The internet is moving past ‘quiet quitting’ – when someone does only the bare minimum at work, putting in only the effort required to get the job done.

Gallup’s latest worker poll found nearly six in 10 adults in America are quiet quitting after the pandemic caused people to prioritize their ‘me time’.

But a new trend that piggybacks on this premise has emerged – the ‘lazy girl’ job. The term went viral thanks to a TikTok video with millions of views.

These are the 25 most sought-after lazy girl jobs

TikTok videos about the phenomenon have gone viral. The premise piggybacks on the idea of ‘soft quitting’

The premise of a lazy girl job is simple: Low stress, low effort, with lots of flexibility and freedom.

These jobs are remote, require no overtime, are physically safe, and there’s minimum to no supervision.

TikTokker @gabrielle_judge defined them as jobs with laid-back bosses and comfortable salaries that pay the bills but don’t require a chaotic work schedule. It’s the antithesis of the ‘girl boss’ movement or ‘leaning in’ — constant hustling and long hours to climb to the top.

What kind of jobs are we talking about, exactly?

Searches for ‘lazy girl jobs’ are up 1,267% over the past month, according to Workamajig. 

Gen Zers, especially, are interested. It’s even popular enough that it’s got a Wikipedia page.

Workamajig crunched the numbers (TikTok search volume) to find the 25 most popular lazy girl roles. Together, #lazygirljob and #lazygirljobs have a combined 25 million-plus views.

Using KeywordTool, we analyzed various roles aligned with the ‘lazy girl jobs’ trend, according to TikTok and Reddit users, to find the most searched on TikTok. Data was pulled by searching different jobs—like ‘Community Moderator job’ —and ranked based on the number of TikTok searches they’ve had on the app in the U.S. as of August 10 to determine TikTok’s most popular ‘lazy girl jobs.’ Search data is correct as of August 10, 2023, and analyzed over the preceding year. 

Maybe it’s the branding

Many complaints about the term come from those who say it paints a bad picture. Social media strategist Michael Durwin told the Wall Street Journal the movement makes sense, but the name is all wrong. ‘I think younger women are using it almost in a way that they don’t understand the damage it can do,’ he says.

But would the term have gone so viral with a more acceptable term like ‘work-life balance?’ Probably not.

Workspace rental firm IWG’s first-half profits more than doubled as the sustained popularity of hybrid working led to record revenues.

The world’s largest office space provider revealed operating profits jumped by 154 per cent on a constant currency basis to £94million for the six months ending June.

Mark Dixon, IWG’s chief executive, said the period marked a continuation of the ‘Big Bang’ that started the previous year when businesses began adopting flexible working policies.

Flexibility: The sustained popularity of hybrid working led to record first-half revenues for IWG

He noted that demand for the group’s offices and products was growing among companies seeking to lower their real estate costs.

IWG’s system-led revenues rose by 14 per cent to a record £1.68billion, largely driven by growing sales in the Americas and EMEA regions, with an additional boost provided by digital platform Worka.

IWG has been accelerating its capital-light growth strategy, whereby commercial landlords hire the firm to manage their offices.

The FTSE 250 business credited this approach for signing a further 400 new deals in the first half of 2023, having agreed to 462 during the whole of last year.

Dixon added: ‘We continue to be well placed to deliver further revenue, profitable growth and reducing leverage as more companies permanently embrace hybrid working as their preferred model with IWG set to be the biggest beneficiary.’

Yet IWG has adopted a ‘cautiously optimistic’ outlook for the current financial year, given the more troublesome economic backdrop and adverse foreign exchange fluctuations.

As a result, it has kept annual guidance unchanged on adjusted underlying earnings and continues to expect net debts will decline this year.

Analysts at Investec said: ‘Longer term, [IWG’s] market-leading position in the structurally growing hybrid working industry has compelling strategic attractions.’

Headquartered in Switzerland, IWG has around 3,400 locations across 120 countries and counts Samsung, Paypal, Spotify, and Blackrock among its clients.

IWG’s bumper results come as firms increasingly order their staff back to the office, with many executives citing the benefits to productivity and creativity of in-person collaboration.

On Monday, teleconferencing business Zoom, whose name became synonymous with remote working during the pandemic, told employees who live within 50 miles of one of its offices that they must come in at least two days a week.

Major corporations who have insisted on all or some of their staff coming into the office five days a week include banking giants Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan and white goods seller AO World.

IWG shares were 0.2 per cent, or 0.3p, lower at 150.8p on Tuesday morning, meaning they have fallen by approximately 23 per cent over the past 12 months.

Nearly twice as many young adults are not working due to ill health compared with a decade ago, research suggests.

Most of those affected have lower levels of education, with four in five having only qualifications at GCSE-level or below.

The Resolution Foundation, the think-tank behind the study, said the ‘worrying trend’ has gone completely under the radar.

Its ‘Left behind’ report, which was funded by the Health Foundation, says that overall levels of worklessness among young people are low.

In early 2023, the number of young people not in education, employment or training (Neet) stood at 720,000, lower than the post-financial crisis peak of 1.1million.

Most of those affected have lower levels of education, with four in five having only qualifications at GCSE-level or below (file image)

But there was a near-doubling of the number of 18 to 24-year-olds not working due to ill health, from 94,000 in 2012 to 185,000 in 2022, said the report.

The most common reason for these people being absent from work is due to poor mental health. 

Almost one in four workless young people are inactive because of ill-health, up from less than one in ten in 2012, the study indicated.

The Resolution Foundation claimed policymakers’ attention has been focused on rising ill-health among older workers.

But its report warns: ‘Any spell out of the labour market at a young age can have scarring effects on future employment prospects, but young people who are workless due to ill health are especially hard hit.’

It notes four in five young people who are workless due to ill health have been so for at least two years – compared to only a quarter of young people who are unemployed.

The research shows that rates of youth worklessness due to ill health vary little between more and less deprived areas of the UK. 

This is in contrast to inactivity due to ill health across the population as a whole, which is concentrated in deprived areas.

Rather, young people living in major cities are the least likely to be workless because they are unwell.

In 2020 to 2022, for example, 1.8 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds in London, and 2.0 per cent in other cities such as Glasgow and Liverpool – both of which have significant levels of deprivation – were not working due to ill health.

In contrast, 3.4 per cent living in small towns or villages, in areas such as Devon and South Wales, were inactive due to ill-health.

Researchers say this picture can be explained by the fact that many young people relocate from smaller places to big cities, firstly to study, and later to take up graduate jobs – changing the overall makeup of the city’s population to one with a high share of students and graduates.

Louise Murphy, an economist at the Resolution Foundation, said: ‘We cannot afford to let young people who are workless due to ill health get left behind. 

‘We must improve their education opportunities and ensure there is access to better mental health support.’

It’s the go-to messaging app for millions of people around the world, and now it seems WhatsApp is working on a huge update. 

The Meta-owned app is developing the ability to set up a WhatsApp username, according to leaker site, WABetaInfo. 

This could allow users to message people without having their phone number. 

‘WhatsApp users will have the opportunity to add another layer of privacy to their accounts,’ WABetaInfo wrote in a blog. 

‘Instead of relying solely on phone numbers to identify contacts, users will be able to opt for a unique and memorable username.’

WhatsApp, the go-to messaging app for millions of people around the world,is said to be working on a huge update

The Meta-owned app is developing the ability to set up a WhatsApp username, according to leaker site WABetaInfo

WABetaInfo spotted the new feature in the latest WhatsApp beta for Android 2.23.11.15.    

‘Although this feature is currently in development and not yet visible, we have a sneak peek to share,’ it said, alongside a screenshot of the feature. 

The screenshot shows an option to add a unique username on the Profile page within the app’s settings. 

However, further details on how the feature will work remain unclear.   

‘Since this feature is still in development, it is too early to understand how usernames work on WhatsApp,’ WABetaInfo explained. 

‘They may allow users to communicate with businesses privately, thus safeguarding their phone numbers, or perhaps their usage will be even more extensive, allowing private communication with any user. 

‘Only time will provide us with further answers, but we are confident that they will revolutionize the way we communicate on WhatsApp in the future.’

While WhatsApp is yet to confirm the news, several excited users have already taken to Twitter to express their delight at the rumours. 

While WhatsApp is yet to confirm the news, several excited users have already taken to Twitter to express their delight at the rumours

‘Finally!!! It was time to read something like this and therefore the phone number can be hidden, honestly this is great!!!’ one user wrote. 

‘It’s great to avoid having to disclose phone numbers to communicate with strangers!’ another added. 

And one joked: ‘The fight for claiming username on WhatsApp is about to begin!’

The news comes shortly after WhatsApp launched an Edit button that allows you to amend messages up to 15 minutes after sending them. 

‘From correcting a simple misspelling to adding extra context to a message, we’re excited to bring you more control over your chats,’ WhatsApp said. 

To use the tool, long-press on a sent message and choose ‘Edit’ from the menu.

Edited messages will display ‘edited’ alongside them, so your friends will be aware of the correction, although they won’t be able to see the edit history. 

‘As with all personal messages, media and calls, your messages and the edits you make are protected by end-to-end encryption,’ WhatsApp added.