When the workplace evolves faster than the words used to describe it.

If the vocabulary of work is changing, your mindset must follow.

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The Story

When Vikram, 38, HR manager at a solar-tech startup in Chennai, first heard the term “Resenteeism”, he thought it was a new coffee brand.

When his junior mentioned “Hybrid Hushing,” he imagined a yoga technique.

And when a candidate on LinkedIn wrote, “Looking for lazy-girl jobs,” he panicked and called Legal.

His CEO joked,

“We’re running a modern company with a medieval dictionary.”

Across the world in Amsterdam, Lotte, a sustainability consultant, faced the same chaos.

Her interns casually used terms like:

“Quiet Quit,”

“Dry Promotion,”

“Bare Minimum Mondays,”

“Career Cushioning,”

as if they were ancient Dutch proverbs.

Meanwhile, the management team was still stuck in:

KPIs,

ESOPs,

Stakeholder Alignment,

Appraisal Cycles.

The workplace dictionary is mutating — and the generational response gap is widening.

What used to be “employee disengagement” is now “quiet quitting.”

What used to be “cheap recognition” is now “dry promotion.”

What used to be “side hustle stress” is now “FOBO.”

The terms are new —

but the emotions behind them are centuries old.

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What This Reveals About Work Relations

When language changes, relationships change.

And today, employers and employees are speaking two different languages.

• Employers hear rebellion; employees are expressing burnout.

• Employers hear entitlement; employees are expressing anxiety.

• Employers hear laziness; employees are expressing mismatch.

• Employers hear “Gen-Z problem”; employees hear “leadership problem.”

“Changing Dictionary…” is not about vocabulary.

It’s about decoding the culture behind the vocabulary.

The future belongs to workplaces that understand not just what people say…

but what people mean.