Author: theauthor2022

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Coffee Badging

Hello readers! I hope you had a happy new year. I’ve been in grad school and teaching classes so I didn’t have time to post. There are still several terms and phrases from the Pandemic Era that I want to blog about. Going forwards, the pandemic was officially declared over on May 11, 2023. Since then, there have been some new terms to reflect the post-pandemic era. One of them is Coffee Badging.

Coffee badging started in response to “Return to Office” mandates and describes workers who go into the office long enough to have a morning coffee just to satisfy the hybrid working arrangements and then going home early to remote work the rest of the day.

The Urban Dictionary’s has a definition for Coffee Badging:

Since hybrid workers are being asked to return to work, this is a new trend which consists of going into the office building for the morning coffee, “badging in” for the day, and then going home to work for the remainder of the day.

I get so distracted at work, I might have to start coffee badging to meet my at-work quota.

LateToTheParty

Employers want people back in the office but employees are finding ways to avoid having to put in a full day at the office and facing the dreaded commute home. Office workers all over the country are coming into work, having coffee, earning an imaginary badge for showing up and then leaving early to go home so they can remote work for the rest of the day. They get to enjoy the perks of socializing with workers while keeping their work from home arrangement. CNBC ran an article on the latest trend of coffee badging:

Yannique Ivey may be going back to the office, but she’s open about the fact that you won’t catch her first thing in the morning. Wait too long in the day and you’ll miss her, too.

Ivey, 27, works for a tech consulting firm in Atlanta and says she drives into the office once or twice a month. When she’s there, she commits to an 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. schedule — just in time for a catered lunch, to catch up with colleagues for a few hours, and head out before traffic stalls her in a “hellish” commute home, she tells CNBC Make It.

She and her team are open about this arrangement. Spending a few shortened days in the office each month“takes needed time away from the actual work” to socialize and build community, she says, but “I’m a lot more productive when I’m home, so I get started there and wind down from there.”

Liu

Coffee badging can cause bad feelings between those who put in a full day at the office and those who come in to socialize and leave early to go home and work virtually for the rest of the day. Many employees want to continue their work from home arrangements to avoid a lengthy commute thus saving time and money. Others enjoy the flexibility that remote working offers. The ColoradoBiz website looks at the disadvantages of coffee badging:

Coffee badging can also reduce the time teams spend on collaboration and undermine attempts to build a cohesive work culture. [It] is another obstacle in efforts to convince workers of the value of the office. Employers need to make in-person work meaningful for their teams if they want to successfully combat coffee badging.

Jorgensen

Fox 5 News journalist Richard Giacovas reports on the new trend of coffee badging:

Geek News Central

Social Media Trends as of January 15, 2024

Facebook #coffeebadging: people are posting about this
Instagram #coffeebadging: 117 posts
YouTube #coffeebadging less than 100 videos and channels
TikTok #coffeebadging: 3.1 million views

Google Trends: “coffee badging” first appeared in 2022 but since many companies issued return to office mandates, many of which were not strictly enforced, the popularity of the term increased in the Fall of 2023.

coffee badging search term

Sources:

Fox 5 New York channel. “‘Coffee-badging’ is new return-to-office trend.” YouTube. December 2023. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ANFsTeypxQ.

Geek News Central. “Coffee Badging” image. YouTube. 2023. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6waboSUrz2s.

Jorgensen, Niki. “How the ‘Coffee Badging’ Trend Is Brewing Trouble for Hybrid Work Models.” Cobizmag.com. November 3, 2023. URL: https://www.cobizmag.com/what-is-coffee-badging/.

LateToTheParty. “Coffee Badging.” Urban Dictionary. October 6, 2023. URL: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=coffee%20badging.

Liu, Jennifer. “Bosses want people back in the office, but employees are finding a workaround—it’s called ‘coffee badging’” CNBC.com. October 5, 2023. URL: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/05/as-return-to-office-mandates-pick-up-employees-find-coffee-badging-workaround.html.

Categories
Pandemic

Vaxxident

Vaxxident is a portmanteau of the words vaccine and accident. Variations of the word are: vaxident, vacident and vaccident. The definition refers to a medical incident where someone is performing an activity, usually driving, and has an accident due to a sudden side effect caused by one of the Covid-19 vaccines. The outcome can be devastating. These events really do happen as everyone’s physiology is unique and there’s no way of knowing in advance how someone will respond to the potential side effects of vaccination.

The Urban Dictionary defines Vaxxident as:

Post-vaccine automobile accident on roadways, caused by mini-strokes and blood clots in the brain. People are driving off the roads and striking trees — veering into other cars for head-on collisions — and apparently losing cognitive function while behind the wheel.

There are many reports of people getting into vaxxidents in their vehicles after having received Covid-19 vaccinations.

Shitting Pretty

The free online resource Wikitionary defines the term as an “unexpected medical incident occurring after the administration of a COVID vaccination.”

The term appears in the November 2, 2021 issue of the Washington Post which says: “The British company that publishes the Oxford English Dictionary has named “vax” as 2021’s word of the year…A host of “vaccination” variations have appeared during the pandemic [and] the politicization of vaccination and the pandemic has spawned terms such as “vaxxident,” a traffic accident that results from the alleged side effects of getting vaccinated against the coronavirus” (Jeong).


Social Media Trends as of August 1, 2023

The links used below reflect the different variations of spelling. There were no YouTube tags for any variation of vaxxident.

Facebook #vaxxident: people are posting about this
Instagram #vaxident: 39 posts
TikTok #vaccidents: 2.6 million views

Google Trends: I used the time frame from Jan 1, 2021 to the present for the trends anaylsis as the first Covid vaccines were administered in Dec 2020. Vaccident appeared in January 2021 and went through a series of peaks and troughs throughout to 2023.

vaccident search term


Sources:

Jeong, Andrew. “‘Vax’ is Oxford’s word of the year, as pandemic’s ‘Fauci ouchie’ and ‘inoculati’ enter the lexicon.” The Washington Post. Nov 2, 2021. URL: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/11/02/vax-word-year-oxford-coronavirus/.

Shitting Pretty. “Vaxxident.” Urban Dictionary. July 10, 2021. URL: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=vaxxident.

“Vaxident.“ Wikitionary. URL: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vaxident#English.

Categories
Pandemic

Student Loan Pause

One of the last holdouts from the pandemic era is about to end. Student loans were put on hold for more than three years and interest rates were reduced to 0%. As part of the debt ceiling agreement signed by President Joe Biden in June 2023, student loan payments will resume at the end of August. According to the U.S. Department of Education, “student loan interest will resume starting on Sept. 1, 2023, and payments will be due starting in October” (Federal Student Aid). This is separate from President Biden’s student loan forgiveness which is on hold pending a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court later this month.

A brief history of the federal student loan pause during the pandemic era is as follows: On March 13, 2020 President Trump announced that interest would be eliminated on all federal student loans. The following week, the US Department of Education announced student loan interest would be suspended for three months and payments suspended for two months. On March 27, 2020 President Trump signed the CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) suspending federal student loans through September 30, 2020.

President Trump extended the payment pause two more times during his last year in office. When President Biden took office in January 2021, he extended the pause several times; the last pause was announced on April 6, 2022 which extended student loan relief measures through August 31 that year (Custer, Bradley D and Azoulay, Ella). Visit here for more details on the student payment pause timeline.

Below is a CNBC segment from 2020 where President Trump announces executive action that pauses interest on all federal student loans until further notice.

When the U.S. Supreme Court took up the student loan forgiveness case, President Biden extended the pause until 60 days after the Court made its decision or June 30, 2023, whichever comes first.

Now that the pause on student loans is ending this summer, it’s time to start thinking about how you will pay them. ABCNews published an article on June 16, 2023 offering some tips:

First, locate your student loan servicer, since the company that manages your student loans may have changed over the past three years. You can find your loan servicer by logging on to studentaid.gov.

Next, make sure your loan servicer has accurate and up-to-date contact information. Repayment start dates will differ depending on who manages your loan, so be sure to ask when payments will resume and how much you’ll owe each month, once they do…

Several federal plans base your payments on your income and family size. Income-driven repayment plans, such as Pay As You Earn and Revised Pay As You Earn, can make your payments more manageable and, in some cases, could push your payment as low as $0 per month. If you can’t keep up with payments, ask your lender about a deferment or forbearance period.

 Christoforous
courtesy of ImgFlip

Social Media Trends as of June 17, 2023

Facebook #studentloanpause: people are posting about this
Instagram #studentloanpause: 204 posts
TikTok #studentloanpause: 3,300,000 views
YouTube #studentloanpause: 100 videos and channels

Google Trends: “student loan pause” first appeared in January 2021 despite executive action pausing interest and payment of student loans in March 2020. There are many different ways of phrasing “student loan pause” but this is the one I used for this blog. The popularity of the phrase spiked in December 2021, April 2022 and peaked in August 2022. There is every reason to believe it will peak this summer as 45 million students will have to make room in their budget for student loan payments.

student loan pause search term

Sources:

Christoforous, Alexis. The student loan challenge: Here’s what to do when payments resume.” ABCNews. June 16, 2023. URL: https://abcnews.go.com/US/student-loan-challenge-payments-resume/story?id=100146106.

CNBC Television. “President Donald Trump waives interest on all student loans due to coronavirus.” YouTube. 2020. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Alu8UcRkiE.

Custer, Bradley D and Azoulay, Ella. “Timeline: Federal Student Loans During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” American Progress.org. Aug 9, 2022. URL: https://www.americanprogress.org/article/timeline-federal-student-loans-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/.

Federal Student Aid. U.S. Department of Education. 2023. URL: https://studentaid.gov/.

@POTUS. Student loan forgiveness and payment pause. Twitter. Nov 22, 2022. URL: https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1595150070285885440.

Student loan meme. ImgFlip. URL: https://www.weareteachers.com/wp-content/uploads/never-repay.jpeg.

Categories
Pandemic

Walktail

Walktail is a combination of “walk” and “cocktail” and it means to go for a walk while drinking a cocktail. It’s not a new word but it became popular during the early days of the pandemic. It appeared in Cambridge Dictionary’s blog as a possible new word for August 2020.

Walktail: a cocktail that you drink while you walk

For those on a budget, the walktail can just as easily be made at home. Kummer also added that it offers an additional outlet for of-age adults to socialize while maintaining a safe distance. “It’s another way of meeting your neighbors, keeping social distance, and having a drink,” he said.

On June 25, 2020 an article entitled “The Best New Words Invented in the COVID-19 Era” was published on the Dandelion Chandelier website and gave the following definition for Walktail:

What was once considered against the law is now the hot new social event. Especially popular amongst suburban moms, it is the act of going for a walk while drinking alcohol from an open container.

Murphy

Most bars were closed during lockdown and indoor and outdoor gatherings were discouraged but some restaurants and bars offered drinks to go for pickup. The canned cocktail became popular during the pandemic since they “they’re easily transportable, naturally portion controlled, require no extra ingredients or bottle opener to enjoy” (Dickinson). The best thing about canned cocktails is they have a longer shelf life. A word of caution though – canned cocktails are illegal in some parts of the United States and they may not be available everywhere.

Mike Seeler, editor for the New York Times, acknowledged that “with both bars and gyms closed, such drinking and walking – or “walktailing” – has been occurring at a seemingly unprecedented rate.” He relates the experience of Pam LeBlanc who found her own unique way of walktailing:

Earlier this month, as the state of Texas was about to ease its stay-at-home restrictions, Pam LeBlanc pulled her wedding dress out of a vacuum-sealed box, put it on for the first time in 21 years, poured herself a glass of prosecco, strapped on some heels, walked out of her house in Austin, and began twirling in the middle of the street.

She’d been doing some version of this for about 40 days, a period during which she and most Americans were unable to hunker down at their favorite watering hole and let a professional bartender pour them a drink.

“I decided that every day we were going to shelter in place, I was going to put on some kind of dress and go out in the street with a cocktail,” said Ms. LeBlanc, 56, an outdoorsy freelance journalist not normally given to swanky garb. “It was my way of flipping off the coronavirus.”

Seeler

During the pandemic some restaurants, such as Grand Rapids Eastern Kille Distillery, offered cocktail kits for pickup so you could enjoy a walktail made with fresh ingredients.

courtesy of playful_comics

Social Media Trends as of June 2, 2023

Surprisingly, walktail does not appear much on social media sites although it does appear in news articles.

Google Trends: walktail predates the pandemic and first appeared in 2005. The popularity of the term peaked

walktail search term

Sources:

13onyourside.com channel. “Eastern Kille offering cocktail kits amid COVID-19 pandemic.” YouTube. April 6, 2020. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xocaCpV9iM8.

Dickinson, Grace. “Here’s where to get canned cocktails at restaurants and bars in Philadelphia.” The Philadelphia Inquirer. May 12, 2021. URL: https://www.inquirer.com/philly-tips/canned-cocktails-philadelphia-20210512.html.

Murphy, Julie. “The Best New Words Invented in the COVID-19 Era.” Dandelion Chandelier. June 25, 2020. URL: https://www.dandelionchandelier.com/2020/06/25/new-words-coronavirus-era/.

“New words – 31 August 2020.” Cambridge.org. 31August 2020. URL: https://dictionaryblog.cambridge.org/2020/08/31/new-words-31-august-2020/.

playful_comic. “Walktail” meme. iFunny.com. 21 Jul 2020. URL: https://ifunny.co/picture/walk-tail-wok-tal-noun-when-you-can-t-go-pDo8Woqp7.

Seeler, Mike. “Slosh! Slurp! Welcome to the ‘Walktail’ Party.” New York Times. May 20, 2020. URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/20/style/cocktails-to-go.html.

Categories
Pandemic

Virtual Happy Hour

During the early days of the pandemic, many people worked remotely but that social connection of going out with your coworkers on a Friday evening had disappeared. Lockdown, social distancing and social bubbles made it impossible to hang out with friends, family and coworkers – hence the arrival of the virtual happy hour using social media platforms such as Zoom and Google Hangouts.

Virtual happy hours fostered that togetherness and improved communication. It was a time to catch up on each other’s personal lives and share experiences. Even though the pandemic is behind us, virtual happy hours are still popular.

Though not a replacement for real life meetups, the virtual happy hour became rapidly popular during a challenging time in our history. Technology made the impossible, well, possible, despite the technical glitches, the infamous mute button and jerky images caused by low bandwidth.

An article published for Food and Wine magazine said the “virtual cocktail hour is really about finding a way to connect with friends and family in a time when your usual avenues of connection are cut off” (Isle). The author offers eight helpful tips on hosting your own happy hour:

  • If you’re going to theme your event, make it broad. It’s hard for people, especially in places like California and New York right now, to shop, plus stores have limited selection. So, with wine, pick a popular varietal — Cabernet, Pinot Noir — rather than a specific winery or obscure region.
  • For cocktails, email everyone a recipe in advance.
  • If you are going to play music in the background, have the host choose it and play it, otherwise you get that jarring nine-songs-going-on-at-the-same-time effect. Or collaborate on a playlist in advance.
  • Choose the grid option on the software, so you can all see each other at the same time
  • Start off talking about something other than Coronavirus. This is supposed to be fun, not bleak. Plus, you’ll probably end up talking about it anyway.
  • Set a time frame. An hour is good.
  • Don’t share your meeting link on social media or public forums, because then anyone can join in. There have been reports of trolls crashing zoom meetups (particularly big public ones) and broadcasting awful porn to everyone. Not good!
  • Come up with a plan to occupy the kids during your happy hour time, if you have kids. If it’s a group of parents who are meeting, you can even set up a separate virtual event for the kids (if they’re old enough). In another room, of course, and if you have a spare phone/computer/whatever.
Ray Isle


Three years ago, the Inside Edition published a short video on helpful ways to host the best virtual happy hour. You can watch the video here.

courtesy of avitaltours.com

Social Media Trends as of May 9, 2023

Facebook #virtualhappyhour: people are posting about this
Instagram #virtualhappyhour: 81,720 posts
TikTok #virtualhappyhour: 2,100,000 views
YouTube #virtualhappyhour: 333 videos and 79 channels

Google Trends: “virtual happy hour” first appeared during March 2020 when lockdown began and reached its peak at the end of that month.

Virtual happy hour search term

Sources:

Inside Edition channel. “Snacks and Other Ways to Host the Best Virtual Happy Hour/.” YouTube. 2020. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmB4tEwkwlM.

Isle, Ray. “Let’s Have Virtual Happy Hours All the Time — Not Just During a Pandemic.” Food and Wine. March 26, 2020. URL: https://www.foodandwine.com/news/lets-have-virtual-happy-hours-all-the-time-not-just-during-a-pandemic.

VIRTUAL-HAPPY-HOUR-MEME-BRACE-YOURSELVES. “Virtual happy hours” meme. AVitalTours.com. July 7, 2020. URL: https://avitaltours.com/nyc-food-tours/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2020/07/virtual-happy-hour-meme-brace-yourselves.jpg.

Categories
Pandemic

Medicaid Unwinding

At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Congress passes the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. This required all states to keep people continuously covered by their Medicaid programs until the Public Health Emergency ended. During this time, Medicaid coverage enrollment went up significantly by 21 million to 92 million enrollees.

States will have up to a year to revert back to normal rules regarding Medicaid eligibility and enrollment. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services website describes what happens next and what this means for those enrolled in Medicaid and/or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP):

When continuous enrollment provision ends, millions of people could lose coverage that could reverse recent gains in coverage. As part of an end-of-the-year spending bill, Congress signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) on December 29, 2022, that  set an end to the continuous enrollment provision on March 31, 2023, and separates the continuous coverage provision from the COVID-19 public health emergency…States that accept the enhanced federal funding can resume disenrollments beginning in April but must meet certain reporting and other requirements during the unwinding process.

In an effort to minimize the number of people that lose Medicaid or CHIP coverage, CMS is working with states and other stakeholders to inform people about renewing their coverage and exploring other available health insurance options if they no longer qualify for Medicaid or CHIP.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

The Wise Money Show ran a segment on the Medicaid unwinding process here:

If you or your family are enrolled in Medicaid/CHIP, keep a look out for a renewal packet from your state. Be sure to follow the directions provided and respond in a timely fashion to avoid an interruption in your coverage. If you’ve received notification that you’re no longer eligible to participate in Medicaid/CHIP, you may be able to “get low-cost, quality health coverage buy a health insurance plan through the Health Insurance Marketplace [which] cover things like prescription drugs, doctor visits, urgent care, hospital visits, and more” (Healthcare.gov). For more information on the process of Medicaid Unwinding, and to see the rules regarding your state, visit here.

Covid Lexicon

Social Media Trends as of April 9, 2023

Facebook #medicaidunwinding: people are posting about this
Instagram #medicaidunwinding: 192 posts
TikTok #medicaidunwinding: 212,200 views

Sources:

Covid Lexicon. “Medicaid Unwinding” meme. ImgFlip. April 9, 2023. URL: https://imgflip.com/i/7hju95?merp=1681038741.9708.

Health Care Marketplace. Healthcare.gov. URL: https://www.healthcare.gov/medicaid-to-marketplace/.

Wise Money Show channel. “Medicaid Unwinding is Underway.’” YouTube. March 2023. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csMfTmc_LUk.

Categories
Pandemic

Public Health Emergency

When there is a disaster or event (manmade or natural) that threatens the health and wellbeing of the population then the ‘Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) may, under section 319 of the Public Health Service (PHS) Act, determine that: a) a disease or disorder presents a public health emergency (PHE); or b) that a public health emergency, including significant outbreaks of infectious disease or bioterrorist attacks, otherwise exists.’ Examples of public health emergencies include the anthrax attacks in the early 2000s, the 2009 Swine flu and more recently, the Covid-19 pandemic” (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services).

The declaration lasts for 90 days or the duration of the emergency. It can be extended and in the case of Covid 19, the public health emergency has been extended several times. All relevant governmental agencies are kept informed.

The Covid public health emergency was proclaimed by President Donald Trump on March 13, 2020. Read the full text here.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including sections 201 and 301 of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) and consistent with section 1135 of the Social Security Act (SSA), as amended (42 U.S.C. 1320b-5), do hereby find and proclaim that the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States constitutes a national emergency, beginning March 1, 2020.

Federal Register

The Health and Human Services Secretary is empowered to waive program requirements for Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) that allowed millions of people who otherwise might have been ineligible, to stay on the Medicaid rolls. Covid-19 testing, treatment and vaccination was paid for by the Federal government.

You can watch the declaration of the Public Health Emergency here.

The Covid-19 public health emergency has been extended many times and is set to end on May 11, 2023. The end of the emergency will see many of the pandemic related provisions that covered free Covid-19 testing, vaccinations and health care to end. Medicaid allowed continuous coverage for an additional 20 million people without them having to renew their application annually. Medicaid unwinding is the process by which state Medicaid programs return to following federal rules as of April 1, 2023 which requires enrollees to renew their coverage annually. Many of them will lose their health coverage because their income is too high or their children aged out of the program.

Social Media Trends as of March 15, 2023

Because “Public Health Emergency” can refer to disasters other than Covid-19 I have not included social media statistics for this.

Sources:

“A Public Health Emergency Declaration.” US Department of Health and Human Services. URL: https://aspr.hhs.gov/legal/PHE/Pages/Public-Health-Emergency-Declaration.aspx.

NBC News Channel. “Trump Administration Declares COVID-19 A Public Health Emergency | NBC News.” YouTube. 2020. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVYXBGARSSo.

Proclamation 9994 of March 13, 2020. “Declaring a National Emergency Concerning the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Outbreak.” Federal Register. March 13, 2020. URL: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/03/18/2020-05794/declaring-a-national-emergency-concerning-the-novel-coronavirus-disease-covid-19-outbreak.

Categories
Employment Pandemic

Quiet Quitting

“Quiet quitting” was declared the phrase of 2022 according to an article published for Morning Brew which said the phrase “simply means not going above and beyond at work, or performing the responsibilities laid out in your job description and nothing more” (Merritt).

I included the phrase in the Covid Lexicon as it went viral in August that year after TikTok creator Zaiad Khan shared a video about “quiet quitting” where he says “you’re not outright quitting your job, but you’re quitting the idea of going above and beyond.” You can watch the video here and below.

@zaidleppelin

On quiet quitting #workreform

♬ i thought you wanted to dance – ruby

Why did the phrase have so much impact in 2022? The article mentioned above answers that question:

After two years in a global pandemic, constant rumors of an upcoming recession, and yogurt costing more than it ever has, it makes sense that people might be rejecting “hustle culture” and are now just a little less focused on replying to emails.

Merritt

An article that appeared on CBS News said that quiet quitting is “partly a byproduct of the COVID-19 pandemic, when millions of workers lost their jobs as the disease shuttered the economy. Although most have found new jobs or been rehired, the nation’s workforce remains smaller than prior to the health crisis. That is putting more strain on existing employees, who are often asked to do more for the same pay” (Picchi).

@1corporatemillennial

for legal purposes, this is a joke. Ib: @Krian Bearney #corporatemillennial #millennialsoftiktok #corporateamerica #corporate #wfh #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #foryoupage #workhumor #workfromhome #wfhlife #9to5 #workfromhomehumor #relatable #9to5life

♬ sweetest Pie with wink – blair hynds

The Roundtable YouTube channel recently uploaded a discussion about the concept of quiet quitting and how TikTok creator Zaidleppelin made the phrase go viral in 2022. You can watch it below or here.

courtesy of desperate_meme_2

Social Media Trends as of February 12, 2023

Facebook #quietquitting: people are posting about this
Instagram #quietquitting: 18,064 posts
TikTok #quietquitting: 454,100,000 views
YouTube #quietquitting: 1,900 videos and 1,110 channels

Google Trends: “quiet quitting” first appeared during the first week of July 2022 when TikTok creator Zaidleppelin introduced the concept of Quiet Quitting that quickly went viral. According to a survey conducted by YorkTest, searches on Google for the phrase increased by 18,000% the following month which you can see in the chart below (Open Access Government).

quiet quitting search term

Sources:

desperate_meme_2. “Invented ‘Quiet quitting’ before it was cool” meme. iFunny. August 31, 2022. URL: https://br.ifunny.co/picture/invented-quiet-quitting-befor-it-was-cool-UwuTyoxp9.

Elly | Corporate Millennial. “DAILY WFH RECAP.” TikTok. May 19, 2022. URL: https://www.tiktok.com/@1corporatemillennial/video/7099570805096320298?lang=en.

Merritt, Matty. “2022 Phrase of the Year: ;Quiet quitting.’” Morning Brew. December 20, 2022. URL: https://www.morningbrew.com/daily/stories/phrase-of-the-year-quiet-quitting.

Picchi, Aimee. “‘Quiet quitting’: A revolution in how we work or the end of working hard?” CBS News. August 24, 2022. URL: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-is-quiet-quitting/.

Roundtable YouTube channel. “Was 2022 the year of quiet quitting?” YouTube. 17 January 2023. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ1RFQQS21M.

“What is “quiet quitting” and how is burnout affecting the UK?.” Open Access Government.. October 21, 2022. URL: https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/what-is-quiet-quitting-and-how-is-burnout-affecting-the-uk/146339/.

zaidleppelin. “On quiet quitting.” TikTok. July 25, 2022. URL: https://www.tiktok.com/@zaidleppelin/video/7124414185282391342?lang=en.

Categories
Pandemic Pandemic Art Virus

Clap for Our Carers

As a follow-up from my last blog on Thank you NHS, this post is about the social movement and phrase “Clap for Our Carers” which was started by Annemarie Plas who got the idea of regularly clapping for National Health Service (NHS) workers in appreciation for their service during the pandemic from similar movements in her home country of The Netherlands.

An article published for The Guardian described the beginning of the “Clap For Our Carers” campaign and the feelings it invoked:

In those strange, unending days of the spring lockdown, the thing that marked time for many of us in the UK was the weekly round of applause for NHS staff and other care and key workers. Every Thursday at 8pm, people stood on doorsteps or leaned out of windows, clapping (or whooping or bashing pans) in appreciation of those who were working in difficult circumstances. The first, on 26 March, took place three days after Boris Johnson addressed the nation, and knowing it was happening across the country created a rare feeling of unity, as well as introducing many of us to our neighbours for the first time.

Saner

The “Clap for Our Carers” inspired artists to show their support for the campaign. Nathan Wyburn, of Cardiff, created a “digital portrait of a nurse using more than 200 selfies contributed by NHS staff on Facebook…Mr Wyburn, 30, decided to make the art after he was ‘moved to tears’ by last week’s ‘Clap for our Carers’ appeal” (Draper). Nathan posted a clip of an interview with BBC Wales about his artwork. You can watch the video below.

The “Clap for Our Carers” campaign lasted for three months and was supported by politicians as well as the late Queen. The final clap was held on May 28, 2020. Even though the pandemic is behind us, we will always be grateful for the hard work of our beloved National Health Service staff for the risks they took to help care for those during the global pandemic.

Social Media Trends as of February 11, 2023

Facebook #clapforourcarers: people are posting about this
Instagram #clapforourcarers: 147,439 posts
TikTok #clapforourcarers: 438,800,000 views
YouTube #clapforourcarers: 1,000 videos and 660 channels

Google Trends: “clap for our carers” first appeared during the week of March 22, 2020 when the first campaign began at 8pm on March 26, 2020 where people from across the United Kingdom clapped and cheered to show their appreciation for the NHS staff who risked their lives to care for patients during the pandemic.

clap for our carers search term

Sources:

“Clap for Our Carers.” Wikipedia.com. 2020. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clap_for_Our_Carers.

“Clap for Our Carers” logo. Creative Clinic. April 5, 2020. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clap_for_Our_Carers#/media/File:Clap_for_our_Carers_Logo.jpg.

“Clap For Heros.” Twitter. January 6, 2021. URL: https://twitter.com/clapforheroesuk/status/1346813738356248578.

Draper, Joseph. “Artist pays special tribute to front-line NHS workers.” Penarth Times. 2 April 2020. URL: https://www.penarthtimes.co.uk/news/18352935.artist-pays-special-tribute-front-line-nhs-workers/.

Saner, Emine. “‘It was surreal watching it’: how life changed for the woman behind Clap for Our Carers.” The Guardian. 21 December, 2020. URL: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/dec/21/it-was-surreal-watching-it-spread-how-life-changed-for-the-woman-behind-clap-for-our-carers.

NathanWyburnArtist Youtube channel. “BBC Wales News “NHS Thank You” art. YouTube. March 30, 2020. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CniBrxRI8PY.

Categories
Pandemic Pandemic Art Virus

“Thank you NHS”

The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) is the envy of the world. Medical care is free at the point of contact so you won’t go bankrupt paying medical bills because the system is funded by taxes. The NHS performed admirably at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and its doctors, nurses, and support staff worked tirelessly to help patients recover.

As a result, the slogan “Thank you NHS” became a social phenomenon in the United Kingdom during the early part of the pandemic. Government officials, organizations and people everywhere posted supportive messages of support for NHS workers acknowledging the work they were doing in saving lives despite the risks of catching Covid-19.

A Wikipedia article describing the phenomenon said “large numbers of private individuals placed home-made signs in their windows and outside their homes to thank the NHS workers. The handmade posters frequently featured drawings of rainbows. The campaign was supported by the Conservative Party-controlled British government, which displayed children’s ‘Thank You NHS’ signs in the windows of 10 Downing Street.”

On April 8, 2020 Twitter posted a Tweet of the NHS Song which was written by Geoff Morrow and performed by Talia Morrow.

courtesy of highreshdwallpapers.com

Social Media Trends as of January 16, 2023

Facebook #thankyounhs: 136,000 people are posting about this
Instagram #thankyounhs: 229,716 posts
TikTok #thankyounhs: 714,900,000 views
YouTube #thankyounhs: 1,300 videos and 697 channels

Google Trends: “thank you NHS” first appeared during the week of March 22, 2020 and reached its peak during the week of April 12, 2020 during lockdown.

Sources:

“Thank you NHS” wallpaper. High Definition, High Resolution HD Wallpapers. Sep 25, 2020. URL: https://www.highreshdwallpapers.com/thank-you-nhs-wallpaper/.

“Thank you NHS.” Wikipedia.com. 2021. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thank_You_NHS.

“Thank you NHS” song. YouTube. April 8, 2020. URL: https://www.youtube.com/@thankyounhs-song6948.

“Thank you NHS.” Twitter. April 8, 2020. URL: https://twitter.com/NHS_SONG.