Beyond being just a buzzword made popular by TikTok, rage applying is a concern that companies should address if they want to keep their employees from leaving.

Did you know that on average, companies lose around 13% of their workforce annually because their employees have chosen to leave of their own volition? The thing is, employees leave because of a wide range of reasons—including a shift in career, family or health problems, and relocation to a different city or country.

And, of course, there are those who leave because they are very unhappy and dissatisfied with their current company, salary, and workload, among other reasons.

This, in particular, is what fuels the latest corporate trend seen among Gen Z and millennial employees: rage applying. But what exactly is it? 

What is Rage Applying?

In its barest essence, rage applying is the process of applying to multiple jobs at the same time because an employee is dissatisfied with his or her current role or current workplace. And the reason why it has become popular is because many TikTokers claim that they have been receiving not just one, but several job offers in a short span of time!

“The term ‘rage applying’ may be new, but the concept has been around for quite some time,” LinkedIn explains. “You work at a job that you loathe. You want to leave as soon as possible to pursue a better opportunity, a higher salary, an improved work-life balance, etc. So, you apply to as many jobs as you can to make your exit pronto.”

Thus, if an employee applies to 30 different companies without really looking into each one in order to have a reason to resign from their current company, they’re rage applying. 

How Rage Applying is Both Beneficial and Detrimental for Companies

Rage applying is both good and bad for a company—depending on the role it plays in a given scenario. Rage applying is good for a company when it leads to hiring well-suited employees for their open positions.

LinkedIn notes, “Companies can’t always tell if you are rage applying.” But chances are, companies will not care so much if rage applying is your reason for knocking on their doors, especially if it means they end up with a new employee that has the skills and experiences that they are looking for.

On the flip side, rage applying becomes detrimental for a company in a scenario where employees are trying to leave the company. This is because this is a poor reflection on the company and its culture, given that the reason why these employees are trying to leave is because they are unhappy and dissatisfied. 

Another way rage applying can be bad for companies is that the human resources (HR) department may end up hiring applicants who are not what the company is looking for. After all, the important factor that makes rage applying what it is is that a person does not really carefully choose the companies they are applying for. They choose whatever company and apply to as many as they can. 

If the HR officer in charge of hiring is not very discerning when it comes to who gets hired, the company may end up with someone who is ill-fitted for the vacant job position.

How Companies Can Prevent Rage Applying Among Its Employees

Another downside of rage applying for companies is that they risk losing good and competent employees to other companies. After all, it is crucial for a company to be able to keep its employees—even moreso the high-performing employees—to ensure its success and longevity. This is why companies should do their best to keep such employees and prevent them from rage applying elsewhere.

How can companies do this? One way includes maintaining safe and honest lines of communication between the management and the employees. After all, employees who rage apply and eventually leave usually do so because they are unhappy with the company and their jobs. Allowing them a platform or avenue wherein they feel safe enough to address their concerns and grievances gives employees the impression that they are being heard. 

However, being heard is just one part of it. Companies should make sure that they address legitimate grievances in a proper and transparent manner. As they say, to see is to believe, and it is important for employees to see that proper action is being taken to address their concerns. 

Beyond just addressing concerns, companies should also show that they genuinely care about their employees. This can be done by showing that they prioritize their employees’ mental health through changes in company policy and culture and even helping employees overcome barriers to their advancement. 

At the end of the day, rage applying is all about an employee being too unhappy, too stressed, and too stretched thin to the point of just applying wherever in order to leave—just so they have a fallback job after. Companies can easily lose valuable employees that way and, in order to avoid this from happening, they should be willing to change what is wrong in order to keep much-deserving employees within their ranks.