Glassdoor said in a blog post on the 10th that the frequency of use of the word “fatigue” in the glassdoor community has increased by 41% this year compared to last year. Glassdoor cited politics as one of the backgrounds for office workers to feel tired. This year, the frequency of use of the word “appointment” has increased by 875%. U.S. President Donald Trump, who took office in November last year, has influenced the world, and this year alone, elections to select political leaders have been held in various parts of the world. It has been a dynamic year as new political leaders have been inaugurated through elections in Korea, Germany, Canada, and Japan.
Economic uncertainty and stagflation are also factors that cause fatigue among office workers. Stagflation, which refers to a phenomenon in which both economic downturn and inflation occur at the same time, has been used more than 300 percent year-on-year this year. In addition, the frequency of using the word “agentic” has increased by 2,244 percent over the past year. This is an adjective form of the noun “agent”, and it is understood that the term “agent AI”, which refers to artificial intelligence (AI) that can judge and act on its own beyond simply implementing instructions, has become popular.
Earlier, when the company asked in a survey, “Do you feel like the events in the news are draining energy at work?” 78% of the respondents reportedly said “yes.”
The labor market has also caused fatigue. “Workers do not feel that the current job market is working properly,” Daniel Zhao, chief economist at Glassdoor, said in a CNBC interview. “We are dissatisfied with the current situation in an environment where hiring is sluggish, career growth is limited, and wage growth is limited.”
“This year, office workers spent a lot of time in a state of nervousness. I was worried about what kind of articles would make headlines next, what kind of technological changes would there be, and what kind of economic changes would there be,” Glassdoor said. “Politics was very important, fears of being laid off have not disappeared, economic concerns have grown, and rapid changes caused by AI have accelerated.” The company also compared the situation of workers under various changes to “running when the fuel tank is empty.” Ahead of the end of the year, various places are trying to express this year in one word. Earlier, the Oxford Language Division under the OUP, Oxford University Press, which compiles and publishes the OED, selected “rage bait” as the word of the year in 2025. The expression refers to “content such as writing, painting, and video that causes anger or irritation to those who read or see it for the purpose of increasing the number of online views,” and the frequency of use has tripled this year.
The U.K. weekly Economist also selected “Slop” as the word of the year for 2025. This refers to a phenomenon in which low-quality AI-generated content is flooding online.
SAM KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
