Somewhere near the crossroads of the start of the pandemic and its related burnout, we added a few work-related buzzwords to the lexicon: The Great Resignation, quiet quitting, career cushioning, and now, act your wage. Employees are now rethinking their relationship with workrather than doing more than theyre supposed to in desperate moves to advance their careers, they are acting their wage.

The pandemic has given many people the opportunity to reflect on the quality of their lives, explains Dr. Carla Marie Manly, a clinical psychologist. As people moved into hermit mode, many discovered that the slower pace was extremely beneficial for their personal lives. The experience of working from home or from a beach far away from the office left people wondering, Why am I in the rat race? Why am I working so hard to make money for others? For many people, the pandemic provided a stark juxtaposition to the fast-paced life that created burnout and stress.

Many peopleemployees and managers alikewonder if you can be just as productive with a four-day workweek. And if a four-day workweek is successful, how about a three-day workweek? The pandemic gave us work-from-home flexibility and opened the door for more shifts in how, where and when we work. Technology allows for flexibility, but theres a downside to always being connected.

With the rise of remote and hybrid work, LinkedIn found that 40% of working Americans feel more burned out since the start of the pandemic, and 37% are working less traditional hours, explains Blair Heitmann, LinkedIn career expert. We saw that people worked longer days, with many working off-hours and experiencing burnout as their work-life lines blurred.

Acting your wage means you arent on call or on the hook for company problems 24/7 the way a CEO or Executive Director might be, explains career coach Gracie Miller. Its recognizing that you were hired for 40 hours of work and not doing overtime you arent being paid for. You can still take initiative, be a team player and have a positive attitude during those 40 hours. But you dont answer messages on Slack at 11 p.m. or email someone on a Sunday.

But its hard to act your wage if your workplace encourages you to work above your pay grade and/or if youre afraid to speak up about increased workload. If youre not sure, check out these signs of a toxic workplace.

You could say it started because people are fed up at work, but really it started because Reddit and TikTok gave employees a platform to speak up about their dissatisfaction at work. Wed be remiss if we didnt acknowledge the influence of social media and the internet at large for enabling this trend, explains Aaron Rubens, CEO and co-founder of Kudoboard, a workplace appreciation platform.

Employees (and millennials in particular) began sharing their dissatisfaction at workand realized theyre not alone, Rubens says. What emerged was a picture of employers who dont appreciate their employees and essentially see them as expendable resources.

TikToker @saraisthreads posted about employers setting expectations they cant meet, and got almost two million views. @jennahushka gets about 14K views when she posts about dating, but when she posted about burnout or lack of training, her views skyrocket to hundreds of thousands. @loewhaley got two million views when she posted about a micromanaging coworker who doesnt respect boundaries and closer to three million views when she posted about etiquette around out-of-office email.

On Reddits r/antiwork subreddit, the vibe is more about life/work balance than quitting work altogether and provides an outlet for act your wage conversations. People talk about living wages, paid sick time, the housing crisis and more.

Dr. Manly sees both sides of it. There is merit to acting your wage,' Dr. Manly says, Yet for those who find satisfaction in working hard, theres much to be said for the mental health boost that can come from enjoying a strong work ethic.

In many circumstances, its about having reasonable expectations for whats expected of you and how far you might be willing to push those expectations. If youre in a position where you feel youre being pushed to work beyond your wage, you can use it to spark a conversation with your managers.

If your relationship with the manager isnt conducive to this, its time to think beyond your role and responsibilities, says Jenn Lim, a global workplace expert and author of the bestselling book Beyond Happiness: How Authentic Leaders Prioritize Purpose and People for Growth and Impact. When we choose work that is aligned with our values and purpose, and that is intrinsically motivated, were working for more than a paycheck, Lim says, Were working towards something more meaningful and greater than ourselves; were acting our purpose, not just our wage.

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Everything You Need to Know About "Act Your Wage" - Reader's Digest