“I recently learned about this term called
‘quiet quitting’ where you’re not outright quitting your job, but you’re
quitting the idea of going above and beyond,” says Zaiad Khan, a
TikTok user
with over 10,000 followers, in a soothing voice, juxtaposed with a video of the
New York City subway. “You are still performing your duties, but you are no
longer subscribing to the hustle culture mentally that work has to be our
life.”
Clayton Farris, a TikTok user with 48,000 followers,
who posted about the trend days later, says in his own video: “I don’t stress
and internally rip myself to shreds.”
The phrase went mainstream from there. “If Your
Co-Workers Are ‘Quiet Quitting,’ Here’s What That Means,” read a headline in a
Wall Street Journal article on August 12. The Guardian went with: “Quiet
Quitting: Why Doing the
Bare Minimum at Work Has Gone Global.” The term was
defined and redefined. For some, it was mentally checking out from work. For
others, it became about not accepting additional work without additional pay.
Many people feel perplexed: Why do you need a term
to describe something as ordinary as going to work and doing your job, even if
it is not well? Some people feel validated for never raising their hands at
work, or judged because they actually like being overachievers.
Then there are those who are envious: They wish they
could quietly quit, but believe they could never get away with it because of
their race or gender.
Gabrielle Judge, 25, who works in customer success
for a tech company and lives in
Denver, sees people on social media talking
about quietly quitting without any regard for how it affects others. “Some
people are taking quiet quitting as in passive aggressively withdrawing, and
that doesn’t win for everyone,” she said. “It isn’t always about you. You’re on
a team, you’re in a department.”
Still, she
supports communicating healthy boundaries, as long as it’s done responsibility.
“I’m all about balance,” she said. “As long as our work is being done, and we
don’t need each other, we can do whatever.”
Alex Bauer, 26, a material handler in a book
warehouse in Appleton, Wisconsin, said that her first thought “when I heard
about quiet quitting was, ‘Oh God, that’s me. It’s been something I’ve been
practicing, but I didn’t have a name for it up until now.”
Bauer started her job — she works eight-hour shifts
five days a week — four months ago. She chose it because it would not require
her to commit emotional energy. “To be given a list of so many things to do and
tick them off one by one, it’s fulfilling,” she said. “I like the go-go-go, but
I don’t have anxiety attacks. I am good at my job, but then I go home and don’t
think about it.” She even has a side business: editing short stories, mostly in
the fantasy genre.
In previous roles she worked in restaurants where
she had to cook under pressure and manage kitchen staff who regularly called in
sick. “You couldn’t check out of that kind of job. You had to keep going at a
certain pace, or you will fall behind,” she said. “I got so burnt out, I got
physically sick. I thought I had COVID because I couldn’t walk from the front
to the back of the restaurant without seeing spots.”
She is excited that the rest of the world has caught
up to her way of thinking, rather than judging her desire to work a more simple
job.
Matt Spielman, a
career coach in New York City and author of the book “Inflection Points: How to
Work and Live With Purpose,” understands why some people may want to scale back
at work. “If somebody really is burnt out or at the end of his or her rope or
having personal issues, I think dialing the knob back from 10 to 7 or 6 or 5
makes sense,” he said.
He believes the urge is stronger with remote work.
“With remote work it is far easier to feel less involved, less part of a team,
and it’s easier for managers to break up with employees and vice versa,” he
said. “There are fewer boundaries of when work starts and when work stops.”
But he worries about people engaging in quiet
quitting as a means of getting revenge on a company. “Quiet quitting seems very
passive-aggressive,” he said. “If somebody is burnt out, there should be a
candid conversation about that, and it should be both ways. Just saying, ‘I am
going to do the absolute minimum because I am entitled to it or I have issues’
— it doesn’t really help anybody.”
Above all, Spielman believes that quiet quitting
prevents people from finding jobs they love, which provide them with a sense of
meaning and belonging. “There is no sadder thing to waste all this time in your
life trying not to enjoy and be engaged and being excited in the work you are
doing.”
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