You may have heard of – and even experienced – FOMO, or the Fear Of Missing Out, but there’s a new psychological buzzword for you to get to grips with: FOBO.
FOMO was a term introduced in 2004 to describe the feeling you may have when you think there’s something better going on that you’re missing out on.
The word even earned itself a place in the Oxford English Dictionary where it’s described as ‘fear of missing out, anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may be happening elsewhere, often aroused by posts seen on a social media website’.
I reckon we’ve all fallen into this trap at one point or another, eh?
But, while FOMO usually applies to your social life, the more recently coined FOBO is seen in workplaces and seems to be picked up pace.
So what does it stand for?
Fear Of Becoming Obsolete.
The term is used to describe the concerns you may have about your role becoming obsolete, possibly through the introduction of new technologies such as AI.
According to a survey by Gallup, 22 percent of US workers now say they are worried that technology will make their job obsolete, which is up a whopping seven percentage points from 2021.
Until this year, Gallup explained, the figure had tended to stick around between 13 percent and 17 percent with ‘little upward movement’.
The large jump in recent months has mainly come from those who have been through higher-education, where the percentage of worried workers has risen from eight percent to 20 percent.
And it appears the fears aren’t unfounded, as Goldman Sachs last month estimated ‘that generative AI could expose the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs to automation’.
But while this may all seem rather bleak, there are some steps you can take to try and alleviate FOBO.
Firstly, give yourself a career MOT – take a look at your career and carefully consider any areas you might need to work on and then… well, work on them.
You may be fortunate enough to have career development opportunities available to you at work so you can upskill on the job.
However, if this isn’t an option there’s online resources such as Coursera and Udemy where you can undertake a number of different courses to plug any knowledge gaps and spruce up your CV.
Forbes also recommends building up relationships with colleagues, mentors and industry professionals who will be able to keep you connected and switched onto the latest trends within your industry.
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