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Job Hugging vs. Employee Engagement: How HR Can Shift the Mindset
Turnover is down. Recruiting pipelines are calmer. On paper, HR should be celebrating. But there’s a quieter truth beneath those numbers: many employees aren’t staying because they’re engaged, they’re staying because they’re scared. HR and ops teams have been through it: a pandemic, The Great Resignation, labor shortages, AI disruption, the list goes on. They’ve become experts at firefighting, but exhausted from always holding the hose. Now, just when you thought the workplace buzzword factory had slowed down, here comes “job hugging.” The term sounds warm and fuzzy: hugging, comfort, security. But as Natasha Bowman, JD, SPHR put it on LinkedIn: “None of that is happening here. People aren’t embracing their jobs. They’re clinging to them. Out of fear. Out of exhaustion. Out of survival.” (Bowman, LinkedIn, 2025) And that’s the reality HR leaders need to face. Because if “job hugging” is just a buzzword, we can roll our eyes and move on. But if it’s a sign of widespread disengagement hiding under low turnover, it’s something worth paying attention to.
by Skai Dalziel ● Sep 03, 2025
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