with many workers, some employers' fears of a revolution of slackers are largely unfounded — some may be more engaged and interested in their jobs than others but, according to one recent survey of American workers, eight in 10 are putting in the same or as much effort into their work as six months ago.
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Here's All You Need To Know About 'Acting Your Wage'
As the virality of "quiet quitting" recedes, another term is quickly filling in a gap for employees feeling undercompensated and unappreciated.
While TikToker Stephanie Anne first dropped the term in a video about waitressing for $7.25 an hour, the #ActYourWage hashtag has recently been seeing an usage uptick from employees who also feel that their low salary does not justify what is expected of them.
Maddie Machado, another TikToker and career coach who helped popularize the #ActYourWage term, once told Business Insider that its biggest differentiator from "quiet quitting" is that the former still has the worker putting in full effort but not taking tasks more befitting of a different pay grade in an effort to get "noticed" or "promoted."
"I'm not telling you not to do your job and I'm not telling you to do a bad job," she said in a video with nearly 8,500 likes. "Not everybody wants to get promoted. Not everyone wants to get raises, and the people who act their wage are doing their job and understanding that they don't need to go above and beyond."
For those who do want to get a pay raise, Machado recommends telling the employer that additional requests would need to be recognized and compensated accordingly.
All These Viral Workplace Terms Point to a Troubling Workplace Trend
To date, #ActYourWage has generated nearly 456 million views on TikTok.
In her recent series of comical videos, TikTok user Sarai Marie takes on the persona of a barista named "Veronica" who "acts her wage" by refusing the manager's request to skip her break because the shop is busy and doesn't reply in a second language even though she understands it.
While new terms like "resenteeism" and "quiet hiring" continue to pop up after the viral success of "quiet quitting," their presence points to a wider trend of employees who are unhappy in their jobs — while some employers have been pushing back against it as a form of "slacking off," recognizing employee burnout is key to avoiding a much larger problems later on.
"Employees that feel undervalued, under-appreciated, and worried about their futures are never going to be happy in their jobs," RotaCloud's Head Of People Pam Hinds once told Glamour Magazine.
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