There was a time, not too long ago, when quitting your job felt like a personality trait. Around 2021 and 2022, LinkedIn timelines read like breakup announcements, all “after much reflection” and “on to new beginnings”. Everyone seemed to be chasing passion, peace, or at least a slightly better CTC. It was the era of the Great Resignation, when leaving was sexy, staying was suspicious, and “notice period” became a personality test.
Cut to now, and the vibe has…settled. Or, more accurately, clung on for dear life. Enter: job hugging. No, it’s not a cute HR initiative involving group hugs in conference rooms. It is a pragmatic, slightly anxious, very 2026 instinct of holding on to your current job like it’s the last auto available during a Mumbai downpour. And plot twist, Gen Z is leading this. The same generation once called serial job hoppers, office frogs, commitment issues in human form and leaders of a movement called quiet quitting, is now staying put. Voluntarily. Don’t be mistaken; these employees aren’t necessarily in love with their roles. They’re just…not letting go. Promotions can wait, passion can wait, even mild dissatisfaction can wait. Stability, however, cannot.
And honestly, can you blame them? Between whispers of layoffs, a new global recession, an upcoming market crash and rising living costs that make your Swiggy bill feel like a financial decision—not to forget the general “what is happening to the world?” energy (hello AI, inflation, and a constant hum of global chaos)—the idea of starting over feels less like a bold move and more like something you would only do if you absolutely had to. Think The Devil Wears Prada’s Andy, who is sticking it out in a job she is not thrilled about because she knows what it could lead to, or Steven and Denise in The Summer I Turned Pretty, clocking into jobs they do not love while quietly building their video game on the side. If the internet is anything to go by, we’re all coping in increasingly unhinged ways: Dialing into a meeting in a full face mask, towel on head, sipping from a Stanley, and delivering updates like nothing’s wrong. Though a prank on the boss, it’s also the dream: to show up like that and have the only response be a request for skincare recs. At this point, the only KPI that matters is glowing skin.
Studies suggest this is not just a passing mood but a full-blown shift. Nearly 75 per cent of workers say they plan to stay in their current roles through at least 2027 in today’s anti-job-hopping era.
Of course, staying does not automatically mean thriving, which is why people are getting creative. Across industries and age groups, workers are finding ways to make job hugging feel less like a trap and more like a strategy. Think about quiet role tweaks, side hustles, poly employment, mid-week hobbies, or simply reframing work as the thing that funds everything else.
If job hopping was about chasing better, job hugging is about making the current situation just about bearable with a little ingenuity and a lot of mental rebranding.
Taking cue from the viral 9-to-5 office glow-up beauty routine, Ankita Chatterjee, a 27-year-old senior marketing analyst in Kolkata working in branded content and brand strategy, turns dead time into glow-up time. Her days are a blur of client calls that spill into nights and weekends, and while quitting has crossed her mind, silence from other applications has kept her where she is. “If my camera is off, I’ve literally started calling my nail artist home and getting my nails done during meetings. Otherwise, I’m sitting with a face mask or hair mask on or prepping for my everything shower at my desk, like oiling my hair between calls so it doesn’t eat into my time later. It sounds a bit ridiculous, but it makes me feel like I’m still in control of my day,” she says.
Others are reclaiming their time in motion. Abel Chacko, a 26-year-old project manager, realised that most of his meetings required more presence than participation, so he leaned into it. “I just walk through meetings now,” he says, referring to the walking pad he bought. “I get my steps in, I’m less restless, and I don’t end the day feeling like I’ve just been sitting in one place for hours. If I have to be there anyway, I might as well use the time.”
Not everyone is using this energy for self-improvement. Sometimes, the motivation is simply to feel something. In his Gurugram office, *Rohan Mehta, a 23-year-old operations associate, has taken things to a slightly unhinged level. “I’ve started randomly switching off people’s systems, especially my manager’s, but, like, very strategically. These computers take forever to restart, so it completely derails their day. IT has been trying to figure out the ‘issue’ for weeks. It’s obviously ridiculous, but honestly it’s the only thing keeping me entertained at this point.”
Elsewhere, boredom has turned into a full-blown game (and this one gives peak Jim Halpert behaviour). *Karan Bansal, a 25-year-old relationship manager at a private bank, has been quietly staging an ongoing prank on his unsuspecting colleague. “It started with a hair clip, then a keychain. Then I left a random bowl,” he says. “Now it’s a weekly thing where I try to top the last object with something more bizarre. He still hasn’t figured it out, and it’s the highlight of my week.”
Then there are those using this time to build something bigger. Aditi Rao, a 25-year-old community associate in Bengaluru, crochets on her hour-long commute every day, turning anxiety into something tangible. “I’ve made bags, pouches, little things, and I give them to coworkers who are also stressed. It just makes everything feel a little lighter,” she says.
And for others, the hustle is more direct. *Dev Malhotra, a 27-year-old supply chain executive at a D2C startup in Delhi, is already halfway into his exit plan. “I’ve started reselling on Amazon on the side, and yes, I do use office resources sometimes,” he says. “Printing labels, using the printer, even borrowing design elements... If they’re not paying me enough and the job market is this bad, I might as well use what I have.”
Put together, this does not look like a generation that has checked out. If anything, it looks like one that has figured out how to ride through it. People are staying put, doing the work, and finding ways to make it less miserable, whether that is skincare during calls, walking through meetings, crocheting on the metro, or, in some cases, fully committing to office chaos. For once, even the usual Gen Z critics are taking note. Turns out, they are not job hopping their way through life; they are sticking it out, making it work, and doing it with a mix of humour, hustle, and just the right amount of chaos.
*Some names have been changed upon request
