Ghost Quitting
Resigning by simply disappearing — slowly fading out of meetings, stopping replies to email and Slack, eventually not showing up at all — without ever submitting a formal resignation.
Definitions
Resigning by simply disappearing — slowly fading out of meetings, stopping replies to email and Slack, eventually not showing up at all — without ever submitting a formal resignation. Borrowed from the dating term "ghosting", ghost quitting became more visible in the post-2020 remote-work era, when employees could be physically absent for days before anyone in management noticed. It is most common in low-engagement hourly or contract roles, but has also been reported among salaried remote workers. HR teams generally treat it as job abandonment and process the exit unilaterally, often with consequences for references.
Comments
Used in
Have a better definition?
Add your own interpretation of "Ghost Quitting".
💼About Corporate & Work slang
Office-speak decoded — the corporate euphemisms, Agile rituals, and HR buzzwords you'll hear in every standup, retro, and performance review.
See all Corporate & Work slang on Slangora.
Other words near "Ghost Quitting" (G)
Browse all slang words starting with G.
Related terms
Semantically related
- ghosting72%
Ending a relationship by suddenly disappearing — no call, no text, no explanation. A specific 2010s+ dating-app crime. By the 2020s it had gone professional too: job candidates ghost offers, recruiters ghost finalists. The verb is now universal.
- quiet quitting70%
Doing only the work explicitly required by your job description — no unpaid overtime, no extra projects. Technically still employed, mentally checked out. The 2022 Gen Z labor mantra that gave HR departments a quiet panic. Productive in moderation; corrosive in extremes.
- quiet quitting68%
An act or instance of the ceasing of overachieving at one's workplace.
- sus ghosting68%
Sus ghosting is a disappearing act so poorly timed, so conveniently placed, or so nakedly motivated that it raises immediate questions about what the ghost is hiding. They vanished right after you asked a direct question, dropped off the week of a major event, or went dark immediately after you mentioned running into their ex. Sus ghosting isn't just abandonment — it's abandonment with receipts suggesting something shadier is going on behind the scenes. The ghost didn't just leave; they left for a reason, and everyone can smell it.
- hyper ghosting67%
Hyper ghosting is the nuclear option — an instant, total blackout with zero wind-down period. Where most ghosting involves a gradual fade, hyper ghosting is a hard cut: one moment fully engaged, the next completely unreachable across every platform simultaneously. The block comes before you even realize what's happening. No last message, no slowing cadence, no forewarning read receipts. Hyper ghosting leaves the other person genuinely questioning if the person still exists, because the disappearance is so swift and complete it defies the usual social logic of slow exit.