Andrew Jabara

The ways we describe the world of work often make zero sense outside of an employer-employee context. The words we use to talk about work reveal a lot about the time period they emerged, about worker-employer power dynamics, and how the system of work evolves over time.

What words do we use to refer to “work” itself? From the 1600s to the 1800s, the concept of a “career” (from the Latin carrus, or “chariot”) took root, describing a range of occupations one might engage in. In the 1920s, the word “gig” became slang for a job (possibly as slang for giga — a fast and lively music form dating back to the Baroque period — requested from musicians and bands at contemporary performances). These words also get borrowed and evolve into different forms over time. In the 1930s, “career woman” emerged as a pejorative for women who were focused on their long-term job position and performance (instead of the stereotypical “settle down with a good husband and become a homemaker with the kids” lifestyle). In the 2010s, the “gig economy” was a whole new world of work as companies like Fiverr, Lyft, Doordash, and TaskRabbit created massive new markets of freelance work.

The ways we talk about work can also show power dynamics between employers and employees. Sometimes, things stay the same (“the daily grind” has become “on that grind”, but both refer to repeatedly putting in a lot of work for tasks). Other times, the work world can massively change. In the 1980s, “mass layoffs” entered the lexicon courtesy of Jack Welch (former CEO of General Electric) — firing hundreds or thousands of workers for any company that wasn’t teetering over the edge of bankruptcy was unheard of. In the 1990s, “hustle” and “hustle culture” taking on the meaning of “working hard” grew out of the Hip Hop movement, and by the 2000s the notion of a “side hustle” in many ways glorified taking on a second job to make ends meet (or more optimistically, to eventually replace the your [boring] day-to-day job). All of this is a far cry from the original notions of a “career”, with the implicit ideas of stability (or “climbing the corporate ladder”, to add another phrase).

In the 2020s, burnout has led to terms like “quiet quitting” and “coffee badging” — doing the bare minimum to comply with employer guidelines that often feel overreaching and unnecessary. Although “coffee badging” (showing up to work, badging in so the system records you there, grabbing a literal or proverbial coffee, and then heading out) is more straightforward in its tension between worker and employer power, “quiet quitting” reflects the murkiness of work expectations: is “quitting” the right word to refer to completing all of your work responsibilities and assignments (just nothing above and beyond)?

There are a lot of words we use for work. Here are a few of my favorite phrases and how they illuminate the environment of their origins:

• Useless jobs
  • “Paper pusher”: 1920s: someone whose job involves unimportant tasks (“busy work”). Used derogatorily towards people perceived as unhelpful and overly bureaucratic/getting in the way of actually getting things done.
  • “Rest and vest”: 2010s: an employee, usually working in a big Tech company, that does little to no work, just waiting around collecting a large paycheck (from base pay and from hitting milestone dates to get paid more company stock).
• Job categorization
  • “Blue collar”: 1920s: an employee working in a factory or other physical-labor job, often wearing a work short with a literal blue collar
  • “White collar”: 1920s: an employee working a desk job or other service-industry job, often wearing a work short with a literal white collar. At factories where the main workers wore blue collars and the Sales and Business leaders wore white collars, the cultural divide within the workforce was made apparent.
  • “No collar”: 2010s: this term is still evolving. It’s been used to refer to those following more artistic pursuits or careers with lower expected financial returns, or to the higher-paying Big Tech jobs with an implicit “jeans, ratty t-shirt, and maybe a hoodie”company lack-of-dress-code. Both areas lack the emphasis on standardized dress that was a hallmark of 20th century jobs.
• Corporate Euphemisms
  • “Reduction in Force”/”RIF”: 1980s-2000s (earliest I could find in the business world was a 2001 article announcing layoffs at Acme co, but RIFs have been used previously to refer to literal reductions in armed forces deployed around the world): same meaning as “layoff” (permanent elimination of employee positions). See also, “downsizing”, rightsizing”, “workforce reduction”, “unallocation”, “counseling out” (especially for consulting).
  • “Per my last email”: unknown, likely 2000s or after: the information has already been provided to you (with passive-aggressive intent)
  • “Circle back”: 1500s (origin of modern evolution unknown): originally meaning was to return back to your original location/reverse in direction, but modern usage is more precisely returning back to a specific conversation or decision at a later time. This often indicates inability to come to an agreement or disinterest in the subject at hand.