{"id":142299,"date":"2026-01-22T11:00:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T16:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/?post_type=magazine&p=142299"},"modified":"2026-01-22T11:54:46","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T16:54:46","slug":"job-hugging-the-trend-ld-cant-ignore","status":"publish","type":"magazine","link":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/magazine\/winter-2026\/job-hugging-the-trend-ld-cant-ignore\/","title":{"rendered":"Job Hugging: The Trend L&D Can\u2019t Ignore"},"author":52,"featured_media":90196,"template":"","tags":[2434,3203,36521],"class_list":["post-142299","magazine","type-magazine","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-learning-culture","tag-retention-strategy","tag-workforce-anxiety","global_topic_tax-workforce-development","magazine_issue_tax-winter-2026","magazine_article_type_tax-career-development","magazine_article_type_tax-thought-leader"],"acf":{"sponsored":false,"gated":false,"gated_content_type":"","file_attachment":null,"gated_content":"","form_instruction_header":"To access the full article, please fill out the form below:","pardot_html_embed":"","author_override":true,"author_name":"Julie Winkle Giulioni ","author_image":"","author_bio":"Julie Winkle Giulioni is the author of the bestselling books, \u201cPromotions Are SO Yesterday\u201d and \u201cHelp Them Grow or Watch Them Go.\u201d","excerpt":"Job hugging keeps people in place, but only learning and growth turn fear into loyalty and disengagement into choice.","main_content":"Are you finding that employees in your organization are just holding on these days? I don\u2019t mean \u201cholding on by a thread,\u201d although that\u2019s the case for many workers. I mean holding unusually tightly to their jobs. \u00a0Amid layoffs, economic uncertainty and automation anxiety, \u201cjob hugging\u201d \u2014 clutching our current roles not because we love them, but because we\u2019re afraid of losing them \u2014 continues to be on the rise.\r\n\r\nSome leaders quietly celebrate this shift. After years of talent shortages and worker mobility, the power pendulum seems to have swung back to management\u2019s side. But when the economy rebounds, as it inevitably will, those who\u2019ve felt trapped will likely flee, triggering a Great(er) Resignation 2.0.\r\n

The Human (and Business) Implications<\/h2>\r\nWhen endured over long periods of time, job hugging can understandably morph into resenteeism: a term coined by RotaCloud to describe a toxic blend of resentment, absenteeism and presenteeism.\r\n\r\nAnd this is what too many employees are experiencing today. You see it as people who show up physically but check out mentally. They do what\u2019s required and nothing more. They suppress curiosity, suspend innovation, avoid risk and reject growth. The result is usually fatigue, frustration and disengagement.\r\n\r\nBut that\u2019s where learning and development comes in. In this moment, when fear constrains performance and possibilities, learning leaders have a unique opportunity \u2014 and perhaps responsibility \u2014 to help their organizations hug back with growth.<\/em>\r\n

From Scarcity to Security<\/h2>\r\nWhile global economic and employment data explain scarcer and slower hiring in many sectors, affected employees can\u2019t help but take it personally. Many report feeling less marketable, less desirable and stuck.\r\n\r\nWhen organizations offer portable upskilling and reskilling (development that can travel with people), they replace that lack of confidence with a sense of skill security. They send a powerful signal: We care about your long-term growth, not just today\u2019s output. And that can feel like a hug back.\r\n\r\nIronically, that freedom to take one\u2019s skills elsewhere actually fosters loyalty that job hugging can extinguish. When employees know they can leave but choose to stay, engagement deepens. Because real loyalty, after all, is born not from scarcity or fear but from choice and trust.\r\n

Balancing Perform and Grow Modes<\/h2>\r\nSustained periods of job hugging can take a significant emotional toll \u2014 a toll that growth can help to reverse. Consider the work of organizational psychologist, Nick Petrie, whose research identified<\/a> that the average worker spends 61% of their time performing (doing what they know) and just 39% growing (learning something new.)\r\n\r\nFurther, he found that this imbalance is draining. Constantly doing more with less erodes energy and engagement whereas growth, on the other hand, is regenerative. Learning something new. Experimenting. Stretching beyond the familiar and known. These actions don\u2019t just build skill; they offer hope.\r\n\r\nYou can help your organization hug back by:\r\n
    \r\n \t
  • Advocating for intentional grow time within the workweek and establishing leadership and cultural norms that protect it.<\/li>\r\n \t
  • Facilitating microlearning, skill exchanges and short-term stretch assignments that reawaken curiosity.<\/li>\r\n \t
  • Encouraging purpose-aligned microlearning projects that connect employee passions to organizational impact.<\/li>\r\n \t
  • Educating managers, helping them see learning not as a distraction from performance but as a strategy to build long-term capacity and retention.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nOrganizations that take these steps toward embracing all employees with growth will see employees stop holding on out of fear and start showing up out of choice.\r\n

    Are You Ready to Hug It Out?<\/h2>\r\nLearning professionals are, by nature, the huggers of the workplace. Right now, your hug on behalf of the organization is the meaningful learning and growth that you offer. It serves as an emotional safety net, holding people steady through uncertainty and reminding them they are valued.\r\n\r\nAnd when the employment pendulum swings back, as it always does, employees will remember how they felt \u2014 capable, valued and invested in \u2014 and they\u2019ll keep hugging. This time out of choice, not fear.","full_width":false,"content_band":[{"acf_fc_layout":"social_callout","blockquote":"Real loyalty is born not from scarcity or fear but from choice and trust."},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_area","wysiwyg":"