The progressive deterioration of job quality, conditions, and meaning over time, while workers remain trapped by lack of alternatives. Job enshittification describes how positions that once offered
dignity, security, or satisfaction are systematically degraded—responsibilities increase while pay stagnates, autonomy is replaced by algorithmic management, benefits are stripped, schedules become unpredictable, the work itself becomes meaningless or actively harmful. Each change is
small, framed as "necessary adjustment," but cumulatively transforms decent jobs into traps. The job doesn't just
stay bad; it actively worsens, year by year, until workers find themselves in positions they would
never have accepted at the start.
Job Enshittification Example: "When she took the job, it had purpose, autonomy, and
respect. Ten years
later, with relentless 'optimization,' micromanagement, and meaningless metrics, she barely recognized it—not
burnout, but Job Enshittification, the active decay of work itself."
