The speed of trends
This week I read about yet another workplace trend, #lazygirljob
Sigh.
It seems like the past three years have had an overabundance of trends that zip into and out of the zeitgeist – the Great Resignation, Quiet Quitting, Quiet Firing, Quiet Hiring (a lot of noiseless trends here…), Hybrid Work, Lazy Girl Jobs…the list is long. And it feels like there are new ones splashed across headlines and TikTok just about weekly.
So what should we be paying attention to, really?
When I started to think about some of these work trends, so many of them don’t feel like trends with staying power. They feel more like blips on the radar, ways to understand moments in time within a much longer trajectory. But in an era of gnat-like ability to focus, we’re getting Instagram stories level play-by-play reporting, and naming, of every new twist to this saga.
Work has been upended from the way we know it, the way we’ve long done it, and each iteration, no matter how small, is illuminated for us all to examine in excruciating detail.
And I think we’re missing the point.
Can you imagine as a teenager, having every awkward comment, behavior, thought, or desire scrutinized and taken as a defining feature, instead of as minor building blocks to the adult we would one day be? We all know teenagers are in the prime of growth and development, so we’re more likely to say something like, “Oh, it’s just a phase.” But we’re not treating these work trends that way. It’s as though we’re trying to identify the next state of work by the small steps, mis-steps, stumbles, triumphs, wavers, and wobbles instead of standing back and looking at them all as part of a bigger system in transition.
So before we get too caught up in exasperation over the #lazygirljob trend (or any other of-the-moment trend, for that matter), what if we were to simply step back and look at it in the context of the long term and consider – what should we take from this that can help us as we evolve and develop ourselves to the next future of work?
Trends of my past that should never have seen the light of day…bangs, and wearing sweatshirts as dresses. Oy vey.
