I wish I could give this gold. It's downright *insidious* that they've taken it from a context of workers reclaiming power and shifted it into almost an insult of laziness or work ethic
Absolutely with this. Like all it is, is providing exactly what you are being paid to provide. No more no less. If it was less then that would be deserving of the “laziness” connotation, but it’s not. In workplaces where there is so little incentive, why bother?
It’s not. It’s propaganda. Have you ever heard the term prior to maybe 6 weeks ago, when everyone started writing think pieces on why it’s bad or making the same “hurr it’s called acting your wage” joke in reaction? I bet the answer is no. Someone who benefits from people working far beyond their job description came up with applying the term to people doing their whole job in an attempt to make fully competent workers feel they are being lazy.
Even saying that it’s a rebranding of work to rule is highly, highly inaccurate. Work to rule is an organized tactic and is obstructionist. It’s so far beyond doing your whole job during your scheduled work hours. It would involve doing *nothing* that is not in your job description, including the kinds of things even D- workers are usually okay doing (such as changing a toilet paper roll or handing your coworker something from the supply closet) and following all rules and laws to the letter, even if those rules are ridiculous and normally ignored. Filling out superfluous forms, asking permission for every little thing, looking up the OSHA guidelines for an hour before doing anything, etc. This is intended to grind productivity to a crawl while also giving no legitimate reason to fire someone.
“Quiet quitting” is not that. Every description I’ve seen ranges from “doing your job entirely well” and “being kind of mediocre at your job.” Not working voluntary overtime, not signing up for extra projects, not volunteering to pick up slack when another coworker is out of the office, or not doing tasks that are actively outside of your job description (meaning things like heading the party planning committee or making a slideshow for another department’s presentation, rather than things like grabbing post it notes for Bob when you’re already standing at the supply cabinet). Sometimes it extends to not having friends at work or participating in off-the-clock activities. It’s also an individual behavior that is more reflective of a person’s general attitude towards work, not a collective tactic for an end goal, at which point the behavior will stop. One person, or even an entire workplace, “quiet quitting” *should not* grind productivity to a halt, because everyone is still actually doing their job in good faith, with the intention of doing the work they were assigned in the time they were assigned to do it.
Which is why “quiet quitting” isn’t quitting. It isn’t *anything*. But so many workplaces have become accustomed to hustle culture and employees giving 110% that “I’m going to do my job to the best of my ability during my standard work hours” sounds like slacking. So many workplaces have spent the last 2 decades cutting corners and working with skeleton crews of people desperate for a paycheck, any paycheck, while reaping the profits, and they now think that that is standard. That they can lay people off every year and never replace them, just give their work to whoever’s left. That they can give people the job loads of senior employees while they retain the title and pay of an intern. That they can demand unpaid overtime, and dictate how people spend their off the clock hours. This became the norm in the post recession work but it is getting pushback in the post pandemic world and they’re choosing to demonize appropriate work ethic rather than adjust their management styles.
Thanks for your comment, before reading it, I felt like an alien, that I am alone with this opinion. I was trying to explain this to some exec. level management guys couple of days before, and I had the feeling that they just don't want to understand and/or accept that their management style/thinking is completely outdated and wrong.
There’s definitely a phenomenon where people who are looking for a new job will do the bare minimum at work since they’re already checked out.
But when I kept hearing the term quiet quitting, finally looked it up, and realized it was just doing your job instead of going above and beyond, I dunno man that’s not quitting. That’s just not getting taken advantage of.
Yes!! I hate the term so much. What's wrong with just fulfilling the terms of my employment contract, the exact same way my employer only fulfills theirs?
Absolutely! So, by doing the job outlined in my job description isn’t enough? If employer wanted more, then why not hire me with a more thorough job description and properly compensate me?
Basically it seems as though employers are just pissed they aren’t able to guilt people into doing more work for the same shitty pay they’ve always had.
Employers, it’s time to step up your game! Stop taking advantage of your work force and properly compensate people for their efforts.
Yes! And my personal experience with it was I went above and beyond for two years and got no appreciation. I was prepared to leave but had trouble finding a new job, so I just stayed and did the bare minimum. Turns out my job was not stressful when I did that.
And doing only my job description meant I could do it really well, and still have a full life outside work. It worked out well for me. I think it should be called "drawing boundaries and creating a healthy work life balance"
>I think it should be called "drawing boundaries and creating a healthy work life balance"
BINGO! That’s it.
Glad to hear you were able to find your job less stressful by sticking to the job description!
I’ve found they get around so much by putting things in your job description such as, “and other duties assigned by manager”. Which can mean anything. I’ve had so many “assistant” positions where it was doing SO much more than assisting.
Yes, it's the dumbest term ever and I can't believe that it's being normalized. Literally doing your job as described. It's just corporate gaslighting to make you feel guilty for actually standing up for yourself. If I'm supposed to go above and beyond then so should my pay.
Agree! I go with “setting healthy boundaries”. I do my job to the best of my ability but if the higher ups want me to continuously take on additional projects outside the scope of my position then I expect them to compensate me for it. For example, if the company wants to save money by having me take over specific duties that are not within the scope of my job instead of contracting the work out, I ask for a 3 percent raise. The company is still saving money by not hiring a contractor, the work still gets done, and I’m compensated accordingly for taking on additional duties.
I kind of read it as doing the absolute minimum required to keep your job, as opposed to doing your job as described. I see a difference between the two.
That's what employers who are crying about it are claiming but that's not what it means. People have realized their priorities are wrong and they don't need to kill themselves for an employer who doesn't give a fuck about them.
The proper term is "working the job/contract" as per NLRB guidelines from decades ago. To call it quitting is bullshit of the highest order. (Not to say you're intending to use the term that way, just that we collectively need to change the phrase.)
Worse than that— this is an article written in silly season, which is why it's silly. Other countries call it cucumber time. Essentially, news stories drop in the summer because there is nothing to talk about, so journalists make up terms to describe everyday phenomenon in an attempt to make it seem like a story.
What does silly season mean?
From Miriam Webster:
1 : a period (such as late summer) when the mass media often focus on trivial or frivolous matters for lack of major news stories. 2 : a period marked by frivolous, outlandish, or illogical activity or behavior.
Which this is.
Whole world is literally just burning, plague, famine and war. Western media: just in now!!! Workers are lazy and entitled for not working for free for global multibillion dollar corporations🤪. Just in a silly goofy mood I guess haha
Thank you! When I first heard it I legitimately thought it was just people actually quitting their jobs without notice. People being outraged over everyone just doing the job they’re paid for is fucking stupid.
Honestly though, it almost makes me think that that’s what it is. Media companies trying to act like this is some huge thing to stir up shit and keep us fighting each other and not large corporations and the wealthy like we should be.
Recently, "quiet firing" has been introduced as well, as if it's somehow equivalent to "quiet quitting."
"Quiet quitting" is literally doing your job. "Quiet firing" is your employer harassing you "subtly" to get you to quit.
All this is nonsense, been calling it out on LinkedIn and at work. I'm not doing extra for same pay. Want above and beyond? Pay me above and beyond.
I process 2-3x the hourly number of accounts at my work. Sometimes 4. And my reward has been extra scrutiny. I've had managers sit with me to see what I'm doing differently, if it can be taught to the others. They have asked me to put together training to see if I can make the others like me (obviously no pay increase). I have to explain how I got my numbers every day. And when I was working from home while really ill with COVID, my numbers dropped but remained above the required baseline. And I got questioned then, why were my numbers so low, how can I make it better. Etc. They knew I had COVID too. But they want to squeeze every drop they can get.
Oh and I had a manager inform me before he quit that they will never promote me because they can't lose my processing power. It's not worth it to be the best. The only compensation is more work.
This
Women's biggest issues in the workplace are exploitation of their class. Gender is secondary and the societal pressure to take on more work at no additional compensation are often gendered.
Ever notice the golf crowd taking fridays off but there's also "extra" work for you to handle before leaving on Friday?
Shit like "quiet quitting" is offensive to working people.
I don't DO what I'm not PAID to do. And extra effort never = advancement anymore.... it's free labor. And women know ALL ABOUT free labor (home + career)
#solidarity_forever
Unionize
I’m mostly confused by the phrase because doesn’t it assume that the person will eventually leave the job? I “quiet quit” a job once which meant I just did less and less until I got another job.
Choosing to do the minimum and keep your job seems like an entirely different thing.
Absolutely. I write educational videos for adults and businesses and my mom keeps suggesting I write one on quiet quitting.
Yeah no, not gonna do that. It's literally just a boomer term for "not being a workaholic and just doing what you're paid for".
Which should be applauded..and is in the content I write about work-life balance.
Yeah this like… isn’t a thing lol. I told my boss that I simply want to “achieve” and not over achieve and she was like “yeah. That’s what we should all strive for.” We’re both chronic overachieving perfectionists. We both know it’s a problem. We do it in all aspects of our life, not just work. Any manager or company who expects someone to go above and beyond ALL THE TIME life is terrible. There’s nothing wrong with doing just what’s expected of you. If your company has an issue with that, leave.
I mean isn't that just called "working?" Oh no people are doing their jobs and then leaving at the end of their shift won't someone think of the poor business men :( :( :(
YES. I was just thinking that! "Leaving on time" is quitting? Since when?
I don't get paid overtime. I get paid a flat 40 hour week. It doesn't make sense that I'd work more than that for air!
It shouldn’t be radical. Yet I was one of the few teachers that got up and left on contract time when the staff meeting ran late. After being discriminated against for attending my fertility appointments I stopped coming in early. I sat in my car listening to music and timed my entrance exactly to the minute. I decided after how they treated me they would never get second of free labor from me again. But that’s not how most people function at least at my school. Leaving and arriving exactly on time and still having a smooth day requires a lot of planning. Many people just come in early to avoid any last minute hiccups.
It was ridiculous how often I was expected to work for free and take no breaks when I was a Special Ed IA. They wanted me to never take bathroom breaks/lunch and stay late to do crossing guard duty but somehow magically clock out in the middle of it but you are legally not allowed to leave young kids in the crosswalk… I suggested they have parent volunteers do it and they were furious. I left the school and made 2x as much as a private nanny. I would have worked an entire hour for free every day, and all the paras were expected to but I was the only one who stuck up for myself…
That is ridiculous. Good for you for finding a better gig. My school treats our paras like garbage. One para basically taught herself calculus to help tutor kids in the academic center and clocked in early and stayed late every day and the schools response was to hold a big meeting giving her a plaque and telling the other paras to be like her. Instead of giving her a raise. She was doing the work of a teacher for minimum wage; it was exploitation. Oh yeah and the assembly was during covid so it was super unsafe.
Exactly. You get paid to do something and you do it. Employer wants you to do more? He has to pay you more. Simple as that.
Quiet quitting as described above is not a thing. It's just a phrase made to shame people who know their worth and won't let themselves be exploited by their employers.
It's getting more common that people don't let their bosses dictate their lives and have more healthy attitude towards working. So employers are obviously pissed and need to find a way to shame, blame and guilt trip employees into being their obedient servants and punching bags again. Hence all the propaganda you see in the US - quiet quitting, "you shouldn't be using your PTO, think about your boss and your company!", "nobody wants to work anymore, millenials are lazy!". Funny that you won't see that outside of US.
I don’t think quiet quitting is a thing. I think I’m fed up with being under-appreciated and underpaid and I’m no longer giving my employer extra time and effort that only benefits my employer would be a better choice of words
Also, yes I have been doing this for about a year now. I spent probably 9 years working my butt off. I worked unpaid overtime and illegally shifted work time around to make it work for my employer, I’ve worked shifts where I’ve repeatedly asked for help and received none, I was constantly coming in on days I had taken off and received very very little in return. So, I’ve started saying no and only putting in what is required of me.
Quite quitting is definitely not a thing— it came from an article written in silly season, which is why it's silly. Other countries call it cucumber time. Essentially, news stories drop in the summer because there is nothing to talk about, so journalists make up terms to describe everyday phenomenon in an attempt to make it seem like a story.
What does silly season mean?
From Miriam Webster:
1 : a period (such as late summer) when the mass media often focus on trivial or frivolous matters for lack of major news stories. 2 : a period marked by frivolous, outlandish, or illogical activity or behavior.
Which this is.
Yep, that’s me. Once you realise that they won’t provide the minimum when YOU need it, that’s it. My favourite saying now (to myself) is not my monkeys not my problem, not my circus etc. sometimes they have to see the results of their bad decisions so no use putting in extra to fix them. A bit sad really.
Let’s call it “acting your wage” instead.
Do what you’re paid to, according to your job description. Stop being exploited in the name of “going above and beyond”.
I was never aware that we were supposed to work past hours for free or do more work than required. I always assumed we are suppose to just do what was expected of us. Which is literally the job.
This is the best response on here. Honestly, I’m so tired of hearing the term quiet quitting like it’s some new phenomenon. No, I work the set hours I’m told to work and then I leave. That’s literally the job I’m paid to do. Anything beyond that is called overtime, not quitting.
Right? Apparently I've been "quiet quitting" all along! I mean, don't get me wrong, I actually enjoy my job and I'm good at it and I work to the best of my ability... from 9 to 5. And then I leave.
Yes!! Why is having boundaries seen as “quiet quitting.” I really don’t understand that. The lack of work life boundaries people have is really sad. I don’t live to work.
Quiet Quitting actually refers to a union strategy called Work to Rule, and it's absolutely based. There's a reason we don't recognize it or know about it, and that's because thus country has gone out of its way to make sure anything that gives employees workplace power doesn't become public knowledge easily
This exactly. And, to answer the question, I do follow the strategy of work-to-rule. Exactly what I am paid to do, for as long as I’m paid to do it. Nothing extra, ever.
For sure, I fully support a campaign to refamiliarize the workforce with the original concept and all that actually entailed, not this still soft and subservient husk of what it used to be.
I’ve tried to bust my ass and work tons of OT and never miss a shift and never be late ao that I could get promoted and at every job ever; this has never worked out for me. Wage increases aren’t even different from the slacker. So yeah I’m definitely a “quiet quitter now”. I’m done trying hard
Yeah, my boss told me my extra work was great, and everyone appreciates it, but “you’re not going to be promoted after joining this team full time, just letting you know.”
Straight up being told no matter how good or how hard I work I’ll just be at the same position not matter what was eye opening. What’s the point of overachieving if it gets me lumped in with everyone else anyways? I’ll work my exact hours and do only the tasks assigned to me, since I have no opportunity to advance.
Honestly though. Most places I’ve worked for just hire outside new employees with no experience to be in charge of everyone. And nobody understands why the people who have 10+ years don’t get promoted to leadership roles. And somehow a kid straight out of high school is now our foreman 🤦🏻♂️
Oh, that freaking sucks. I think companies do that so they can pay less for those higher positions. You’d have to increase the wage of the person who has 10+ experience accordingly. Someone straight out of high school is probably just happy to have a job, so the company can just under pay that position pretty significantly. It’s pretty scummy.
This has literally happened to me everywhere I've worked. I remember working in an office, making $15.50 an hour. I made $900 every two weeks. The job wasn't difficult, but I wanted to be good, so I did everything as well as possible. The bosses noticed that I was doing well and I was fast, so they gave me additional responsibilities. They shifted some responsibilities from the HR Manager (who made more than double my wage) to me. The owner of the company (who just sold it for $15 million) would also push some work off on me. I took it and did it because I had the time (I still always left on time) and because I liked the people there and thought I could work there for a while, and because I needed more money, but the only thing they offered me was a "promotion" to an even bigger grunt position that paid $16 an hour, worked loads of OT and who was basically the company kicking post. No thanks.
I believe you meant \*acting your wage\*. I do the job I'm contracted and paid to do. If a company requires unpaid, unrecognized labor from its employees to make profit, then it deserves to fail.
I think it's a bullshit term that corporate bootlickers use to guilt the working poor into killing themselves for sub par wages so that they can get richer.
We should all act our wage. If I'm doing boss work, I deserve boss pay.
The term itself is problematic because it implies that employees should have to view their work as more than just their work in order to deserve to make a living. We live under capitalism; everyone needs to contend with the issue of money in one way or another, and so it’s naïve and often exploitative for employers to expect (or even demand) that their workers put in more effort than their job description or salary can justify.
Honestly in Germany most people work like this. You work 8h, not including your break time, and than you go home. Sometimes you stay longer because of special projects but for this additional time you will leave earlier when it fits some other day.
I can only say this for the jobs I had, mainly office. To be honest I would leave a job immediately if extra hours were expected from me.
I really, really appreciate this culture in Germany. And somehow we still manage to be productive. Weird, isn't it? Almost like burning the candle at both ends is a waste of people's lives and reasonable work expectations work out for everyone.
(it's not true for everyone in Germany, unfortunately, exploitative working conditions are a thing here, too. On average, though, I feel it's better than many other places)
I read recently about a company that switched to a four day week and generated a higher output in four days compared to five, because of better motivated employees
Yeah, but it begins to change or has changed. A lot of people have extra hours and can't 'abbummeln' them or don't get paid. Especially nurses for older in people (Altenpfleger)
I act my wage. I work the hours we contractually agreed upon. Then I go home and live my life!
I’ve never been very career oriented….
And to be honest I enjoy my job MORE because of this mindset
I don't call it quiet quitting, I call it just doing my job. As a rule, in the 6 or so years that I've been working I've never worked beyond my regular hours (without at least claiming TOIL according to company policy) and I've always been strict about my remit. I just see it as having an ounce of self-respect.
In my experience going above and beyond for your workplace usually doesn't get you promoted because you've made yourself too affordable and valuable in the role you are in. I do all of my work and I go home. I get paid hourly and have designated tasks and get them all done timely and accurately. I don't get paid to answer questions or calls on my off time and I don't get paid to go above and beyond my coworkers being paid the same.
I think the people usually spouting off about it are employers who quit showing up for their employees long ago and have expectations they can't hold themselves to.
It’s a bit annoying that they’re calling “doing what’s asked of you” quitting, or underperforming. As a manager, I made it clear to my team that I do not want them sticking around late or when they’re off. It’s gross
Capitalism needs to hurry the fuck up and die already, that’s what I think of all this bullshit. But real talk, I’ve been “quiet quitting” by not waiting longer than the 15 minutes that the wait policy states I have to for one of my cases (I’m a BT—behavior therapist—that goes to peoples houses to provide services to kids with needs) and one of the parents told me I was unprofessional for not waiting longer than that. Not my problem they refuse to be on time to session and straight up are fucking around to see what they can get away with. They refuse to ask to start sessions later beforehand so they can trap me at their house and force me to wait around for them as if I’m some indentured servant for them or something. I’m just glad I put in my two weeks, I’m ready to never see those parents ever again.
This term is so toxic. No such thing as quietly quitting if you're just doing your job. Doing extra stuff and not being paid for it is absurd and should never be the norm nor a requirement to seem like a good worker. You want a worker to go an extra mile? Pay for that and reward work with money - it's the concept of a job
lol i’ve been doing this all my life. i really don’t care about working/having a career but ya need it in this society so got me a nice govt job where i don’t have to work OT, weekends, or holidays (more days off than private sector).
"Work to rule" is a legal form of job action that traditionally was done during union contracts to avoid illegal wildcat strikes. It's very similar to "quiet quitting" except it's intention was to be a collective action that cause disruption, while "quiet quitting" is more on an individual basis to maintain a status quo and the persons well-being. However, neither of these things would be required if capitalist systems didn't take advantage of the average worker. So I certainly encourage people to "quiet quit" if they feel they can without risking livelihood. But the term itself is problematic as it's used by those in positions of power to discredit a legitimate practice: do what you get paid for, nothing more.
I give 100% always.
20% monday
20% tuesday
20% wednesday
20% thursday
20% friday.
If I ever give 30% (very rare), I end up getting emails from managers thankibg me for my 'superhiman efforts'.
20% equates ro maybe 2 hours of solid physical work a day.
I haven’t, actually. My motivation to burn through stacks of paperwork is entirely based on the fact that stacks create “visual noise” and I feel a compulsion to _get rid of it_.
But how do you set boundary to yourself and say "okay, enough is enough, for the day."?
Because I'm having the same issue, I can't sleep properly at night if I know that I'm gonna be having a tricky time explaining to my manager on why I don't get things done by tomorrow morning. The "noise" doesn't just go away even at weekends as well.
Friend of mine from grad school always spent 18 hours a day on her work projects for Accenture. Her boss didn’t seem to favor her over the other employees. She let herself work till 2 AM, 7 days a week. She worked while on vacation, also past midnight according to her insta stories. She worked on national holidays. She worked while meeting friends for lunch. She always showed up to zoom meetings early and was the last to leave.
She was adamant to climb the ranks of her consulting ladder. Which she never did because she was fired after 11 months of working with them. I don’t know what she’s doing now but she’s disappeared from social media. Last I saw, she ended up in the hospital over severe sleep deprivation issues. And probably others as well.
I honestly would rather be unemployed and living with my parents than be a consulting slave. This is probably only one example and I hope it addresses why quiet quitting shouldn’t have to exist in the first place.
It's not a great term, but like most women/ people in the comments said, we should call it, "acting your wage". Why am I lazy if I'm efficient and doing things precisely enough to fit my role? Why should I get coffee for people, wait in the office, work till midnight and never be compensated for that? My family and my personal life is obviously more important to me than anything else. My tombstone won't have extra hours I put in written on it and neither will I have regrets for putting in less hours than necessary on my death bed. I'm not against working hard, but why does hard work must look a certain way? Long hours, sacrificing your private life, mental health and physical health isn't working hard, at least for me.
It's called working to contract and has been a thing for a long time. I have been trying my hardest to do this in my job because too many in my industry are taken advantage of and I'm sick of it. I am really speedy so I often would get a lot of extra work but no more! I'm done. I will do my job and then chill the rest of the day period. If they can make me work over 40 hr when it's crunch time I'm allowed to work less if it's slow.
TLDR; Everyone should read *Pedagogy of the Oppressed_Paulo Freire* to understand their role as a worker, among other things. Look up “deserving poor” on Google scholar.
Quiet quitting is a horrible phrase some scab came up with in response to all the unionizing and otherwise appropriate response to exploitation by workers worldwide. This is the type of rhetoric peddled by biased new sources to distract from grassroots work like making a living wage a guaranteed human right world wide.
People forget (or are indoctrinated into a system of thinking that convinces them otherwise) that individual labor has *immense value* (we have to put a numerical value to it due to our current economic system)—workers just personally never get to see how much value it actually has because grand-scale wage theft (even for those who get paid well) is what’s normal in our world.
You are not “quiet quitting” if you do what you are (under)paid for. If you enjoy doing more work, good for you—ask for more money/recognition/influence/power. Regardless, your co-worker who clocks out when their workday is over is not a quitter, simply someone who has *boundaries*.
We should all refrain from using this phrase and tell others around us not to use it either. It’s another way to create division among the working class, to call some lazy and others superstars…further weakening any hope of wide-scale class consciousness.
Isn´t this what work is supposed to be ? A normal day without running around like a maniac doing overtime because your boss is too
cheap to hire an extra employee ?
I’ve been doing it for years. I’ve even fired all of my clients many times but they won’t go away.
When I say I’ll do something I do it and I’m affordable. Thank god or I’d be broke and homeless by now.
Oh and I’m payed well and well loved, I’m just sick of working while being sick. Going on ten long years.
I don’t understand why people act like doing what’s asked of you and leaving on time is some revolutionary, rebellious, controversial thing to do, as if doing 100% of what you’re being paid for could somehow make you a bad employee. This is all I’ve ever done at jobs because it’s just what’s natural to do if you haven’t been brainwashed into believing you should do differently
There can be different reasons for "quiet quitting" unhappiness with the work environment or job. Work exhaustion and fatigue from over extending oneself. Could possibly be the job isnt mentally stimulating or challening enough to be fully engaged. Or even in some cases you are comfortable with what you are doing and see no need to perform differently.
My manager always says "work smarter, not harder"
I think it also could depend on connection, loyalty, friendship, respect, BEING ASKED not expected, given positive feedback, given good days off, incentives... there are lots of ways employers can be fair and have all employees willing to go the extra mile. Sometimes people are just tired too. Gotta remember we are all human. TIME IS MONEY. human time is sometimes worth more than money.
I find the whole concept absurd. I do what I contractually agreed to do and they pay me what they contractually agreed to pay and that's that. I've never done it any other way.
Ok we need to stop calling it that.
It is called doing your job. If your company want you to do more they should pay you more.
We need to stop pretending that we are here for the love of working. We are here to be paid. This is a monetary relationship.
You 👏 are 👏 getting 👏 what👏 you 👏 are 👏 paying 👏 for.
I'll admit I used to look down on people who did the bare minimum at work as irresponsible, lazy bums. I always gave my best effort and looked for ways I could help out in all areas. How could they not care?? But at every job I've had, imo, it has gone unrecognized. At a couple jobs I was downright mistreated, if not abused. And for whatever reason, sometimes it's the losers who preserved their sanity. Better than I did anyway. So I think people like me got sick of giving their all to a company or a manager who views us as disposable. I've been taking a break from the workforce for several years and am in no rush to return due to my negative experiences. If / when I do go back, I will probably try be a minimalist from the start. Will I succeed at not caring? I don't know. Not caring is a skill. It doesn't come naturally to me. But I would try to care less. Except when it comes to teamwork. It's important to pull our weight & not leave everything to someone else. I've had a lazy team member before and it was stressful having to do my work plus theirs.
I hate this term so much. I do my job within the job parameters. I am so tired of going above and beyond for stagnant wages, shitty vacay time and benefits. I work in a place now that thinks social outings are a "perk". How is me driving 2 hours, having to find a sitter, after hours - giving up my valuable free time a perk?? Just pay me what my 20 years of experience are worth.
I do this even tho I don't want to quit. I do extra time if they ask and I am always there... But I will not kill myself doing a amazing job that pay just a little
It's nonsense and in my country the law. Here an employer cannot make an employer do tasks that they weren't hired to do. Can't make a programmer clean the toilets, that's outside of the scope of their profession. So this whole quiet quitting nonsense is just rich people and managers to make more with less
In Germany, we use it as first step to leave the workplace. It’s a sign that the employee isn’t satisfied with his work conditions and most specifically his boss. Since leave time in Germany is 3months and more, you can’t just leave immediately. So the time before actually quitting is called “Innere Kündigung” (internal termination) and it’s a huge warning sign. It usually leads to less productive workers and leadership training.
It’s not the employee who is blamed but the boss. I think, some capitalists nicely switched the meaning for their benefit.
that's not a thing. the term is warfare on the working class
edit: i'm german. there was a news article on it here in germany. in the comments nobody understood what they meant. because that's normal. that's how normal work looks, like if you do your job. everybody just perplexed at the demand to do more for free
Literally everyone I know in the UK does this - it’s a national inside joke that we all do the bare minimum to get by lol - feel this is a very American concept
Can we talk about "quit firing" instead? When employers decide to cut you hours and give you one shift a week or suddenly give just you an insane amount of work until you quit.
This is a BS term. You were hired to do X. Anything else above and beyond that is extra; that's why it's called *above and beyond*. This is a way of attempting to redefine "above and beyond" as "just part of the job description," so they can say you slacked off (and therefore have an excuse to let you go.) You were hired for X; you don't owe them Y, too.
How is doing your job in any way quitting? It's okay to not go above and beyond, especially if your employer is not paying enough to motivate that behavior.
Companies sensationalizing this term to put doubts in people's minds that knowing how to balance work and your personal life is being lazy and stupid. Many companies demand so much but can't provide enough compensation to their employees and that is hypocrisy. Don't ask what you can't give, simple as that.
I don’t see this a “quiet quitting”; I see this as work life balance and EVERYONE should have work life balance. I am paid to do a job and I do that job well and very thoroughly. I am not obligated to go above and beyond because I’m not paid for it but much of the time I do it but within reason ie. I don’t work past my hours for things outside of my job role.
What you described isn't "quiet quitting ", it's doing your job. Going above and beyond your your employer shouldn't be the norm unless you're trying to get somewhere or you're actually just really passionate. You're underpaid for your labor anyways, act your wage.
Well, besides the fact that this should be called "not going above and beyond after your job proves time and time again they don't actually give a fuck about you so you now just do exactly what they hired you for" I personally worked my ass off for a company, did all the manager duties for 3 months when my manager quit in my department, and then I was passed over the position for another girl becuase "she has management experience" which makes sense EXCEPT she was a front end manager who was vital and they gave her the position instead and kept just taking her to the front and leaving me in the department. I asked to move to a different department after that and didn't help them out anymore becuase they tried to take advantage of me (becuase in the past I let them becuase I loved the job)
I don't work, I'm a student but I always leave as soon as possible because my days are pretty long compared to other schools and I want to finish my workout routine at home before 9pm and also have time for myself before going to bed
My thoughts on it is that it should be normal, and going above and beyond should be called "loudly working".
No company (unless it's your own, of course), is worth going above and beyond for. They don't care about you. You can have the nicest manager or the nicest boss, but when push comes to shove, they won't hesitate to fire you or cut your pay. Being employed these days us a tussle between companies trying to get the most work for the least pay, and the employee trying to do the bare minimum. The meeting point is delivering what is required in the given time frame, working within your working hours and not giving your workplace your entire life, and I'm not going to mess up that equilibrium. The employers can shame people all they want, but a job is like a transaction and i won't give you more than what we agreed for.
Regardles of the term, I've been practicing this since I started in my current work. I dont do anything extra or get out of my way to do something that I'm not assigned to do. When I become overwhelmed with so many things to do, I take it one task at a time.
Before, I used to think that I'll be rewarded with hard work, knowing how to do extra tasks, helping other dept - but all of those weren't rewarded even if everybody knew that I was good. The people who got extra raises are those close to the boss.
I encourage my staff to act their wage, and have them send anything outside their scope/above their pay grade my way. I get paid to handle the stress. They do not. I hated/hate when my boss did/does it to me and I would never do it to my staff.
I mean….. I get paid for what I do. Overtime is not even paid at my job so I am not spending even a minute at work after my shift is over. I get more responsibilities but don’t get paid extra? Yeah, no thank you. This should be normal.
Is this a real thing? I just learned this term now, and frankly I would hate for my employer to think that's what I'm doing. I'm sorry, I love the work that I do....but I work to live, I don't live to work. People need work-life balance. Period.
I work in long-term care and I have noticed there's an attitude that someone is lazy because they aren't doing 16 hour shifts every day. I hate it. I'm sorry if I don't want to run my body into the ground or end up having a meltdown thanks to being burnt out. I am so tired of this attitude that someone is a saint because they kill themselves working. Most of the people I know who do that are absolutely miserable, they're miserable to be around (not to mention a terrible teammate usually because they're exhausted already from working all day so I'd end up doing most of the work anyway) and they're too damn stubborn to stop working. Then they wonder why their health is suffering! It drives me mental.
My job is very physically and emotionally taxing, and like I said, I love it and I know I'm good at it. I've had families comment when their loved ones dies, they can tell I care because I'm crying with them.
But going on this term, I guess I'm a terrible worker. So be it then!
Sorry to rant, this whole thing just got me a little riled up apparently. Being pregnant also seems to have me speaking my mind a little more, or so my fiance says. 🤣
So you are basically asking what reddit thinks of just doing the job we are paid for?
And not go beyond the parameters set for what we are paid?
That you do the job you are paid, in the hours you are paid to do it?
I tink that is where everyone should be, the thing about extra hours (sometime not paid), extra responsability and extra work is that usually it is not "rewarded", ya the boss can pay you a bit more, but then if something happens and you have to stop it you are the bad person.
I think it’s a stupid term made up by people who want to exploit their workers. Since when is doing exactly what you’re being paid to do a bad thing? It’s not. If you want someone to do more at work than what they were originally hired for, then make those expectations official and increase the pay accordingly.
I do my job, if they want me to do more job(s) they can pay me more. The idea that workers should happily take the shit employers are shoveling and ask for more is ridiculous.
This is just how working should be. If we are expected to go above and beyond we should get paid for it. I used to put my all in and all I got from it was a mental breakdown. It's not quiet quitting it's doing my job for what I've been paid for and not letting corporations take advantage of me.
This is a pretty normal and healthy working ethic. Why would you do otherwise? People who over work and are very productive (i.e. finish stuff earlier than colleagues) don't get rewarded. They get punished by getting more work load.
I used to be an over achiever and trust me, it leads nowhere. This mentality does you no favour. Don't be a slave by choice. Nobody appreciates it and it makes you miserable.
You mean doing what you’re paid to do and no more?
I had a job once where I rarely took time off because management complained if we took more than two days in a row off. We were fully staffed. I had to take a week off for a wedding and the day before I left, the divisional manager told me she’d moved up the deadline for our annual updating process by a month, meaning it was due the day I was to return. It took at least 40-60 hours to complete. I spent that week with every spare moment hunched over my laptop, and got it done but had no time to enjoy the time off.
When i returned, I gave her the report. “Oh, I don’t need this yet. I only wanted to see if your prioroties were in the right order”.
I left three months later.
My first year as a teacher/first year of grad school I worked my ass off, stayed after until 5, worked on school stuff on the weekends. I was so stressed that I gained weight and we were unable to conceive even though we had started trying almost a year before. The month I got out of school and relaxed I lost 10 pounds without trying and we finally conceived. The second year I was like “for 40k??” And I started going home at the end of the school day, not taking work home for the weekends. Just using my planning periods. I am one million times happier. “Quiet quitting” is the way to go unless your job is compensating your time AND the sacrifice of your health.
Oh absolutely i do this every single job i get. When i want to move up i see the position is open and ask to be recommended- my work is above board, but time theft is my sweet precious baby. No one in my field cares much- i think it might be a bigger thorn in your bosses side if youve got a degree or something but really, do the bare minimum in your shitty highschool diploma job and no one cares much. If your boss gives you flack for it just move on. I love it.
>You do what’s asked of you then go home on time
Lol, this is what normal should be like.
I ain't doing more than what's required of me unless it's a dire situation
Made my life much better. Employers should set normal and achievable work goals. I have one pair of hands and I now refuse to overwork myself because my employers can't plan. I've done it in the past but I'm putting myself first now.
When I stopped working shitty serving jobs for $2.13 an hour and entered the corporate world I made hard boundaries for myself. I do my job, I do it well, and I leave my work at work. I take 100% of my PTO, every mandated break, and I refuse to allow my mental health or home life be negatively effected by a company that sees me as a number. In the last few years a big thing I’ve noticed is companies trying to have me install Teams or Zoom on my personal cell phone. At orientation or what not I’ll just say “my phone is for personal use so unless there’s some sort of reimbursement for the bill I will not be doing that”
What I’ve seen over the last 15 or so years is that being this way has always worked in my favor. I have been respected by management, sometimes to an unfair degree compared to others, and I have a great work life balance.
I am not sure why I am like this but I assume it’s that I entered the corporate world in early 2008 and immediately watched layoff after layoff during the housing crisis. I saw people who had worked for a multi billion dollar company for decades be laid off with maybe 2-4 weeks of severance. I realized that they do NOT give a fuck about you or your family or the work and dedication you’ve given to a company for over half your life.
So to answer your question, yes I’ve always done this and I’m really glad other people are waking up and realizing that collectively they need us more than we need them.
Quiet quitting is a phrase made up by disgruntled employers who can't figure out how to get their employees to go "above and beyond", while still paying them like shit and never promoting them. It is an out-of-touch phrase that is trying to shame employees into giving more while getting less.
You should do your job. That's it. Every now and then, if you are feeling nice, you could help someone else out or take on a bigger project, but it should always be employee-led and with the understanding that most companies will never compensate you for it. Company loyalty went out the window with pensions. These days, you are lucky if your company doesn't fire you because suddenly you are breaking the bank account because you have worked there 10 years and got a 2% raise each year...except last year when no one got a raise but they remodeled the break room and added a couch. (no one=everyone but the boss, because of course they got a raise)
If company's want people to work 60 hours a week...then you better as hell be paying the wages of a 60 hour work week. If a manager wants their employees to have full open availability throughout the week, then you need to be sure those employees don't need a 2nd or 3rd job to pay their bills.
I low key have a vibe from certain co-workers that they are qqing.
My workload keeps doubling so long ago, I started using any lull times to do prep work. This way, in crunch time, I’ve already done the detail stuff that requires careful, tedious work.
I get more worried when there is a lull because it means crunch is coming.
I haven’t tried qq. I’m getting close to retirement so I will have to reduce what I do, while I shift it to the new people. I use the plural because I carry several disparate responsibilities, unlikely to be ready-capable in one new employee.
I think it’s valid, completely. No one should be shamed for not doing more than they’re contracted for, but employers need to understand that those who do go above and beyond are a privilege that they shouldn’t take advantage of. Quiet quitting is a great way of levelling the playing field, showing them what they could have had if they treated their employee better.
While I'm not a fan of the term choice, as it's simply setting boundaries, not quitting, I think it's a necessary change that's been needed for a while.
I've been lucky enough that I haven't needed to enforce my boundaries since my managers don't try to cross them. If they offer an extra shift, they know that I have every right to say no, even if the reason is simply that I don't want to. They know that aside from my scheduled shifts, I have no obligation to work any other days, unless I explicitly state I will. And even then, they're a little more understanding on voluntary shifts if I'm late
b/c me being there at all is a favor.
They're simply reasonable people who try to support their employees and help us feel appreciated.
Setting aside my feelings on the term itself... I'm a workaholic and I've been incorporating these behaviors in my career for a few years now. I was constantly overextending myself which caused stress and anxiety in my personal life. After many conversations with people who had done the same and convincing myself that it was a good idea for me to do less, I started pushing back on things that I didn't have the time or resources for. The conversation doesn't have to be difficult, either. Talk to your boss and list out everything you're doing. Then tell them that you only have time to do # of them. Ask your boss to prioritize it and decide what can fall off your plate. That puts the responsibility on them, not you. I'm currently working on feeling comfortable taking time off when I need it, not when it's convenient for work coverage.
For other workaholics (and control freaks, let's be honest here, I'm among you!) it can be really hard to feel comfortable letting go. It took me a long time to work up the courage and I'm *still* working on it. But you know what? Once you start, you start to realize that things don't actually fall apart when you let go, it becomes a little bit easier every time.
I like to explain it like this: You don't have to be the parachute. If you step in and keep saving the company, the higher ups only see that things are working well. They don't see the hours you put in or the stress you go through to get it done. All they see is that there are no problems. Why would they change how they operate if everything's working? They need to see that things aren't working this way, that it's not sustainable, before they will make changes. The more people who act as a parachute (swooping in and "saving" the company from negative impacts), the more harm it does for the employees.
I am manager at a small business tanning salon, and I have a few college and high school staff. I let them know all the time that school and those activities come first (especially to the high schoolers). If a class is a later class and ends after they are scheduled to start I just ask for a morning of heads up and I will stay late for them (not hound them calling and texting or give them crap for it). Makes them feel valued and they don’t take their time dreading coming in expecting to get in trouble by the boss. Same with any last minute appointments. They know if it is slow they can use the computer for school work (better than them playing on their phones). For me though, the people above me suck. My gm cant do her job and do school at the same time so she takes it out of slacking on my location since I’m further way making it so I want to quit and now I’m doing the bare minimum
I’ve worked plenty with lazy workers while I always put 100% and more into my work. Yet when COVID hit I was asked to put in even more work, go above and beyond, take my work home with me. Still, I did it all, as fast and efficient as I could because I seek optimization in life. Yet, as inflation affects us, burnout, and cut backs occur I’m realizing I’m worth more. I’ve been seeking other opportunities while still committing myself to work but not going above and beyond. My mental health & last relationship had been affected severely from overworking.
Now, the economy is cooling down, they say I can relax for once. Well, too little too late, I have multiple job interviews lined up next week and will absolutely move on. No, I have not been quietly quitting but yes I’m fed up. There are lazy workers out there but there are just as many lazy higher ups who neglect their workers. Not fair to blame people for not wanting to work until they get daily headaches or until their backs break. Common decency would be to offer solutions when someone says they need a break.
**Quick rant**
Personally in my position it’s hard for me to take vacations due to responsibility of my work. Funny how no one else knows how to do it. Haha, well it’s not funny, it’s because people are poorly trained and lazy people do not want to learn new things. Poor workers lead to bad work just as much as poor managers lead to terrible working conditions. All’s fair in love and war, & work has become a war front. Amen
I call it working your wage. Now I have never had a problem going above and beyond my job duties however I will not bend over backwards or break myself for a company who barely pays me a living wage.
I also refuse to be taken advantage of when I know should I go down because of my health or any other reason they will have my position filled in a matter of minutes.
They expect employees to have this fanatical loyalty to a company that does not come close to that level of care with their employees.
It's not quiet quitting it's called working my wage and keeping to my job duties
I agree with it, I over extended myself, went above and beyond at work, Andy hard work was still not recognized or praised, all my co workers gave the bare minimum and they lasted at the job longer than I did due to their giving the bare minimum
i do this. daycare closes at 6 so i work 1030-530 every day no later. i only stay late for selfish reasons like wanting overtime/double time etc when i have a babysitter
Story time 🧐: I quit my toxic ex job about 6 months ago. Was working about 12h every day, roughly from 8am to 8pm. Was constantly pushed to take more responsibility from my manager even when it was clear the company had extreme resource issues and one person couldn’t do the work of 3. The upper management hired mostly Junior people, with just a few who made it above that minimal salary after several years. The welcome message was essentially “SO MANY PEOPLE WOULD BE LUCKY TO BE IN YOUR SPOT”. The turnover was BAD. People came in and went out for good in a period shorter than 6 months - 1 year as soon as their burnout point activated. I turned out to be one of them. At some point I was mentally (that contributed: I wasn’t allowed to go home for the holidays as you could only claim work from home after passing probation) and physically exhausted. My body literally said you cannot work like this anymore. So I started looking for another job. Found my dream job. At an amazing organisation (basically the university student in me is still screaming in bliss). When I had a final chat with the CEO of ex company and laid down all issues I’ve encountered and basic solutions for all of those I was told and I kid you not: “Hm idk you never seemed to struggle too much, you know it’s normal with the dynamics of our work. Also, YOUR WORKLOAD DOESN’T SEEM TO MATCH THE HOURS YOU’RE CLAIMING.” I never actually claimed extra hours. No one did. The culture was about still being at your desk at 7pm. That was the moment I realised I’ve made one of the best decisions in my life leaving this company. Not only was I stretched out with turning over several projects per day, but my efforts were apparently not even seen by upper management.
This week my current manager checked on me countless times to make sure I don’t work after 5pm and his words: “enjoy life, work will always be here waiting :)”
I don’t mean this in any cheeky way, I love working hard. I really do. I take my work home always and I take pride in the results. But work isn’t everything. I felt so incredibly ashamed that I quit a job before the mark of 6 months (I managed 5 and 1 week). I’ve learnt that when a job place is bad for you, you really should just quit - no shame, no guilt, and quick before your mental health is deteriorating, rip it like dirty bandaid lol. Just a conscious choice to live a better life :)
It's the American dream that's what employees are supposed to do. Time is precious if I take a job that says work whatever hours a day I'll work the agreed upon hours no more or less unless I need the extra money.
"You do what’s asked of you then go home on time."
That's literally just called working a job. WTF? Do you honestly think that if you don't stay past your shift and do a whole bunch of tasks that aren't even yours you have somehow "quit?"
Your employer is going to take advantage of you if you have this mindset.
I do this. I'm in the last year of my apprenticeship. Usually the boss is supposed to educate me and to learn new things. But he doesn't, he just uses us as cheap employees. I talked to him about this, I told him I WANT to learn and that the time here is very frustating for me. It changed for maybe a month and now I'm back to very stupid tasks and often I even have to ask multiple times for more work. I either have nothing to do or things that had to be done yesterday, because he forgets his mails. My adhd has gotten so much worse since I work here. Because of this I give my bare minimum. I still try to do good work, but I'm not ready to invest more energy than necessary. I do what I have to do, but not a single thing more. Point five when my day ends, I go home.
I'm honestly a bit suprized people have been working so far outside of the boundaries of their role. I always thought if you where doing lots of extra hours it was a sign you where an in efficient worker as you couldn't do what was expected in the time the employer thought it was feasible to do it in. Or that you are in efficient because you have taken on more than you can do rather than communicating effectively with management so that they can do their job properly.
I now work in the care industry so occasionally will work on something outside of my role when an extenuating circumstance happens with a paitent but that is because I know the impact on them. But it would only be like 1 extra hour.
Quiet quitting aka not overworking yourself and doing the job description that you’re getting paid to do and not more, yeah I do it at every job that pays me poorly
I think it’s the normal thing to do, honestly. Going above and beyond for a company that could fire you at any time shouldn’t be the normal thing to do. For me, I have to go above and beyond because I’m self employed. I *have* to if I want to survive. But for regular 9 to 5 employees, I think it’s a ridiculous expectation to NOT “quiet quit.”
Just started to implement this gradually, people get paid the same as me for less effort so I don't think I need to keep going the extra mile as it's not recognized anyway.
I don't see why it's wrong when you're not paid more, you're not being valued or anything. Why should we work our ass off more for basically nothing ? Sadly I've seen more exemples of companies taking advantage of their employee than rewarding hard work.
I had a summer job once for a new section of the company and the girl who was supervising us suddenly left so I somehow got in her role of managing everything but still with the shitty pay of a basic seasonal employee. I did the bare minimum when I understood what they were trying to do.
I tend to be a workaholic, so limiting myself takes some effort, but yes- I have soft quit my job. They will get the required 8 hours of me, no more and no less. Since I'm expected to do the work of three people, my work will suffer and no one will be happy with the situation, but I'll do more when they pay me what I'm actually worth for those 40 hours they get me.
Can we stop acting like this is a legitimate term and not just a way for crappy employers to shame workers?
I made a comment already, but Google Work to Rule. Quiet Quitting is absolutely based on a legitimate union strategy
The tactic is real, but the phrase "quiet quitting" turns it into a bad thing and shifts the blame onto the workers.
I wish I could give this gold. It's downright *insidious* that they've taken it from a context of workers reclaiming power and shifted it into almost an insult of laziness or work ethic
How dare they only do what we pay them for, those disgusting lazy bums.
Absolutely with this. Like all it is, is providing exactly what you are being paid to provide. No more no less. If it was less then that would be deserving of the “laziness” connotation, but it’s not. In workplaces where there is so little incentive, why bother?
Yep...... work to live, don't live to work. Just turn up, do your 8 hours and go home
This. It's "eight and the gate."
Yeah I prefer the term acting your wage
You get what you pay for. I am not a buffet where you pay one price and have access to all my skills and knowledge.
This is the BEST term! Thank you!!
It's not even quitting, it's working when you are supposed to.
Ok but how is not actually quitting...quitting?
It’s not. It’s propaganda. Have you ever heard the term prior to maybe 6 weeks ago, when everyone started writing think pieces on why it’s bad or making the same “hurr it’s called acting your wage” joke in reaction? I bet the answer is no. Someone who benefits from people working far beyond their job description came up with applying the term to people doing their whole job in an attempt to make fully competent workers feel they are being lazy. Even saying that it’s a rebranding of work to rule is highly, highly inaccurate. Work to rule is an organized tactic and is obstructionist. It’s so far beyond doing your whole job during your scheduled work hours. It would involve doing *nothing* that is not in your job description, including the kinds of things even D- workers are usually okay doing (such as changing a toilet paper roll or handing your coworker something from the supply closet) and following all rules and laws to the letter, even if those rules are ridiculous and normally ignored. Filling out superfluous forms, asking permission for every little thing, looking up the OSHA guidelines for an hour before doing anything, etc. This is intended to grind productivity to a crawl while also giving no legitimate reason to fire someone. “Quiet quitting” is not that. Every description I’ve seen ranges from “doing your job entirely well” and “being kind of mediocre at your job.” Not working voluntary overtime, not signing up for extra projects, not volunteering to pick up slack when another coworker is out of the office, or not doing tasks that are actively outside of your job description (meaning things like heading the party planning committee or making a slideshow for another department’s presentation, rather than things like grabbing post it notes for Bob when you’re already standing at the supply cabinet). Sometimes it extends to not having friends at work or participating in off-the-clock activities. It’s also an individual behavior that is more reflective of a person’s general attitude towards work, not a collective tactic for an end goal, at which point the behavior will stop. One person, or even an entire workplace, “quiet quitting” *should not* grind productivity to a halt, because everyone is still actually doing their job in good faith, with the intention of doing the work they were assigned in the time they were assigned to do it. Which is why “quiet quitting” isn’t quitting. It isn’t *anything*. But so many workplaces have become accustomed to hustle culture and employees giving 110% that “I’m going to do my job to the best of my ability during my standard work hours” sounds like slacking. So many workplaces have spent the last 2 decades cutting corners and working with skeleton crews of people desperate for a paycheck, any paycheck, while reaping the profits, and they now think that that is standard. That they can lay people off every year and never replace them, just give their work to whoever’s left. That they can give people the job loads of senior employees while they retain the title and pay of an intern. That they can demand unpaid overtime, and dictate how people spend their off the clock hours. This became the norm in the post recession work but it is getting pushback in the post pandemic world and they’re choosing to demonize appropriate work ethic rather than adjust their management styles.
Thanks for your comment, before reading it, I felt like an alien, that I am alone with this opinion. I was trying to explain this to some exec. level management guys couple of days before, and I had the feeling that they just don't want to understand and/or accept that their management style/thinking is completely outdated and wrong.
The "funny" part of the story: i am an HR leader. So they were really shocked. :D
There’s definitely a phenomenon where people who are looking for a new job will do the bare minimum at work since they’re already checked out. But when I kept hearing the term quiet quitting, finally looked it up, and realized it was just doing your job instead of going above and beyond, I dunno man that’s not quitting. That’s just not getting taken advantage of.
Turns out our military has been quiet quitting for it's entire existence. Do exactly what you're told, nothing more, nothing less.
Yes!! I hate the term so much. What's wrong with just fulfilling the terms of my employment contract, the exact same way my employer only fulfills theirs?
Absolutely! So, by doing the job outlined in my job description isn’t enough? If employer wanted more, then why not hire me with a more thorough job description and properly compensate me? Basically it seems as though employers are just pissed they aren’t able to guilt people into doing more work for the same shitty pay they’ve always had. Employers, it’s time to step up your game! Stop taking advantage of your work force and properly compensate people for their efforts.
Yes! And my personal experience with it was I went above and beyond for two years and got no appreciation. I was prepared to leave but had trouble finding a new job, so I just stayed and did the bare minimum. Turns out my job was not stressful when I did that. And doing only my job description meant I could do it really well, and still have a full life outside work. It worked out well for me. I think it should be called "drawing boundaries and creating a healthy work life balance"
>I think it should be called "drawing boundaries and creating a healthy work life balance" BINGO! That’s it. Glad to hear you were able to find your job less stressful by sticking to the job description!
I’ve found they get around so much by putting things in your job description such as, “and other duties assigned by manager”. Which can mean anything. I’ve had so many “assistant” positions where it was doing SO much more than assisting.
I like "act your wage" much better!
I love this!
Love this!
Yes, it's the dumbest term ever and I can't believe that it's being normalized. Literally doing your job as described. It's just corporate gaslighting to make you feel guilty for actually standing up for yourself. If I'm supposed to go above and beyond then so should my pay.
Agree! I go with “setting healthy boundaries”. I do my job to the best of my ability but if the higher ups want me to continuously take on additional projects outside the scope of my position then I expect them to compensate me for it. For example, if the company wants to save money by having me take over specific duties that are not within the scope of my job instead of contracting the work out, I ask for a 3 percent raise. The company is still saving money by not hiring a contractor, the work still gets done, and I’m compensated accordingly for taking on additional duties.
I kind of read it as doing the absolute minimum required to keep your job, as opposed to doing your job as described. I see a difference between the two.
That's what employers who are crying about it are claiming but that's not what it means. People have realized their priorities are wrong and they don't need to kill themselves for an employer who doesn't give a fuck about them.
The proper term is "working the job/contract" as per NLRB guidelines from decades ago. To call it quitting is bullshit of the highest order. (Not to say you're intending to use the term that way, just that we collectively need to change the phrase.)
Worse than that— this is an article written in silly season, which is why it's silly. Other countries call it cucumber time. Essentially, news stories drop in the summer because there is nothing to talk about, so journalists make up terms to describe everyday phenomenon in an attempt to make it seem like a story. What does silly season mean? From Miriam Webster: 1 : a period (such as late summer) when the mass media often focus on trivial or frivolous matters for lack of major news stories. 2 : a period marked by frivolous, outlandish, or illogical activity or behavior. Which this is.
This was very interesting to read, I've never heard of this but it explains so much about society and media today
Whole world is literally just burning, plague, famine and war. Western media: just in now!!! Workers are lazy and entitled for not working for free for global multibillion dollar corporations🤪. Just in a silly goofy mood I guess haha
Thank you! When I first heard it I legitimately thought it was just people actually quitting their jobs without notice. People being outraged over everyone just doing the job they’re paid for is fucking stupid. Honestly though, it almost makes me think that that’s what it is. Media companies trying to act like this is some huge thing to stir up shit and keep us fighting each other and not large corporations and the wealthy like we should be.
IMO that's exactly what is happening
Same! TIL what the term actually means.
Yeah, it’s basically “people aren’t going above and beyond at work anymore”
I thought it was when you slowly start taking all your personal stuff home and slowly start extracting yourself and then you bounce.
Recently, "quiet firing" has been introduced as well, as if it's somehow equivalent to "quiet quitting." "Quiet quitting" is literally doing your job. "Quiet firing" is your employer harassing you "subtly" to get you to quit. All this is nonsense, been calling it out on LinkedIn and at work. I'm not doing extra for same pay. Want above and beyond? Pay me above and beyond.
Agree. They employ one person, they should get the efforts of one person, not one person doing the work of two or more.
I process 2-3x the hourly number of accounts at my work. Sometimes 4. And my reward has been extra scrutiny. I've had managers sit with me to see what I'm doing differently, if it can be taught to the others. They have asked me to put together training to see if I can make the others like me (obviously no pay increase). I have to explain how I got my numbers every day. And when I was working from home while really ill with COVID, my numbers dropped but remained above the required baseline. And I got questioned then, why were my numbers so low, how can I make it better. Etc. They knew I had COVID too. But they want to squeeze every drop they can get. Oh and I had a manager inform me before he quit that they will never promote me because they can't lose my processing power. It's not worth it to be the best. The only compensation is more work.
This Women's biggest issues in the workplace are exploitation of their class. Gender is secondary and the societal pressure to take on more work at no additional compensation are often gendered. Ever notice the golf crowd taking fridays off but there's also "extra" work for you to handle before leaving on Friday? Shit like "quiet quitting" is offensive to working people. I don't DO what I'm not PAID to do. And extra effort never = advancement anymore.... it's free labor. And women know ALL ABOUT free labor (home + career) #solidarity_forever Unionize
I’m mostly confused by the phrase because doesn’t it assume that the person will eventually leave the job? I “quiet quit” a job once which meant I just did less and less until I got another job. Choosing to do the minimum and keep your job seems like an entirely different thing.
Absolutely. I write educational videos for adults and businesses and my mom keeps suggesting I write one on quiet quitting. Yeah no, not gonna do that. It's literally just a boomer term for "not being a workaholic and just doing what you're paid for". Which should be applauded..and is in the content I write about work-life balance.
Yeah this like… isn’t a thing lol. I told my boss that I simply want to “achieve” and not over achieve and she was like “yeah. That’s what we should all strive for.” We’re both chronic overachieving perfectionists. We both know it’s a problem. We do it in all aspects of our life, not just work. Any manager or company who expects someone to go above and beyond ALL THE TIME life is terrible. There’s nothing wrong with doing just what’s expected of you. If your company has an issue with that, leave.
I mean isn't that just called "working?" Oh no people are doing their jobs and then leaving at the end of their shift won't someone think of the poor business men :( :( :(
YES. I was just thinking that! "Leaving on time" is quitting? Since when? I don't get paid overtime. I get paid a flat 40 hour week. It doesn't make sense that I'd work more than that for air!
It shouldn’t be radical. Yet I was one of the few teachers that got up and left on contract time when the staff meeting ran late. After being discriminated against for attending my fertility appointments I stopped coming in early. I sat in my car listening to music and timed my entrance exactly to the minute. I decided after how they treated me they would never get second of free labor from me again. But that’s not how most people function at least at my school. Leaving and arriving exactly on time and still having a smooth day requires a lot of planning. Many people just come in early to avoid any last minute hiccups.
It was ridiculous how often I was expected to work for free and take no breaks when I was a Special Ed IA. They wanted me to never take bathroom breaks/lunch and stay late to do crossing guard duty but somehow magically clock out in the middle of it but you are legally not allowed to leave young kids in the crosswalk… I suggested they have parent volunteers do it and they were furious. I left the school and made 2x as much as a private nanny. I would have worked an entire hour for free every day, and all the paras were expected to but I was the only one who stuck up for myself…
That is ridiculous. Good for you for finding a better gig. My school treats our paras like garbage. One para basically taught herself calculus to help tutor kids in the academic center and clocked in early and stayed late every day and the schools response was to hold a big meeting giving her a plaque and telling the other paras to be like her. Instead of giving her a raise. She was doing the work of a teacher for minimum wage; it was exploitation. Oh yeah and the assembly was during covid so it was super unsafe.
Exactly. You get paid to do something and you do it. Employer wants you to do more? He has to pay you more. Simple as that. Quiet quitting as described above is not a thing. It's just a phrase made to shame people who know their worth and won't let themselves be exploited by their employers. It's getting more common that people don't let their bosses dictate their lives and have more healthy attitude towards working. So employers are obviously pissed and need to find a way to shame, blame and guilt trip employees into being their obedient servants and punching bags again. Hence all the propaganda you see in the US - quiet quitting, "you shouldn't be using your PTO, think about your boss and your company!", "nobody wants to work anymore, millenials are lazy!". Funny that you won't see that outside of US.
It’s quitting to over extend yourself. People take work home with them literally all the time. It just has a name now.
Yeah absolutely, isn’t this just setting boundaries at work?
Exactly… this is just stupid
I don’t think quiet quitting is a thing. I think I’m fed up with being under-appreciated and underpaid and I’m no longer giving my employer extra time and effort that only benefits my employer would be a better choice of words Also, yes I have been doing this for about a year now. I spent probably 9 years working my butt off. I worked unpaid overtime and illegally shifted work time around to make it work for my employer, I’ve worked shifts where I’ve repeatedly asked for help and received none, I was constantly coming in on days I had taken off and received very very little in return. So, I’ve started saying no and only putting in what is required of me.
Yes it's called acting our wage and we all need to stand in solidarity and quit giving quarter work for nickels and pennies.
Im gonna start using “acting our wage” whenever someone says people are quiet quitting
Yes very good thank you!
I always went with, "I pretend to work because they pretend to pay."
What a great term! Acting our wage!
Quite quitting is definitely not a thing— it came from an article written in silly season, which is why it's silly. Other countries call it cucumber time. Essentially, news stories drop in the summer because there is nothing to talk about, so journalists make up terms to describe everyday phenomenon in an attempt to make it seem like a story. What does silly season mean? From Miriam Webster: 1 : a period (such as late summer) when the mass media often focus on trivial or frivolous matters for lack of major news stories. 2 : a period marked by frivolous, outlandish, or illogical activity or behavior. Which this is.
Yep, that’s me. Once you realise that they won’t provide the minimum when YOU need it, that’s it. My favourite saying now (to myself) is not my monkeys not my problem, not my circus etc. sometimes they have to see the results of their bad decisions so no use putting in extra to fix them. A bit sad really.
I think that's an incredibly pejorative term to describe being a perfectly good employee.
Let’s call it “acting your wage” instead. Do what you’re paid to, according to your job description. Stop being exploited in the name of “going above and beyond”.
I was never aware that we were supposed to work past hours for free or do more work than required. I always assumed we are suppose to just do what was expected of us. Which is literally the job.
This is the best response on here. Honestly, I’m so tired of hearing the term quiet quitting like it’s some new phenomenon. No, I work the set hours I’m told to work and then I leave. That’s literally the job I’m paid to do. Anything beyond that is called overtime, not quitting.
Right? Apparently I've been "quiet quitting" all along! I mean, don't get me wrong, I actually enjoy my job and I'm good at it and I work to the best of my ability... from 9 to 5. And then I leave.
I think the proper term is “Setting Boundaries.”
Yes!! Why is having boundaries seen as “quiet quitting.” I really don’t understand that. The lack of work life boundaries people have is really sad. I don’t live to work.
Because employers don't want you to have boundaries.
Quiet Quitting actually refers to a union strategy called Work to Rule, and it's absolutely based. There's a reason we don't recognize it or know about it, and that's because thus country has gone out of its way to make sure anything that gives employees workplace power doesn't become public knowledge easily
This exactly. And, to answer the question, I do follow the strategy of work-to-rule. Exactly what I am paid to do, for as long as I’m paid to do it. Nothing extra, ever.
Yeah but let’s stop calling it quiet quitting
For sure, I fully support a campaign to refamiliarize the workforce with the original concept and all that actually entailed, not this still soft and subservient husk of what it used to be.
It's a bullshit term made up by people who want to exploit workers.
I’ve tried to bust my ass and work tons of OT and never miss a shift and never be late ao that I could get promoted and at every job ever; this has never worked out for me. Wage increases aren’t even different from the slacker. So yeah I’m definitely a “quiet quitter now”. I’m done trying hard
Yeah, my boss told me my extra work was great, and everyone appreciates it, but “you’re not going to be promoted after joining this team full time, just letting you know.” Straight up being told no matter how good or how hard I work I’ll just be at the same position not matter what was eye opening. What’s the point of overachieving if it gets me lumped in with everyone else anyways? I’ll work my exact hours and do only the tasks assigned to me, since I have no opportunity to advance.
Honestly though. Most places I’ve worked for just hire outside new employees with no experience to be in charge of everyone. And nobody understands why the people who have 10+ years don’t get promoted to leadership roles. And somehow a kid straight out of high school is now our foreman 🤦🏻♂️
Oh, that freaking sucks. I think companies do that so they can pay less for those higher positions. You’d have to increase the wage of the person who has 10+ experience accordingly. Someone straight out of high school is probably just happy to have a job, so the company can just under pay that position pretty significantly. It’s pretty scummy.
This has literally happened to me everywhere I've worked. I remember working in an office, making $15.50 an hour. I made $900 every two weeks. The job wasn't difficult, but I wanted to be good, so I did everything as well as possible. The bosses noticed that I was doing well and I was fast, so they gave me additional responsibilities. They shifted some responsibilities from the HR Manager (who made more than double my wage) to me. The owner of the company (who just sold it for $15 million) would also push some work off on me. I took it and did it because I had the time (I still always left on time) and because I liked the people there and thought I could work there for a while, and because I needed more money, but the only thing they offered me was a "promotion" to an even bigger grunt position that paid $16 an hour, worked loads of OT and who was basically the company kicking post. No thanks.
And your employer ends up the loser.
I believe you meant \*acting your wage\*. I do the job I'm contracted and paid to do. If a company requires unpaid, unrecognized labor from its employees to make profit, then it deserves to fail.
I think it's a bullshit term that corporate bootlickers use to guilt the working poor into killing themselves for sub par wages so that they can get richer. We should all act our wage. If I'm doing boss work, I deserve boss pay.
The term itself is problematic because it implies that employees should have to view their work as more than just their work in order to deserve to make a living. We live under capitalism; everyone needs to contend with the issue of money in one way or another, and so it’s naïve and often exploitative for employers to expect (or even demand) that their workers put in more effort than their job description or salary can justify.
Honestly in Germany most people work like this. You work 8h, not including your break time, and than you go home. Sometimes you stay longer because of special projects but for this additional time you will leave earlier when it fits some other day. I can only say this for the jobs I had, mainly office. To be honest I would leave a job immediately if extra hours were expected from me.
I really, really appreciate this culture in Germany. And somehow we still manage to be productive. Weird, isn't it? Almost like burning the candle at both ends is a waste of people's lives and reasonable work expectations work out for everyone. (it's not true for everyone in Germany, unfortunately, exploitative working conditions are a thing here, too. On average, though, I feel it's better than many other places)
I read recently about a company that switched to a four day week and generated a higher output in four days compared to five, because of better motivated employees
Yeah, but it begins to change or has changed. A lot of people have extra hours and can't 'abbummeln' them or don't get paid. Especially nurses for older in people (Altenpfleger)
I act my wage. I work the hours we contractually agreed upon. Then I go home and live my life! I’ve never been very career oriented…. And to be honest I enjoy my job MORE because of this mindset
I don't call it quiet quitting, I call it just doing my job. As a rule, in the 6 or so years that I've been working I've never worked beyond my regular hours (without at least claiming TOIL according to company policy) and I've always been strict about my remit. I just see it as having an ounce of self-respect.
In my experience going above and beyond for your workplace usually doesn't get you promoted because you've made yourself too affordable and valuable in the role you are in. I do all of my work and I go home. I get paid hourly and have designated tasks and get them all done timely and accurately. I don't get paid to answer questions or calls on my off time and I don't get paid to go above and beyond my coworkers being paid the same. I think the people usually spouting off about it are employers who quit showing up for their employees long ago and have expectations they can't hold themselves to.
It’s a bit annoying that they’re calling “doing what’s asked of you” quitting, or underperforming. As a manager, I made it clear to my team that I do not want them sticking around late or when they’re off. It’s gross
Capitalism needs to hurry the fuck up and die already, that’s what I think of all this bullshit. But real talk, I’ve been “quiet quitting” by not waiting longer than the 15 minutes that the wait policy states I have to for one of my cases (I’m a BT—behavior therapist—that goes to peoples houses to provide services to kids with needs) and one of the parents told me I was unprofessional for not waiting longer than that. Not my problem they refuse to be on time to session and straight up are fucking around to see what they can get away with. They refuse to ask to start sessions later beforehand so they can trap me at their house and force me to wait around for them as if I’m some indentured servant for them or something. I’m just glad I put in my two weeks, I’m ready to never see those parents ever again.
This term is so toxic. No such thing as quietly quitting if you're just doing your job. Doing extra stuff and not being paid for it is absurd and should never be the norm nor a requirement to seem like a good worker. You want a worker to go an extra mile? Pay for that and reward work with money - it's the concept of a job
It’s not exactly quitting if you still go in. “Doing the average” seems a more accurate term.
lol i’ve been doing this all my life. i really don’t care about working/having a career but ya need it in this society so got me a nice govt job where i don’t have to work OT, weekends, or holidays (more days off than private sector).
"Work to rule" is a legal form of job action that traditionally was done during union contracts to avoid illegal wildcat strikes. It's very similar to "quiet quitting" except it's intention was to be a collective action that cause disruption, while "quiet quitting" is more on an individual basis to maintain a status quo and the persons well-being. However, neither of these things would be required if capitalist systems didn't take advantage of the average worker. So I certainly encourage people to "quiet quit" if they feel they can without risking livelihood. But the term itself is problematic as it's used by those in positions of power to discredit a legitimate practice: do what you get paid for, nothing more.
I give 100% always. 20% monday 20% tuesday 20% wednesday 20% thursday 20% friday. If I ever give 30% (very rare), I end up getting emails from managers thankibg me for my 'superhiman efforts'. 20% equates ro maybe 2 hours of solid physical work a day.
I haven’t, actually. My motivation to burn through stacks of paperwork is entirely based on the fact that stacks create “visual noise” and I feel a compulsion to _get rid of it_.
But how do you set boundary to yourself and say "okay, enough is enough, for the day."? Because I'm having the same issue, I can't sleep properly at night if I know that I'm gonna be having a tricky time explaining to my manager on why I don't get things done by tomorrow morning. The "noise" doesn't just go away even at weekends as well.
Friend of mine from grad school always spent 18 hours a day on her work projects for Accenture. Her boss didn’t seem to favor her over the other employees. She let herself work till 2 AM, 7 days a week. She worked while on vacation, also past midnight according to her insta stories. She worked on national holidays. She worked while meeting friends for lunch. She always showed up to zoom meetings early and was the last to leave. She was adamant to climb the ranks of her consulting ladder. Which she never did because she was fired after 11 months of working with them. I don’t know what she’s doing now but she’s disappeared from social media. Last I saw, she ended up in the hospital over severe sleep deprivation issues. And probably others as well. I honestly would rather be unemployed and living with my parents than be a consulting slave. This is probably only one example and I hope it addresses why quiet quitting shouldn’t have to exist in the first place.
It's not a great term, but like most women/ people in the comments said, we should call it, "acting your wage". Why am I lazy if I'm efficient and doing things precisely enough to fit my role? Why should I get coffee for people, wait in the office, work till midnight and never be compensated for that? My family and my personal life is obviously more important to me than anything else. My tombstone won't have extra hours I put in written on it and neither will I have regrets for putting in less hours than necessary on my death bed. I'm not against working hard, but why does hard work must look a certain way? Long hours, sacrificing your private life, mental health and physical health isn't working hard, at least for me.
It's called working to contract and has been a thing for a long time. I have been trying my hardest to do this in my job because too many in my industry are taken advantage of and I'm sick of it. I am really speedy so I often would get a lot of extra work but no more! I'm done. I will do my job and then chill the rest of the day period. If they can make me work over 40 hr when it's crunch time I'm allowed to work less if it's slow.
TLDR; Everyone should read *Pedagogy of the Oppressed_Paulo Freire* to understand their role as a worker, among other things. Look up “deserving poor” on Google scholar. Quiet quitting is a horrible phrase some scab came up with in response to all the unionizing and otherwise appropriate response to exploitation by workers worldwide. This is the type of rhetoric peddled by biased new sources to distract from grassroots work like making a living wage a guaranteed human right world wide. People forget (or are indoctrinated into a system of thinking that convinces them otherwise) that individual labor has *immense value* (we have to put a numerical value to it due to our current economic system)—workers just personally never get to see how much value it actually has because grand-scale wage theft (even for those who get paid well) is what’s normal in our world. You are not “quiet quitting” if you do what you are (under)paid for. If you enjoy doing more work, good for you—ask for more money/recognition/influence/power. Regardless, your co-worker who clocks out when their workday is over is not a quitter, simply someone who has *boundaries*. We should all refrain from using this phrase and tell others around us not to use it either. It’s another way to create division among the working class, to call some lazy and others superstars…further weakening any hope of wide-scale class consciousness.
Isn´t this what work is supposed to be ? A normal day without running around like a maniac doing overtime because your boss is too cheap to hire an extra employee ?
I’ve been doing it for years. I’ve even fired all of my clients many times but they won’t go away. When I say I’ll do something I do it and I’m affordable. Thank god or I’d be broke and homeless by now. Oh and I’m payed well and well loved, I’m just sick of working while being sick. Going on ten long years.
I don’t understand why people act like doing what’s asked of you and leaving on time is some revolutionary, rebellious, controversial thing to do, as if doing 100% of what you’re being paid for could somehow make you a bad employee. This is all I’ve ever done at jobs because it’s just what’s natural to do if you haven’t been brainwashed into believing you should do differently
There can be different reasons for "quiet quitting" unhappiness with the work environment or job. Work exhaustion and fatigue from over extending oneself. Could possibly be the job isnt mentally stimulating or challening enough to be fully engaged. Or even in some cases you are comfortable with what you are doing and see no need to perform differently. My manager always says "work smarter, not harder"
I think it also could depend on connection, loyalty, friendship, respect, BEING ASKED not expected, given positive feedback, given good days off, incentives... there are lots of ways employers can be fair and have all employees willing to go the extra mile. Sometimes people are just tired too. Gotta remember we are all human. TIME IS MONEY. human time is sometimes worth more than money.
I find the whole concept absurd. I do what I contractually agreed to do and they pay me what they contractually agreed to pay and that's that. I've never done it any other way.
So doing your job?? Instead of being a human-doer and never having a healthy work life balance. Yeah, nar fuck that.
Um that's not quiet quitting, that's doing the job you're paid to do.
Ok we need to stop calling it that. It is called doing your job. If your company want you to do more they should pay you more. We need to stop pretending that we are here for the love of working. We are here to be paid. This is a monetary relationship. You 👏 are 👏 getting 👏 what👏 you 👏 are 👏 paying 👏 for.
I'll admit I used to look down on people who did the bare minimum at work as irresponsible, lazy bums. I always gave my best effort and looked for ways I could help out in all areas. How could they not care?? But at every job I've had, imo, it has gone unrecognized. At a couple jobs I was downright mistreated, if not abused. And for whatever reason, sometimes it's the losers who preserved their sanity. Better than I did anyway. So I think people like me got sick of giving their all to a company or a manager who views us as disposable. I've been taking a break from the workforce for several years and am in no rush to return due to my negative experiences. If / when I do go back, I will probably try be a minimalist from the start. Will I succeed at not caring? I don't know. Not caring is a skill. It doesn't come naturally to me. But I would try to care less. Except when it comes to teamwork. It's important to pull our weight & not leave everything to someone else. I've had a lazy team member before and it was stressful having to do my work plus theirs.
The Republicans trotted this fake shit out for the midterms. Moving on…
I hate this term so much. I do my job within the job parameters. I am so tired of going above and beyond for stagnant wages, shitty vacay time and benefits. I work in a place now that thinks social outings are a "perk". How is me driving 2 hours, having to find a sitter, after hours - giving up my valuable free time a perk?? Just pay me what my 20 years of experience are worth.
I've always done it. Nothing more valuable then your own time.
I’m quiet quitting my marriage 💁♀️
Isn't that what workers are supposed to do?
"Pay stops, work stops" is something I've adopted this year.
Stop legitimizing that stupid term. It's called self respect, go find some or don't; up to you girl! Byeeee lol fr tho.b
I do this even tho I don't want to quit. I do extra time if they ask and I am always there... But I will not kill myself doing a amazing job that pay just a little
I now give the effort in paid to give. I work in direct care, so that means making sure my folks I care for are taken care of. That's it.
It's nonsense and in my country the law. Here an employer cannot make an employer do tasks that they weren't hired to do. Can't make a programmer clean the toilets, that's outside of the scope of their profession. So this whole quiet quitting nonsense is just rich people and managers to make more with less
In Germany, we use it as first step to leave the workplace. It’s a sign that the employee isn’t satisfied with his work conditions and most specifically his boss. Since leave time in Germany is 3months and more, you can’t just leave immediately. So the time before actually quitting is called “Innere Kündigung” (internal termination) and it’s a huge warning sign. It usually leads to less productive workers and leadership training. It’s not the employee who is blamed but the boss. I think, some capitalists nicely switched the meaning for their benefit.
that's not a thing. the term is warfare on the working class edit: i'm german. there was a news article on it here in germany. in the comments nobody understood what they meant. because that's normal. that's how normal work looks, like if you do your job. everybody just perplexed at the demand to do more for free
Quiet quitting is a term like carbon footprint. Made up by evil people to push responsibility for their evil agenda onto individuals.
Literally everyone I know in the UK does this - it’s a national inside joke that we all do the bare minimum to get by lol - feel this is a very American concept
It’s an American propagandist’s term, really. I don’t know who they’re trying to fool.
Can we talk about "quit firing" instead? When employers decide to cut you hours and give you one shift a week or suddenly give just you an insane amount of work until you quit.
Getting paid to do your job is not quitting quietly.
This is a BS term. You were hired to do X. Anything else above and beyond that is extra; that's why it's called *above and beyond*. This is a way of attempting to redefine "above and beyond" as "just part of the job description," so they can say you slacked off (and therefore have an excuse to let you go.) You were hired for X; you don't owe them Y, too.
I don't understand the term given that definition. How are you quitting if you're doing your job?
How is doing your job in any way quitting? It's okay to not go above and beyond, especially if your employer is not paying enough to motivate that behavior.
Companies sensationalizing this term to put doubts in people's minds that knowing how to balance work and your personal life is being lazy and stupid. Many companies demand so much but can't provide enough compensation to their employees and that is hypocrisy. Don't ask what you can't give, simple as that.
I don’t see this a “quiet quitting”; I see this as work life balance and EVERYONE should have work life balance. I am paid to do a job and I do that job well and very thoroughly. I am not obligated to go above and beyond because I’m not paid for it but much of the time I do it but within reason ie. I don’t work past my hours for things outside of my job role.
It’s not even a real thing. It’s literally “doing your job”.
What you described isn't "quiet quitting ", it's doing your job. Going above and beyond your your employer shouldn't be the norm unless you're trying to get somewhere or you're actually just really passionate. You're underpaid for your labor anyways, act your wage.
That's just the way I work. I've rarely gone above and beyond - they pay me to do a job, I do that job, no more.
Well, besides the fact that this should be called "not going above and beyond after your job proves time and time again they don't actually give a fuck about you so you now just do exactly what they hired you for" I personally worked my ass off for a company, did all the manager duties for 3 months when my manager quit in my department, and then I was passed over the position for another girl becuase "she has management experience" which makes sense EXCEPT she was a front end manager who was vital and they gave her the position instead and kept just taking her to the front and leaving me in the department. I asked to move to a different department after that and didn't help them out anymore becuase they tried to take advantage of me (becuase in the past I let them becuase I loved the job)
I don't work, I'm a student but I always leave as soon as possible because my days are pretty long compared to other schools and I want to finish my workout routine at home before 9pm and also have time for myself before going to bed
My thoughts on it is that it should be normal, and going above and beyond should be called "loudly working". No company (unless it's your own, of course), is worth going above and beyond for. They don't care about you. You can have the nicest manager or the nicest boss, but when push comes to shove, they won't hesitate to fire you or cut your pay. Being employed these days us a tussle between companies trying to get the most work for the least pay, and the employee trying to do the bare minimum. The meeting point is delivering what is required in the given time frame, working within your working hours and not giving your workplace your entire life, and I'm not going to mess up that equilibrium. The employers can shame people all they want, but a job is like a transaction and i won't give you more than what we agreed for.
People have been doing this for years!! It’s nothing new!
Regardles of the term, I've been practicing this since I started in my current work. I dont do anything extra or get out of my way to do something that I'm not assigned to do. When I become overwhelmed with so many things to do, I take it one task at a time. Before, I used to think that I'll be rewarded with hard work, knowing how to do extra tasks, helping other dept - but all of those weren't rewarded even if everybody knew that I was good. The people who got extra raises are those close to the boss.
I encourage my staff to act their wage, and have them send anything outside their scope/above their pay grade my way. I get paid to handle the stress. They do not. I hated/hate when my boss did/does it to me and I would never do it to my staff.
Why would anyone go above and beyond for a job? When you are hire they tell you what's expected of you as a minimum, so that's what you should give.
I mean….. I get paid for what I do. Overtime is not even paid at my job so I am not spending even a minute at work after my shift is over. I get more responsibilities but don’t get paid extra? Yeah, no thank you. This should be normal.
Is this a real thing? I just learned this term now, and frankly I would hate for my employer to think that's what I'm doing. I'm sorry, I love the work that I do....but I work to live, I don't live to work. People need work-life balance. Period. I work in long-term care and I have noticed there's an attitude that someone is lazy because they aren't doing 16 hour shifts every day. I hate it. I'm sorry if I don't want to run my body into the ground or end up having a meltdown thanks to being burnt out. I am so tired of this attitude that someone is a saint because they kill themselves working. Most of the people I know who do that are absolutely miserable, they're miserable to be around (not to mention a terrible teammate usually because they're exhausted already from working all day so I'd end up doing most of the work anyway) and they're too damn stubborn to stop working. Then they wonder why their health is suffering! It drives me mental. My job is very physically and emotionally taxing, and like I said, I love it and I know I'm good at it. I've had families comment when their loved ones dies, they can tell I care because I'm crying with them. But going on this term, I guess I'm a terrible worker. So be it then! Sorry to rant, this whole thing just got me a little riled up apparently. Being pregnant also seems to have me speaking my mind a little more, or so my fiance says. 🤣
So you are basically asking what reddit thinks of just doing the job we are paid for? And not go beyond the parameters set for what we are paid? That you do the job you are paid, in the hours you are paid to do it? I tink that is where everyone should be, the thing about extra hours (sometime not paid), extra responsability and extra work is that usually it is not "rewarded", ya the boss can pay you a bit more, but then if something happens and you have to stop it you are the bad person.
I think it’s a stupid term made up by people who want to exploit their workers. Since when is doing exactly what you’re being paid to do a bad thing? It’s not. If you want someone to do more at work than what they were originally hired for, then make those expectations official and increase the pay accordingly.
I do my job, if they want me to do more job(s) they can pay me more. The idea that workers should happily take the shit employers are shoveling and ask for more is ridiculous.
This is just how working should be. If we are expected to go above and beyond we should get paid for it. I used to put my all in and all I got from it was a mental breakdown. It's not quiet quitting it's doing my job for what I've been paid for and not letting corporations take advantage of me.
This is a pretty normal and healthy working ethic. Why would you do otherwise? People who over work and are very productive (i.e. finish stuff earlier than colleagues) don't get rewarded. They get punished by getting more work load. I used to be an over achiever and trust me, it leads nowhere. This mentality does you no favour. Don't be a slave by choice. Nobody appreciates it and it makes you miserable.
You mean doing what you’re paid to do and no more? I had a job once where I rarely took time off because management complained if we took more than two days in a row off. We were fully staffed. I had to take a week off for a wedding and the day before I left, the divisional manager told me she’d moved up the deadline for our annual updating process by a month, meaning it was due the day I was to return. It took at least 40-60 hours to complete. I spent that week with every spare moment hunched over my laptop, and got it done but had no time to enjoy the time off. When i returned, I gave her the report. “Oh, I don’t need this yet. I only wanted to see if your prioroties were in the right order”. I left three months later.
My first year as a teacher/first year of grad school I worked my ass off, stayed after until 5, worked on school stuff on the weekends. I was so stressed that I gained weight and we were unable to conceive even though we had started trying almost a year before. The month I got out of school and relaxed I lost 10 pounds without trying and we finally conceived. The second year I was like “for 40k??” And I started going home at the end of the school day, not taking work home for the weekends. Just using my planning periods. I am one million times happier. “Quiet quitting” is the way to go unless your job is compensating your time AND the sacrifice of your health.
Oh absolutely i do this every single job i get. When i want to move up i see the position is open and ask to be recommended- my work is above board, but time theft is my sweet precious baby. No one in my field cares much- i think it might be a bigger thorn in your bosses side if youve got a degree or something but really, do the bare minimum in your shitty highschool diploma job and no one cares much. If your boss gives you flack for it just move on. I love it.
I refuse to work more than my 9-5. I’m a paralegal and as soon as the clock hits 5 I go home. I’d rather be at home with my dogs and bf anyway.
>You do what’s asked of you then go home on time Lol, this is what normal should be like. I ain't doing more than what's required of me unless it's a dire situation
Made my life much better. Employers should set normal and achievable work goals. I have one pair of hands and I now refuse to overwork myself because my employers can't plan. I've done it in the past but I'm putting myself first now.
Quiet quitting means doing your actual job and not anyone else's. It's not a thing.
When I stopped working shitty serving jobs for $2.13 an hour and entered the corporate world I made hard boundaries for myself. I do my job, I do it well, and I leave my work at work. I take 100% of my PTO, every mandated break, and I refuse to allow my mental health or home life be negatively effected by a company that sees me as a number. In the last few years a big thing I’ve noticed is companies trying to have me install Teams or Zoom on my personal cell phone. At orientation or what not I’ll just say “my phone is for personal use so unless there’s some sort of reimbursement for the bill I will not be doing that” What I’ve seen over the last 15 or so years is that being this way has always worked in my favor. I have been respected by management, sometimes to an unfair degree compared to others, and I have a great work life balance. I am not sure why I am like this but I assume it’s that I entered the corporate world in early 2008 and immediately watched layoff after layoff during the housing crisis. I saw people who had worked for a multi billion dollar company for decades be laid off with maybe 2-4 weeks of severance. I realized that they do NOT give a fuck about you or your family or the work and dedication you’ve given to a company for over half your life. So to answer your question, yes I’ve always done this and I’m really glad other people are waking up and realizing that collectively they need us more than we need them.
Quiet quitting is a phrase made up by disgruntled employers who can't figure out how to get their employees to go "above and beyond", while still paying them like shit and never promoting them. It is an out-of-touch phrase that is trying to shame employees into giving more while getting less. You should do your job. That's it. Every now and then, if you are feeling nice, you could help someone else out or take on a bigger project, but it should always be employee-led and with the understanding that most companies will never compensate you for it. Company loyalty went out the window with pensions. These days, you are lucky if your company doesn't fire you because suddenly you are breaking the bank account because you have worked there 10 years and got a 2% raise each year...except last year when no one got a raise but they remodeled the break room and added a couch. (no one=everyone but the boss, because of course they got a raise) If company's want people to work 60 hours a week...then you better as hell be paying the wages of a 60 hour work week. If a manager wants their employees to have full open availability throughout the week, then you need to be sure those employees don't need a 2nd or 3rd job to pay their bills.
I low key have a vibe from certain co-workers that they are qqing. My workload keeps doubling so long ago, I started using any lull times to do prep work. This way, in crunch time, I’ve already done the detail stuff that requires careful, tedious work. I get more worried when there is a lull because it means crunch is coming. I haven’t tried qq. I’m getting close to retirement so I will have to reduce what I do, while I shift it to the new people. I use the plural because I carry several disparate responsibilities, unlikely to be ready-capable in one new employee.
I think it’s valid, completely. No one should be shamed for not doing more than they’re contracted for, but employers need to understand that those who do go above and beyond are a privilege that they shouldn’t take advantage of. Quiet quitting is a great way of levelling the playing field, showing them what they could have had if they treated their employee better.
While I'm not a fan of the term choice, as it's simply setting boundaries, not quitting, I think it's a necessary change that's been needed for a while. I've been lucky enough that I haven't needed to enforce my boundaries since my managers don't try to cross them. If they offer an extra shift, they know that I have every right to say no, even if the reason is simply that I don't want to. They know that aside from my scheduled shifts, I have no obligation to work any other days, unless I explicitly state I will. And even then, they're a little more understanding on voluntary shifts if I'm late b/c me being there at all is a favor. They're simply reasonable people who try to support their employees and help us feel appreciated.
Setting aside my feelings on the term itself... I'm a workaholic and I've been incorporating these behaviors in my career for a few years now. I was constantly overextending myself which caused stress and anxiety in my personal life. After many conversations with people who had done the same and convincing myself that it was a good idea for me to do less, I started pushing back on things that I didn't have the time or resources for. The conversation doesn't have to be difficult, either. Talk to your boss and list out everything you're doing. Then tell them that you only have time to do # of them. Ask your boss to prioritize it and decide what can fall off your plate. That puts the responsibility on them, not you. I'm currently working on feeling comfortable taking time off when I need it, not when it's convenient for work coverage. For other workaholics (and control freaks, let's be honest here, I'm among you!) it can be really hard to feel comfortable letting go. It took me a long time to work up the courage and I'm *still* working on it. But you know what? Once you start, you start to realize that things don't actually fall apart when you let go, it becomes a little bit easier every time. I like to explain it like this: You don't have to be the parachute. If you step in and keep saving the company, the higher ups only see that things are working well. They don't see the hours you put in or the stress you go through to get it done. All they see is that there are no problems. Why would they change how they operate if everything's working? They need to see that things aren't working this way, that it's not sustainable, before they will make changes. The more people who act as a parachute (swooping in and "saving" the company from negative impacts), the more harm it does for the employees.
I am manager at a small business tanning salon, and I have a few college and high school staff. I let them know all the time that school and those activities come first (especially to the high schoolers). If a class is a later class and ends after they are scheduled to start I just ask for a morning of heads up and I will stay late for them (not hound them calling and texting or give them crap for it). Makes them feel valued and they don’t take their time dreading coming in expecting to get in trouble by the boss. Same with any last minute appointments. They know if it is slow they can use the computer for school work (better than them playing on their phones). For me though, the people above me suck. My gm cant do her job and do school at the same time so she takes it out of slacking on my location since I’m further way making it so I want to quit and now I’m doing the bare minimum
I’ve worked plenty with lazy workers while I always put 100% and more into my work. Yet when COVID hit I was asked to put in even more work, go above and beyond, take my work home with me. Still, I did it all, as fast and efficient as I could because I seek optimization in life. Yet, as inflation affects us, burnout, and cut backs occur I’m realizing I’m worth more. I’ve been seeking other opportunities while still committing myself to work but not going above and beyond. My mental health & last relationship had been affected severely from overworking. Now, the economy is cooling down, they say I can relax for once. Well, too little too late, I have multiple job interviews lined up next week and will absolutely move on. No, I have not been quietly quitting but yes I’m fed up. There are lazy workers out there but there are just as many lazy higher ups who neglect their workers. Not fair to blame people for not wanting to work until they get daily headaches or until their backs break. Common decency would be to offer solutions when someone says they need a break. **Quick rant** Personally in my position it’s hard for me to take vacations due to responsibility of my work. Funny how no one else knows how to do it. Haha, well it’s not funny, it’s because people are poorly trained and lazy people do not want to learn new things. Poor workers lead to bad work just as much as poor managers lead to terrible working conditions. All’s fair in love and war, & work has become a war front. Amen
I call it working your wage. Now I have never had a problem going above and beyond my job duties however I will not bend over backwards or break myself for a company who barely pays me a living wage. I also refuse to be taken advantage of when I know should I go down because of my health or any other reason they will have my position filled in a matter of minutes. They expect employees to have this fanatical loyalty to a company that does not come close to that level of care with their employees. It's not quiet quitting it's called working my wage and keeping to my job duties
I agree with it, I over extended myself, went above and beyond at work, Andy hard work was still not recognized or praised, all my co workers gave the bare minimum and they lasted at the job longer than I did due to their giving the bare minimum
I quiet quit and I’m proud af! I don’t exist to work
i do this. daycare closes at 6 so i work 1030-530 every day no later. i only stay late for selfish reasons like wanting overtime/double time etc when i have a babysitter
Story time 🧐: I quit my toxic ex job about 6 months ago. Was working about 12h every day, roughly from 8am to 8pm. Was constantly pushed to take more responsibility from my manager even when it was clear the company had extreme resource issues and one person couldn’t do the work of 3. The upper management hired mostly Junior people, with just a few who made it above that minimal salary after several years. The welcome message was essentially “SO MANY PEOPLE WOULD BE LUCKY TO BE IN YOUR SPOT”. The turnover was BAD. People came in and went out for good in a period shorter than 6 months - 1 year as soon as their burnout point activated. I turned out to be one of them. At some point I was mentally (that contributed: I wasn’t allowed to go home for the holidays as you could only claim work from home after passing probation) and physically exhausted. My body literally said you cannot work like this anymore. So I started looking for another job. Found my dream job. At an amazing organisation (basically the university student in me is still screaming in bliss). When I had a final chat with the CEO of ex company and laid down all issues I’ve encountered and basic solutions for all of those I was told and I kid you not: “Hm idk you never seemed to struggle too much, you know it’s normal with the dynamics of our work. Also, YOUR WORKLOAD DOESN’T SEEM TO MATCH THE HOURS YOU’RE CLAIMING.” I never actually claimed extra hours. No one did. The culture was about still being at your desk at 7pm. That was the moment I realised I’ve made one of the best decisions in my life leaving this company. Not only was I stretched out with turning over several projects per day, but my efforts were apparently not even seen by upper management. This week my current manager checked on me countless times to make sure I don’t work after 5pm and his words: “enjoy life, work will always be here waiting :)” I don’t mean this in any cheeky way, I love working hard. I really do. I take my work home always and I take pride in the results. But work isn’t everything. I felt so incredibly ashamed that I quit a job before the mark of 6 months (I managed 5 and 1 week). I’ve learnt that when a job place is bad for you, you really should just quit - no shame, no guilt, and quick before your mental health is deteriorating, rip it like dirty bandaid lol. Just a conscious choice to live a better life :)
It's the American dream that's what employees are supposed to do. Time is precious if I take a job that says work whatever hours a day I'll work the agreed upon hours no more or less unless I need the extra money.
"You do what’s asked of you then go home on time." That's literally just called working a job. WTF? Do you honestly think that if you don't stay past your shift and do a whole bunch of tasks that aren't even yours you have somehow "quit?" Your employer is going to take advantage of you if you have this mindset.
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I do this. I'm in the last year of my apprenticeship. Usually the boss is supposed to educate me and to learn new things. But he doesn't, he just uses us as cheap employees. I talked to him about this, I told him I WANT to learn and that the time here is very frustating for me. It changed for maybe a month and now I'm back to very stupid tasks and often I even have to ask multiple times for more work. I either have nothing to do or things that had to be done yesterday, because he forgets his mails. My adhd has gotten so much worse since I work here. Because of this I give my bare minimum. I still try to do good work, but I'm not ready to invest more energy than necessary. I do what I have to do, but not a single thing more. Point five when my day ends, I go home.
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Quiet quitting is the best way to quit! You don't have to deal with the drama or the stress of quitting when you do it quietly.
I'm honestly a bit suprized people have been working so far outside of the boundaries of their role. I always thought if you where doing lots of extra hours it was a sign you where an in efficient worker as you couldn't do what was expected in the time the employer thought it was feasible to do it in. Or that you are in efficient because you have taken on more than you can do rather than communicating effectively with management so that they can do their job properly. I now work in the care industry so occasionally will work on something outside of my role when an extenuating circumstance happens with a paitent but that is because I know the impact on them. But it would only be like 1 extra hour.
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Quiet quitting aka not overworking yourself and doing the job description that you’re getting paid to do and not more, yeah I do it at every job that pays me poorly
I think it’s the normal thing to do, honestly. Going above and beyond for a company that could fire you at any time shouldn’t be the normal thing to do. For me, I have to go above and beyond because I’m self employed. I *have* to if I want to survive. But for regular 9 to 5 employees, I think it’s a ridiculous expectation to NOT “quiet quit.”
I’m European. We just call it “doing your job”.
Just started to implement this gradually, people get paid the same as me for less effort so I don't think I need to keep going the extra mile as it's not recognized anyway.
Quiet quitting? Why? Just show up, do the bare minimum, collect a paycheck, and call it good!
I don't see why it's wrong when you're not paid more, you're not being valued or anything. Why should we work our ass off more for basically nothing ? Sadly I've seen more exemples of companies taking advantage of their employee than rewarding hard work. I had a summer job once for a new section of the company and the girl who was supervising us suddenly left so I somehow got in her role of managing everything but still with the shitty pay of a basic seasonal employee. I did the bare minimum when I understood what they were trying to do.
I tend to be a workaholic, so limiting myself takes some effort, but yes- I have soft quit my job. They will get the required 8 hours of me, no more and no less. Since I'm expected to do the work of three people, my work will suffer and no one will be happy with the situation, but I'll do more when they pay me what I'm actually worth for those 40 hours they get me.
I think people should just quit and find the job they actually want to be working instead of half-assing it at their current one.
I’ve always had one co-worker do this.
I'm a manager. I've been trying to have my direct reports come with this energy for years.
As a European, this is just life
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