Job Hugging Isn’t the Good News You Think It Is
Charlotte Whitehouse
Remember quiet quitting? The trend that dominated workplace conversation in 2022, where employees were doing the bare minimum, mentally checking out while technically staying on the payroll. Employers scrambled to respond, engagement surveys multiplied and culture initiatives launched.
And then, quietly, the conversation moved on.
But the underlying problem didn’t go away. It evolved and what we’re seeing now has a new name called job hugging and, in some ways, it’s more insidious than quiet quitting ever was, because at least with quiet quitting, the disengagement was visible. Job hugging wears the mask of stability.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: this isn’t good news for anyone. If you’re an employer looking at your low turnover numbers and feeling quietly pleased, or an employee gripping their roles out of fear rather than fulfilment, this is for you.
What is Job Hugging and How Is It Different from Quiet Quitting?
Job hugging is when employees stay in their current roles not because they want to, but because they feel they have no choice. Economic uncertainty, a cooling job market, AI anxiety and the memory of mass layoffs have combined to create a workforce that is holding on “for dear life.”
The term emerged in mid-2025, and the data behind it is striking. According to Monster’s 2025 Job Hugging Report, nearly half of all workers (48%) are currently job hugging, and three-quarters expect to remain in their current role for the next two years.
Where quiet quitting was about disengagement expressed through reduced effort, job hugging is disengagement expressed through enforced stillness. The quiet quitter withdrew and the job hugger stays, but they’re not truly present either.
And crucially, it’s hiding in plain sight. Behind attendance records, surface-level performance and a reluctance to rock the boat, job hugging is considerably harder to diagnose than quiet quitting ever was, and more damaging for everyone involved.
The Employer Problem
If you’re looking at your headcount numbers and feeling quietly pleased, this section is for you.
Low Turnover Isn’t The Win You Think It Is
The instinct to read stability as health is understandable. Fewer leavers means less disruption, lower recruitment costs, retained institutional knowledge. But a workforce that stays out of fear is not the same as a workforce that stays out of loyalty. One is an asset and the other is a liability you haven’t recognised yet.
The quits rate (a key measure of genuine worker confidence) sits at around 2%, its lowest sustained level since 2016. That isn’t a sign that everyone is happy, it’s a sign that people don’t feel they have options.
The Three Types of Job Hugger in Your Organisation Right Now
Here’s where most coverage of this trend goes wrong: it treats job hugging as a single, uniform behaviour. It isn’t. There are at least three distinct types of job hugger sitting in your organisation right now, and they require completely different responses.
The Pragmatist
This person has assessed the market, weighed their options and made a rational decision to stay. They’re not disengaged, they’re deliberate.
They may be developing skills, biding their time, waiting for the right moment. This is the employee you want. They’re stable, experienced and making a considered choice. Don’t mistake their stillness for stagnation.
The Fearful Stayer
This person wants to leave but feels they can’t. The market feels too uncertain, their confidence has taken a knock, or they’re paralysed by the prospect of a lengthy job search.
They’re staying but they’re not present. Research suggests 65% of employees currently report feeling “stuck” in their roles. Stuck people don’t innovate, they don’t go the extra mile and they’re a flight risk the moment market conditions shift.
The Burnt Out Over Performer
Perhaps the most overlooked type and the one with the most serious consequences for employee wellbeing. This person is so afraid of redundancy that they’re overcompensating: working longer hours, attending every optional meeting, saying yes to everything.
Anthony Klotz, the academic who coined the term “Great Resignation,” calls this a “one-way trip to burnout.” These employees look fine on paper – hey may even look exceptional – but they’re running on empty, and when they go, it tends to be sudden and it tends to hurt.
The Talent Pool Problem Nobody Is Talking About
There’s a secondary consequence of job hugging that isn’t getting enough attention: what it does to the talent pool.
Fewer people moving means fewer strong candidates circulating. When you do need to hire, you’re fishing in a smaller pond, competing harder for the people who are willing and able to make a move.
The candidate who is actively job seeking in this market is a different profile to the one from 2021 or 2022.
This is precisely the wrong moment to put your hiring on pause because turnover looks low. A quieter market isn’t a reason to step back from recruitment strategy it’s a reason to be more precise about it. The right hire, made now, compounds over time. Waiting until you’re desperate is how expensive hiring mistakes happen.
Questions Smart Employers Are Asking
The organisations navigating this well aren’t sitting back and enjoying the stability. They’re asking harder questions about employee engagement:
- Which of our people are staying with us and which are just staying?
- Where is performance holding steady because of genuine motivation, and where is it propped up by fear?
- Are we having honest conversations about career development, or assuming that because if nobody’s leaving, nobody’s unhappy?
They’re also being proactive about identifying the three job hugger types within their teams because the response to a Pragmatist looks nothing like the response to a Burnt-Out Overperformer.
The Candidate Problem
If you’re reading this and quietly recognising yourself because you’re staying in a role you’ve outgrown and telling yourself the market is too uncertain to move, this section is for you.
Staying Put Might Be The Riskiest Thing You Do
Job hugging is understandable.
The job market is genuinely tougher, AI anxiety is real and after years of instability, the appeal of a known quantity is hard to argue with.
But here’s what fear-driven stagnation costs you, and it’s more than you might think.
What Job Hugging Does to Your Career
Your Skills Quietly Fall Behind
The fastest-developing skills, the most in-demand experience, the sharpest edge in your field comes from exposure to new challenges, new organisations, new ways of working.
A role you’ve stopped growing in is a role that’s slowly making you less employable, not more secure.
Your Market Value Erodes Without You Noticing
Salary benchmarks move. The package that felt competitive two years ago may not reflect what you’re worth today, or what you could be earning elsewhere.
Job huggers often discover this too late, when they finally do move and realise how much ground they’ve lost.
Your Become Harder to Place the Longer You Wait
Recruiters and hiring managers notice long tenures in stagnant roles, particularly when they’re not accompanied by progression, increasing responsibility or evolving skill sets.
The longer you stay without growing, the more questions your CV raises.
Burnout Doesn’t Happen to the Disengaged
If you’re overcompensating and working harder than ever to justify your position or saying yes to everything and performing enthusiasm you don’t feel, you’re not playing it safe.
This means you’re running towards exhaustion and burnout doesn’t announce itself until it’s already arrived.
How to Break the Job Hugging Cycle
The good news is that recognising it, is most of the work. Here’s where to start:
Reframe The Risk
Staying in the wrong role carries real risk too, to your development, your earnings and your long-term employability.
The question isn’t “is moving risky?” It’s “which risk would I rather take?”
Get an Honest Read on The Market
Many job huggers assume the market is worse than it is because they haven’t tested it. A conversation with a specialist recruiter, with no obligation to move, can give you a grounded picture of what’s actually out there in your field and at your level.
Separate Your Identity from Your Role
Fear of leaving is often tied up in more than just financial security. If your confidence, routine or sense of self has become dependent on a role you’ve outgrown, that’s worth examining and worth addressing before it becomes a crisis.
Start Small
You don’t have to hand in your notice tomorrow. Update your CV, have a conversation or attend an industry event. The goal isn’t to make a leap, it’s to remind yourself that you have options. Because you do!
The Bottom Line
Quiet quitting put employee disengagement on the agenda. Job hugging has taken it underground.
For employers: the stability you’re seeing may be concealing a hollowing-out of your best talent and a recruitment crisis that will feel very sudden when the market shifts. The question worth asking isn’t why your people are staying. It’s how they’re staying.
For candidates: the safety of staying put may be costing you more than the risk of moving. The market is uncertain, yes, but so is spending another year in a role that stopped serving you.
The causes are real and legitimate and what looks like stability on the surface may be concealing a significant problem.
That’s a conversation most people aren’t having yet and it’s probably the most important one you can have right now.
How We Can Help
Practicus has spent over 20 years helping organisations hire better, not just faster. If you want a straight conversation about what’s really happening with talent in your sector, we’re ready when you are.
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