To think that the “quiet quitting” trend is just an excuse for people who are too lazy to do their jobs?

[DandyLeader]

If you’re “quitting” without quitting, maybe you should just leave instead of draining the life out of the workplace.

I think “quiet quitting” was mainly a media fantasy but if it ever happened it would have been at the height of the COVID tech boom when companies couldn’t recruit white collar Gen-zs fast enough and would do anything to keep them.

We live in a very different world now and the employers have the power.

I am applying it to motherhood on the sly....its a project in progress...slowly backing awaybfrom doing so much for them all over the past 6 months...its going very well.

No, I think generally it’s a predictable response to people being expected to do more and more for less and less, in worsening conditions. Life is increasingly intolerable for a great many workers and this is a result of them trying to survive and claw back a little time and space to be human beings.

Every workplace has at least one eager beaver with nothing in their life outside work, and they tend to miss the point and adopt your attitude, OP.

I think many are the kind who do what they can get away with, but some are those with real grievance.

I’ve always done just enough work to not get sacked. Didn’t know there was a word for it until recently

Yup.

People's wages are buying them less and less and many people of my age (late 40s) are realising that no matter how much work they put in they are not going to have a better standard of living than their parents had. They are having to pay a fortune to put their children through uni, worrying that those children will never get on the property ladder, perhaps caring for aging parents, and all while less and less likely to be able to afford nice holidays/meals out etc.

Meanwhile, younger people are just not willing to subsume themselves in work at all and prioritise mental health and wellbeing. But to be fair, they're not quiet quitting so much as not really starting in the first place.

To be honest, I've worked in the same place for 20 odd years and the things that have happened over the last couple of years have made me regret that I have given so much of my time and energy over the years. I do my job but I'm done spending so much of my evenings and weekends doing 'extras' that seemed like essentials at the time.

No, they do do their jobs, they just don’t go above and beyond.

I’m not paid enough to go “above and beyond”. I work fairly hard and I’m a supportive and respectful colleague. That’s enough.

Edited to add that I wasn’t responding to @Cabbagefamily - we coincidentally used the same phrase!

Totally agree with the post above. I’ve climbed the ladder but am increasingly not sure it’s worth it.
I see other people seem to earn as much doing less and I often wonder if I’ve been a bit of a mug with all the discretionary effort stuff.

I also think the world of work has really shifted. Today I dealt with a complaint from someone pretty new and junior who was really aggrieved that we hadn’t provided them with the armchair they felt their office was lacking.. the entitlement is astounding. I would never ever have behaved like that at any stage of my career.

I think that attitude is influenced by there being no longer an end in sight - pension goalposts keep moving, people can't afford to save into private pensions to retire at a reasonable age - you have to find a way to cope with the very real possibility you'll be working till you drop dead; or at least until you are too unwell or old to have any kind of life.

I did leave.

after all, there are so many maths teachers schools have their pick, right?

I quiet quit at my last place way before I was actually able to leave. I’m not lazy 😂

I’m more than happy to go above and beyond for an employer - as long as I’m getting something back from them.

If an employer is rubbish or the work environment is toxic and I get nothing back, why should I bother? As long as time doing the bare minimum of the job, then that’s fine imo.

I am currently working on quiet quitting. I work hard and do an excellent job. Just am no longer going above or beyond unless it directly benefits me. There’s no chance of promotion where I work and I’ve gone as far as I can. There’s no incentive to prove myself anymore. So I will sit back while keeping the quality up as far as I need to until I can retire.

Ooh I like the term quiet quitting, I slogged my guts out for a past employer, until I made myself ill and I eventually left. Now I put in enough effort to stay above my targets, but not so much that people notice too much! .... I never work overtime, have no interest in promotion to manager, just happy to work my paid hours and leave on time. I've found my work life balance at last!

Maybe they are lazy, so what? So are most mammals, my cats spend 20 hours a day sleeping. When did work become the only thing to do of value anyway? Why would they quit when it's compulsory for adults of working age to work? I'm sure people would complain if they were on benefits not working. We have to do some sort of work if we can't support ourselves and our families another way but we don't have to work like slaves and jump through increasingly ridiculous hoops for our employers power trip. Quiet quitting means doing your job to the hours and letter specified, no more. Work is a means to an end that's all, they don't own me.

Its not a trend though is it? There's always been lazy ppl who have done bugger all work.

Some ppl overwork until they realise the company doesn't care appreciate them.

Some ppl work v hard because they feel under threat of redundancy.

I've worked in public service (education and now Local Authority) for my whole career.
Long hours, giving my all, supporting vulnerable children, families and communities, making a difference in really tough times …

Yet, I may as well ‘quietly quite’ as the media and general public portray that we all have anyway.
I'm so demotivated by the ‘blame the council’ mentality and the complete lack of understanding of the effects of Conservative government policy, rhetoric and lack of funding on the quality of our lives.

I think it’s a consequence of shit working conditions and COL. When your employer just dangles the carrot of promotion/raise/bonus for years, there comes a point where you get fed up.

Also, when your living standard gets worse because pay rises don’t keep up with inflation, it kind of makes you not want to put the extra effort in.

Only working the hours you are contracted for and only doing the responsibilities you are paid for, is not lazy.

If you think it’s lazy, you are either part of the reason the employees are quiet quitting or you’re being taken for a mug by doing extra yourself. Your employer has no loyalty to you and will show that given the first opportunity. You don’t owe them unpaid hours of your life. You don’t owe them anything - you are contracted to do a certain level of work with a certain number of hours (sometimes they expect too much for the contracted hours), you do that work and receive compensation in the form of a wage. That’s it, that’s where the loyalty ends. On both sides.

If you’re “quitting” without quitting, maybe you should just leave instead of draining the life out of the workplace.

If someone working their contracted hours is draining the life out of the workforce, that company has some serious issues with staff capacity, staff wellbeing and feeling valued. That has nothing to do with the individual and everything to do with the company. I imagine that same company has company values that are something along the lines of “integrity, honesty, flexibility and compassion” and not reflecting any of those values.

I think it can be.

I work as a manager in a sort of semi-public sector service, and I keep expecting my staff to quiet quit.

The sector has always been a little low paid, which they get away with because people feel "called" to the work. (A bit like social work.) Over the last few years they seem to want more and more of us, but fewer and fewer raises. Now, they are basically at minimum wage.

I would not blame them at all for quiet quitting, though personally I think they need to unionize. But that would be another % of their paychecks gone.

Oh do come on, 200 years ago kids as young as 5 were going to work in factories as chimney sweeps for no pay ie Slavery. Under 100 years ago we were at war.. 16 hour work days in factories. Smoggy cities with no care about how unhealthy it was. No central heating. Sexual harassment in the workplace accepted well past the 90s. Pay gaps. Homophobia. Ableism. Outdoor loos (need I say more).

What about all these things (and there are tonnes more I could add) screams that people now are expect to do more and more for less and less.

yes there was a period of upswing which lots of the boomer generation gained from financial stability wise, but there’s also a lot of crap they had to put up with and every other generation before that had it worse! I’m not saying things are good right now - they’re not, they’re fucking crap, but we really need to be careful pushing this narrative that things are going downhill when they’re actually not. Sadly, the common man’s every day situation is currently at the top of the bloody hill and in order to keep climbing it we need to be conscious of how far we’ve come.

Why should people literally run themselves ragged for a job that would be replace them in a heartbeat if they got hit by a bus or they thought they could find a way to let go if they could hire a mate instead? And so on.

Why should people literally run themselves ragged topping up the execs at the time who make 100x what people at the bottom make?

No one should be working for free. And no one should be working full time yet still be unable to make basic ends meet.

Omg me too it’s been tremendous

Isn't it just a modern term for working to rule? Not going above and beyond basically.