As Jill Cotton, career trends expert at Glassdoor, points out, rage applying isn’t new, but the phrase certainly captures what it feels like to send off a flurry of frustration-fuelled applications without putting too much thought into whether the role is your dream job or not.

“Workers often need a tipping point that convinces them to move on,” she adds. “But knowing that you want to quit your job requires self-reflection, and our busy lives often don’t give us the space or time needed to do this. Applying for a new role in a fit of rage against your current employer may feel like it has come out of nowhere. But rage applying is normally the endpoint in a build-up of negativity about your job.”

In other words, it’s another symptom of deep-rooted career malaise, which often creeps up on you: you might notice a subtle lack of growth in your role, Cotton says. It could be a lack of motivation or mismatch in the work-life balance you want or just diminishing interest in your work, until “boom, something happens at work that tips you over the edge”. There’s no one major culprit, but we’d be willing to make an educated guess that passive-aggressive emails are a popular catalyst for rage applying.

The best case scenario is that, like the term’s originator, you end up being offered a job with a great pay rise and a work culture that better suits you. But that’s in no way a guaranteed outcome - so is this actually the most productive way to channel those feelings of negativity at work? And when emotions are bubbling over, could ‘rage applying’ just lead you to make a decision that you regret?

Rage applying is the latest buzzy career trend, but is it the best tactic?