If we focus on today, we will notice that the priority for a large portion of people is work.

Professionals occupy most of us intensely and constantly, who spend endless hours working. The workplace has become something like a second home, colleagues a form of family and our minds are filled with thoughts such as: “Should I change jobs?” Is it time to claim a better position or a better salary?”. All this at a time when burnout has reached record levelswith employers demanding more and more and workers desperately trying to create healthier and more balanced conditions for themselves.

Within this context, various trends began to emerge on the internet and popular networking platforms related to professional life, such as “bare minimum Mondays”which describe a more relaxed start to the work week, ‘coffee badging’, which requires employees to show up at the office for a while, before returning to telecommuting, and ‘rage applying’, which describes looking for new job opportunities after an employee has receives a negative response from his employer for a promotion or raise.

These trends were coined by career coaches, HR professionals and young workers—many of whom are millennials or Gen Z—to explain some of the tumultuous changes occurring in the workplace, especially after years of economic crisis, but and after the pandemic, which left a strong imprint.

These trends signal a shift away from the intense work culture, focusing more on mental health and work-life balance, he notes. LinkedIn career expert Andrew McCaskill. “At their core, these trends signal a shift away from a culture of overwork and are really about having better guardrails around workers’ mental health and wellbeing.”he tells CNBC.

He points out that, for now, these trends are teetering between being helpful and being harmful. “It depends on how they are used.”

And while these practices are widely discussed in platforms like TikTok and LinkedIn, the reaction of companies is less obvious. It is unclear whether these online moves are leading to meaningful changes in the workplace. Some workers, however, report positive changes in their work environment due to these trends.

Bosses embrace Bare Minimum Mondays

For example, “Bare Minimum Mondays” have already gained ground in some workplaces. Alexa, a marketing manager based in Los Angeles, has seen this trend embraced by her own employer. Her version of Bare Minimum Mondays involves prioritizing a limited to-do list, leaving more demanding tasks for later in the week, which has increased her productivity and job satisfaction.

Marisa Jo Mayes, who started the trend on TikTok, has heard many workers say that their employers have adopted this approach. Despite its benefits, however, there is still reluctance to fully adopt a philosophy that may entail reduced work performance.

HR leaders are catching up with the quiet resignation

Meanwhile, the concept of “quiet resignation” entered the corporate conversation when it was popularized on TikTok by career expert Brian Creely, describing workers who choose to do the bare minimum rather than quit. Business leaders are now taking steps to address or prevent this trend, with tactics such as regular visits and proactive support to boost employee retention and well-being.

It remains to be seen whether these trends will start to appear in our country and be adopted by Greek business employers and whether they can really help achieve a balance for workers while leading to enhanced efficiency, not in the ways that previously adopted by employers, but through a new approach.