machado: hey quiet quitters, you have one life. why spend it doing the bare minimum?
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people who are quietly quitting their jobs say they are not working less, they just aren't doing more. getty
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first, it was the ‘great resignation‘ — also known as the ‘big quit’ and the ‘great reshuffle’ — a trend that became most noticeable in early 2021, when record numbers of people quit their jobs. by early 2022, we were hearing about the ‘great upgrade,’ a term coined by bharat ramamurti, the deputy director of the national economic council, to describe higher quit-rates in low-wage jobs as workers sought higher salaries.
and now, as the summer wraps up and we stare down the barrel of another possible wave of covid, there’s a new work buzzword in town: ‘quiet quitting.’ while there is some debate about what it actually means — no, it’s not about employees resigning without telling their boss, or silently slinking out the exit with the office plant in hand, never to be seen again, or even whispering a blurry resignation on a zoom call. and it has nothing to do with deliberately slacking off at work. well, almost nothing.
in fact, the notion of quiet quitting, which recently became a thing on tiktok with hundreds — hundreds! — of videos of people declaring that they were no longer doing more than was required in their jobs is about exactly that: no more going that extra mile at work, no reaching above and beyond, and definitely no exceeding expectations.
the goal now is ‘good-enough,’ they say — not shooting the lights out at their workplace, but also not loafing through their days. according to these employees, it’s time to step back and slow the pace to protect mental health, take time to soothe burnout and pay more attention to life outside of work.
it’s a shift that experts say has mostly arisen from pandemic life which has given employees a taste of what could be in terms of the way they work. after all, during the last couple of years, we have seen that remote work works, that it’s possible to be productive at hours outside of the typical workday, and that businesses don’t crash and burn when their people take off early on a friday.
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instead of quiet quitting, what about “joyful joining”?
and while the notion of ‘quiet quitting’ continues to gain traction among the burned out, employers are also taking notice. some bosses see the trend as a positive — a sign that it’s time to engage their employees in new ways, such as allowing them to structure their roles based on what they enjoy doing most, or helping them to define what tasks are priorities and what can be paused, or perhaps let go of altogether. other employers — who take quiet quitters to be people who choose to just coast in their job — are raging about the how ridiculous it is that the subject is even getting airtime.
in fact, even arianna huffington, the founder of the huffington post, who famously passed out due to exhaustion from working 18-hour days (waking up in a pool of blood with a broken cheek bone), used linkedin to jump on the backs of quiet quitters and their supporters, writing that quiet quitting isn’t just about about quitting a job, but also “a step toward quitting on life.”
she goes on to write that while she agrees with pushing back against ‘hustle culture’ and rejecting burnout (remember the bloody fainting spell), employees should also recognize all the good things that a job well done brings to one’s life, like meaning, purpose and joy.
“so instead of quiet quitting, how about “joyful joining”? she writes. “rather than go through the motions in a job you’ve effectively quit on, why not find one that inspires you, engages you and brings you joy?”
in other words, if you don’t have a job that makes you want to go above and beyond, don’t just allow yourself to stagnate and bring down your team with your apathy and lack of interest. get the hell out. loudly.
certainly, huffington got some blowback for her comments from those who took them to be supportive of sucking up long hours and toxic workplaces.
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“i am truly in awe of this attempt at shifting the energy back to hustle culture — which the initial post was all about moving away from,” michael beveridge, the head of creative at online tax accountant hnry told smartcompany.
but say what you want about huffington and her post — her comments about the importance of having a job that provides meaning and purpose and some joie de vivre is not insignificant. how you spend your salary-earning hours is vitally important to your well-being, mental health and emotional energy. and yup, if you are burning out trying to achieve great things in companies that don’t have the resources to make it easier, or that don’t pay enough to match up with your dreams, or if that job is taking away from your life instead of complementing it, it may be easier to pull back a little, take a bit of a breather and reevaluate your goals. but don’t make it a long-term thing.
the problem is not employees. it’s work
and if you take a moment to look past the buzzwords and social media influencer churn about resigning, reshuffling, upgrading and not-quite quitting, you might see what’s actually driving people to quietly quit. it’s not so much about employees. rather, the problem is with work — and it’s a doozy.
first of all, too many people are overworked and underpaid. canada’s labour market continues to be racialized and gendered — even hair that’s grey affects job security. plus, finding meaning and purpose in large inflation-pressured companies can be soul-sucking. and when, for the love of mary, are we going to figure out that we can’t lay people off, distribute their responsibilities among already overloaded teams and expect happiness and joy, let alone more than a shrivel of job satisfaction?
so while i get the quiet quitters, it’s probably not a sustainable job hack. and pro tip: you might not want to shout your plans from the rooftops — or on tiktok.
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“anyone who tells their business leader they are a quiet quitter is likely not to have a job for very long,” johnny c. taylor jr., president and ceo of society for human resource management, told time, called the term quiet quitting “off-putting.”
so what’s a quiet quitter to do?
according to toronto-based labour and employment lawyer nadia halum arauz, it’s best to have an “open conversation” with your boss about the things that are bumming you out about your job — too much work, work-life boundaries, or too many responsibilities, maybe — to give them a chance to address your woes. they may not be able to make the changes you need, but the discussion might protect you in the case of termination, she told ctv news, should they notice a drop in your productivity.
or you could just grow a pair and decide that a job in which you merely tick boxes, all the while likely jeopardizing any chance of advancement or a shiny reference, is a waste of your one life. so find another that gets you fired up.
it’s a nice thing you can do for yourself — and the people you work with.
lisa machado is the executive producer of healthing.ca.
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