Experts Share 5 Predictions For The Working World In 2025 — Including A Trend Of 'Revenge Quitting'
The working world has gotten crazier seemingly by the minute. Will 2025 be when it boils over?
VioletaStoimenova | Canva Pro It goes without saying that the working world has become a bit… well, fraught ever since the pandemic. From the unhinged job market to the ways Gen Z has shaken up workplace mores, it's been a time of transitions and upheavals, to say the least.
So, what's in store for 2025? Job search and workplace review site Glassdoor has some predictions of how shake-ups are likely to continue next year in some potentially groundbreaking ways.
Glassdoor has five workplace predictions for 2025 impacting workers and employers alike.
To make its predictions, Glassdoor used everything from demographic data to university studies to polls of more than 5,000 workers and employers to get a sense of how they're feeling about the current state of things and where they think things are headed.
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What they found not only pulls into focus the myriad shake-ups and frustrations workers have been feeling with respect to their careers and the job market but also, in some ways the shocking results of our recent election, which polling shows was largely decided by the disconnect between our country's post-pandemic economic recovery and the day-to-day financial realities of most Americans.
1. Employee resentment will finally boil over and may spark a trend of 'revenge quitting'
The post-pandemic years had "quiet quitting" and "acting your wage," 2025 will have "revenge quitting," according to Glassdoor's poll of more than 3,000 workers in October 2024.
The general sentiment? Workers have simply had enough, especially when it comes to the sluggish pace with regard to career advancement. Their poll revealed that 65%, nearly two-thirds of workers, feel "stuck" in their current careers.
Economic data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics bears this out too — the most recent "quit rate" fell to rates last seen all the way back in 2015. Many employers seem to have gotten complacent about this willingness to stay put, but they shouldn't — it stems from long-brewing frustration that Glassdoor says may add up to a wave of middle-finger waving, "take this job and shove it" resignations that boil over in 2025.
2. Falling down the career ladder will stunt career development and wage growth for some workers
Glassdoor found that as the white-hot post-pandemic job market has cooled, many workers have lost or had to change jobs and career fields. Their data show that 17% of these workers have had to settle for a lower job title or a pay cut, even as wages have risen overall.
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This trend has been particularly pronounced among management-level workers, 22% of whom had to take a pay cut when changing jobs in the past year, and as happened with the 2008 recession, Glassdoor expects these shifts to leave scars on many workers' mobility.
As any young worker at the beginning of their career can tell you, this is also causing a logjam among entry-level positions, a trend that is likely to continue in 2025.
3. 1 in 10 managers will be part of Gen Z
On the other hand, there is some good news for young workers — Glassdoor says 2025 will be the year when the first members of Gen Z begin moving into management roles. The oldest members of the age cohort will turn 28 next year, marking 10 years in the job market in general and six years post college.
Current trends in the Gen Z workforce, which comprises 20% of workers, suggest that they will also comprise 10% of management next year as well. And for all the talk of what outliers Gen Z'ers are in many ways, this is roughly the exact same trajectory that millennials, Gen X, and boomers followed in the workplace when they were the same age.
What is distinctive about young workers, though, is what they want out of the workplace. Glassdoor found that, contrary to how much of Gen Z voted in the 2024 election, they are laser-focused on work-life balance, empathetic workplace dynamics and especially the right-wing's dreaded diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
4. Side hustles, including entrepreneurial ones, will continue to expand people's career paths
As the job market has become less and less predictable, American workers are increasingly turning to side hustles and entrepreneurial ventures, both to supplement their incomes and to increase their career prospects.
Currently, Glassdoor's polling shows that 39% of workers overall have a side hustle for extra money, with 57% of Gen Z and 48% of millennials following the trend. This is, of course, in part due to the unpredictability of our job market and economy, but it has a bright side as well.
At the same time, side hustles have risen, and so has entrepreneurship: New business applications surged to 431,000 per month in 2024, a 47% increase since 2019, with more and more workers captaining their own career ships.
Regardless of the reasons, all these extra jobs, new businesses, and an 84% workplace participation rate — the highest in decades — definitively puts to rest the "nobody wants to work anymore" nonsense that business leaders would do well to keep out of their mouths from now on, especially given that whole "revenge quitting" trend.
5. Employers will invest heavily in holistic workplace benefits
And speaking of that "revenge quitting" stuff, employers do seem to be taking workers' anger into account, especially as the mental health crisis among American workers deepens.
Glassdoor found that employees have reported an 18% increase in mental healthcare benefits being offered at work, which is second only to the rise of work-from-home benefits since the pandemic.
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Employers have also shown a 12% increase in parental leave, and a 9% increase in both family medical and bereavement leave offerings as well, in part to address the problems of the so-called "sandwich generation" of working adults taking care of both children and aging parents.
How the coming economic shake-ups and regulatory chaos promised by the incoming administration — including a vow to fire 75% of the nearly 3 million people in the federal workforce — will impact all these trendlines as 2025 actually gets under way remains to be seen. But any way you slice it, 2025 is bringing big changes, for better or worse.
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.