Career Cushioning
The professional version of romantic "cushioning": keeping your options warm — updating your CV, taking recruiter calls, freelancing on the side, nurturing a network — while still employed full-time, so that if your current job collapses you have a soft landing already in motion.
Definitions
The professional version of romantic "cushioning": keeping your options warm — updating your CV, taking recruiter calls, freelancing on the side, nurturing a network — while still employed full-time, so that if your current job collapses you have a soft landing already in motion. The term spread through HR and LinkedIn commentary in 2022–23 against a backdrop of tech layoffs, hiring freezes and recession headlines, when even high-performers stopped trusting their employers to give them notice. Career cushioning is generally framed as a rational defensive move rather than disloyalty, and overlaps heavily with the rise of side hustles and "polyworking".
After the second round of layoffs hit my team, I started career cushioning by quietly taking every recruiter call that came in.
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Related terms
Semantically related
- cushioning76%
(slang, neologism, social media) The act or practice of someone entertaining other potential romantic options while in a committed relationship.
- cushion dating73%
Keeping a few casual connections warm while you're in a committed relationship, in case it falls apart and you need someone to "cushion" the blow. Morally ambiguous; more common than people admit. Often discussed in anonymous Reddit posts.
- cushioning65%
Material used to cushion something.
- cushion for the pushin'59%
(slang, humorous) body fat or musculature on the buttocks area, seen as making someone (usually a woman) more buoyant and allowing more comfort, "cushion," during intercourse than bony hips would, and also providing more bounce.
- Bench-Warming58%
In consulting, agencies and tech, the state of being formally employed and billable but not currently staffed on a client project — "on the bench" between engagements. Bench-warming can last days or months and is usually spent on internal training, sales support or pitch decks, while the employee anxiously watches utilisation dashboards and worries about being first out in the next round of cuts. The term borrows from American sports, where a "bench warmer" is a player who rarely gets on the field. Long bench time is often a leading indicator of layoffs at professional-services firms.