Leadership in the age of “job hugging”
"Job hugging" is showing up everywhere right now, and it's pretty easy to see why.
People are holding on to jobs that they may not love, not because they lack ambition, but because the ground keeps shifting. Layoffs are in their thousands, the news cycle is always-on trauma, and technology is disrupting work faster than organisations can absorb.
So, staying put becomes a rational response because there are mortgages to pay and kids to feed - this is real life, and many are simply trying to hold it together.
What’s interesting is how “job hugging” shows up inside organisations.
It rarely looks like poor performance, in fact, it often appears in teams that are dependable and professional. Work gets done, deadlines are met, people are responsive and reliable. From the outside, everything can look fine.
What changes is the energy behind the work. Fewer ideas are offered, people stop volunteering for projects outside their remit. Learning becomes optional and contribution narrows to what feels safest and most familiar.
This can be hard to spot, because nothing is “wrong” in the traditional sense. Over time, though, organizations feel it as slower momentum and a growing gap between what people are capable of and what they are actually contributing.
The challenge for people leaders, then, isn’t simply how to motivate people. It’s how to shape work so it offers stretch opportunities in ways that feel supported, and that also helps the organization meet its goals.
This is not an HR issue or a wellbeing initiative. Job hugging lives in the day-to-day relationship between leaders and their people. It shows up in how work is shaped, how decisions are shared, and how much permission people feel they have to grow inside their roles.
It's a bit like a classic Venn Diagram: company goals on the left, employee's passion on the right: the people leader has to be part of finding that intersection.
What's that sweet spot, that crossover?
That starts with knowing your people well enough to understand what lights them up, where they want to grow, and how their strengths can be used more fully in the roles they already have.
It also means being open when your people try to express what they love to do. Sometimes it will have nothing to do with their current role. That doesn’t make it irrelevant. It might point to a skill they want to build, a problem they care about, or a contribution they haven’t yet had the chance to make.l?
Typically, you'll find that people who are courageous enough to share their passions with you are the ones who will worry most about doing their jobs in the best way they can.
One simple action you can take as a leader is to make space for this in your regular one-to-ones. Build in time to explore what lights people up, where they want to grow, and how they want to contribute more fully. Start those conversations with curiosity rather than answers, and see where they lead.
I’m Laura Best, a motivational keynote speaker and bestselling author. I help organisations activate passion to drive energy, engagement, and performance through my Practical Inspiration® approach. If you’re thinking about how this conversation could support your leaders or teams, you can learn more about my keynote work here.