Nearly half of US office workers are already doing it and most managers say they'd rather retrain than replace them
Nearly half of American office workers are building a professional exit ramp. New research reveals career cushioning has become a defining workplace behaviour of 2026. The practice – building parallel skills and exploring alternative career paths while still employed – impacts how organisations design and invest in learning and development (L&D) programs.
TripleTen commissioned a poll of 2,000 US office workers, conducted by Talker Research. It found 48% of respondents are currently career cushioning. Of those, 77% said they have already begun preparing for a backup career.
Workers said they would pursue a backup path if it let them do something they genuinely enjoy (29%) or offered a better lifestyle at equivalent pay (29%). A third said they would act if they lost their current job (29%), according to the Talker Research data.
Why is career cushioning rising among employed workers?
The survey paints a more complicated picture than simple disengagement. Despite their contingency planning, 91% of respondents said they had remained in their current role for the past two years. More than half (54%) said they believe their job is at low or no risk in the next two years.
What has changed is the nature of their work. Among those who stayed, 46% said their role had changed considerably. Changes include:
- learning new technologies (36%)
- responding to economic shifts (24%)
- absorbing colleagues’ workloads (20%)
- navigating layoffs (18%)
Workers are not waiting for their employers to upskill them; they are doing it themselves. The Talker Research data shows 79% have learned new skills not previously held. Those include:
- using AI chatbots for everyday tasks (34%)
- deploying AI built into existing software (33%)
- keeping up with evolving technology terminology (30%)
Among those who upskilled, 44% reported greater confidence and 36% felt more secure in their roles. A further 30% went on to teach colleagues the same skills.
“Developing skills beyond the immediate requirements of your current position can create opportunities and provide a path forward when circumstances change,” said Victor Menin, Ed.D., vice president of Enrollment at TripleTen in the United States. “You don’t have to be planning a career change today to benefit from having skills that can open doors to one tomorrow.”
What are managers doing about employee upskilling?
The survey data suggests managers are broadly aware of the shift. Of the 48% of respondents who hold management roles, 82% said they would rather retrain existing employees than hire externally. A further 87% said their organisation would help fund retraining in a new internal role. Of those, 52% said their employer would cover it entirely.
That appetite for employer-led development aligns with a broader industry shift. Two L&D experts have explained how the function is shifting from an admin task to a strategic growth lever in the AI era. The TripleTen findings suggest that the shift is already happening at the individual level.
Ana Riabova, AI Strategy and Enablement lead at TripleTen, describes the pattern as “quiet delegating.” Workers offload routine tasks to AI tools and retain the higher-judgment work for themselves. “The people moving fastest are learning from every direction — a course for the foundations, a colleague for the shortcuts, the AI itself for everyday work,” Riabova said.
How should HR respond to career cushioning?
The trend creates both a risk and an opening. If development opportunities inside an organisation feel inadequate, workers will build their skills elsewhere and may eventually leave to use them. Workers are already motivated to learn, and that motivation is an asset HR can channel.
The training gap is already measurable. A 2026 report on employer training efforts identified a significant gap in how organisations record and respond to workforce learning. This gap may be widening as informal, self-directed upskilling becomes more common.
The TripleTen data reveals how workers are upskilling right now. Employer-provided training led the way (47%), followed by online courses (32%), free tutorials (30%), AI chatbot tutoring (27%), and peer learning (21%). Of those who gained new skills, 87% expect those capabilities to remain useful beyond the next two years.
How workers are upskilling
Primary methods used to learn new work-related skills
| Employer-provided training | 47% | |
| Online courses | 32% | |
| Free tutorials | 30% | |
| AI chatbot tutoring | 27% | |
| Peer learning | 21% |
Source: Talker Research / TripleTen, 2026. Poll of 2,000 US office workers. Respondents could select multiple methods.
The research on career cushioning sends a clear signal to HR leaders: workforce capability investment is fundamentally a people challenge, not a technology one. Workers are building skills faster than many organisations are tracking. That gap is a workforce management problem HR cannot afford to ignore.
