You may have heard about a new “trend” among those newfangled members of the millennial and Gen Z demographics in the workforce called “quiet quitting.” The basic idea of this trend, which was almost certainly coined by an employer with one foot in retirement and the other at a long lunch on a golf course, is that some employees are, get this, only doing what their job requires. Hence, they are “quiet quitting,” which we are supposed to imagine means they’re just trying to get fired.
Doesn’t make any sense? It shouldn’t. But what we’re looking at here is a large chunk of the workforce that is sick and tired of going above and beyond with nothing to show for it. The American ethos has long taught that work is about being better than everyone else around you, performing at a higher caliber, working longer hours and sacrificing more in hopes of getting ahead. And “quiet quitting” appears to be an acknowledgement that this type of thinking is ineffectual at best, toxic at worst.
“It’s about stopping doing work that people think is beyond what they were hired to do and not getting compensated for,” The Most Powerful You: 7 Bravery-Boosting Paths to Career Bliss author Kathy Caprino told CNN.
The pandemic has shifted workers’ mentality about their jobs, with many people rethinking their priorities. A lot of laborers are wondering why they’re spending so many hours on the “other duties as assigned” part of the job when they could be doing exactly what they were hired to do for the amount of time agreed upon before going home to be with their families and friends. This is a normal, healthy approach to work. It’s not “quiet quitting” anymore than a boss paying you the amount agreed upon is “quiet bossing.”
There’s nothing wrong with working hard or performing with excellence. People still can and want to do a good job at their workplace. What is changing is that it’s not all we want to do. We have to go to work. But we want to make memories with the people we love and take time to do things that enrich our lives. Very few of these things happen at a job, so we’re being more careful than many of our parents were to limit the amount of time we spend at those jobs. And if your employer considers you doing the amount of work agreed upon for the amount of time agreed upon to be “quiet quitting,” it might be time to show them what “actual quitting” looks like and consider some other career options.
