Quiet quitting

[Floofydawg]

I've had enough of my job. Am 54, tired, burnt out and sick of the corporate bullshit. My workplace is becoming toxic in terms of the expectation on people. I want out, but with 20+ years service I want a payout. I'm quiet quitting - has anyone ever been successful in getting redundancy by doing that? I've even considered getting signed off with stress. I'm not sleeping, and it's not good for my health.

@Pinkprescription that sounds absolutely terrible. And not dissimilar to where I work.

Hey I have no advice but wanted roto apologise for the rudeness from some posters. I hope you find a way out. Perhaps you can look for a job that follows your interests more than your role blow so you can enjoy the last few years of your working life. (If you can afford a paycut and that's necesary).

Make sure that you have very clear SMART objectives and work to those.

Keep evidence and stats to show you are doing what has been asked /agreed. Know your contract and the staff handbook inside and out.

Do your job and only your job.

If they don't like it, they can offer you a compromise agreement to go.

It's actually a completely acceptable workplace stance. All this 'value add' 'bring your whole self to work ' stuff really grates after 35+ years of working.

I get it. I'm late 50s 😂😂😂

If you receive a redundancy payment at 55, can you sign on for job seekers benefit in the uk?

I'm curious. In ireland, people over 55 can receive a chunky payout and then immediately get €232 pw for 9 months. That's before that prsi related benefit runs out and they're means tested. I'd love to be in those shoes. Working and getting nowhere is tiring, mentally, especially after a few decades of It. Being overlooked, passed over, cornered. Given the silent treatment in one instance.... It's not easy to "just leave". But in fact, I have changed job a few times, so I'd never be in line for a big redundancy payment.

I'd check out where a redundancy payout would leave you in terms of prsi credits, do you need a certain minimum number to get the full state pension??
What are the rules. It might be better to quietly quit at 58 for example.

@TheCoolOliveBalonz I like how you phrased that.

@ChanelNo19EDT I have my full NI credits already. Don't know about the job seekers allowance though.

Well, if you're officially 80% then you are paid to work 4 days a week.

Younger people get to take parental leave (or at least here in ireland they can take PL) why can't older people go 80%?

I was 90% at one point, every second Monday off, but I wasn't given less work. So I was in no way slacking. I wasn't allowed to be paid less for doing less. I was only allowed to be paid less!

I worked to rule. Not to make a point, I just didn't want to work longer than I had to and didn't really care about job progression I also worked part time.

It certainly didn't result in any greater likelihood of redundancy. Just meant I was overlooked for pay rises (which I didn't mind, I thought it was fair enough).

The only thing that would have resulted in redundancy was when they actively announced they wanted to make some people redundant and asked for volunteers. I didn't volunteer though as I was pregnant and wanted the maternity pay which was worth more.

I'm not sure why quiet quitting is seen as a bad thing. I'm doing it now. I'm working my contracted hours and doing the best i can while I'm there. I log in and out on the dot, i don't offer overtime, if something doesn't get finished, it waits till the next day.

I'm not working for them for free. I'm also on 80% hours and any attempt to give me more than 80% of the work is refused.

Quiet quitting is taking back control in a toxic workplace.

In my 20s I worked somewhere where there were lots of over 50s with long service (and final salary pensions) hanging on for redundancy and doing the bare minimum, it was the most demoralising environment, luckily for them several rounds of redundancies meant they got their wish, I left without getting made redundant because I was losing the will to live with it all, do you think it's just you or are others in the same boat?

Yes you can get contribution based JSA after redundancy (provided you've paid NI in the 2 preceding tax years). That's true even if the redundancy is voluntary.

I wouldn't aspire to being on JSA though, it's about 82 a week and you will be forced to apply for jobs you don't want that are upto 90 minutes commute away and to do that 35 hours a week and document it all.

Redundancy isn't great either. I was made redundant twice in 18 months from jobs I hated and it was still a massive upset. The second one was callous and brutal, the first one was a small company and they were more humane.

It's the fact that working the hours you are paid for can be seen as 'underperforming' that is so wrong in employment. It needs everyone to stand up to it and work to rule. OP isn't suggesting not doing her work well or skiving at all. She's suggesting doing what she's paid for and no more.

i never work late, nor come in early either.

Couldn't you escalate it higher up? Is there a pattern that they'd quietly let go if just doing what they're paid for?

I'm about to leave a job that ended up breaking me, so I understand that MH comes first.

Quiet quitting = only working my hours. Not putting in the extra mile.

Some of us have only ever done that, certainly on a regular basis. DH and I didn't have much choice with small children anyway as we had to leave on the dot for childcare.

This is the issue with raising retirement age. I get the thought process - life expectancy has increased so it superficially makes sense. However, it doesn't account t for the fact that you might live longer but you are still getting older and have less energy/resilience/tolerance for bullshit. In my experience that still starts in mid 50s. When you could retire 5-10 years after it started it wasn't so bad...it's stretching out now.

I think you have misunderstood what quiet quitting is. QQ is doing the job, but just doing the job - not volunteering for extra stuff, not going above and beyond. I have been doing it for a while. I get the work done and I do it well. But that's all their getting from me.

Plus not even considering children, I always have lots of stuff going on outside work. Hobbies, keeping fit, socialising. If a job starts to subsume the rest of life I just become quickly stressed and unwell, and if a job is doing me harm like that there is nothing quiet about my quitting, I look for one with a better balance.

@cardibach This is exactly the position I am in, state pension age for women jumped from 60 to 66. I was given a couple of years notice, but I always assumed I would retire at 60. I was made redundant at 58, so retired even earlier and am now 63.

However, it doesn't account t for the fact that you might live longer but you are still getting older and have less energy/resilience/tolerance for bullshit. In my experience that still starts in mid 50s.

I'm 48 and have never had much tolerance for bullshit, but certainly not in the last 8 years. I was diagnosed with endometriosis when I was 40 so I stopped fucking around with my health soon after that and workplace stress was a big part of that equation. I've got a lot more energy now eight years later but far less tolerance of bullshit than ever, and so much more confidence than in my 30s.

To be fair when OP started working, it was 6 years off retirement

If you get signed of with stress the company will wait for you to take early retirement rather than make you redundant...

I worked for the last year doing only exactly the job I had been moved into rather than give me redundancy. There were 8 of us to do the work for 3 people, so I literally did my work which took 2/3 hours at most and then the rest of the time I did a couple of courses online and sat back and relaxed. After 12 months I left as the 12 months pay was twice as much as my redundancy would have been.

There is more than one way of skinning a rabbit

I would adopt a positive attitude, think about what you want to do with the rest of your life and make an action plan to find a new job, something that is going to invigorate and excite you.

I was made redundant at 53 during the Covid Pandemic after 22 years and it has taken me almost 4 years to get another job at a similar level and salary.

Only 4 out of 10 managers will hire someone over 50. Ageism is rife.

I think a few of the commenters on this thread are maybe younger and don't quite understand how fed up some women in late 40s and older get and that some may be dealing with a horrible menopause and/or illness and possibly having to deal with demented elderly parents too. I am not working at the moment, supposed to be looking but I'm managing 2 lifelong medical conditions now and I am ill usually a few days a month but not ill enough for any sickness benefits. Unless I can either find an understanding employer or the kind of job where there is a pile of work that needs to be done but it doesn't matter when it is done then I am not going to be able to work.

If you receive a redundancy payment at 55, can you sign on for job seekers benefit in the uk?

yes, job seekers is not means tested. You receive job seekers if you have paid tax for a certain period in the last 36 months (?) Job seekers is based on your contributions paid in. Its paid for 26 weeks and then if you haven't found a job you'll be moved onto other benefits - which are likely to be means tested.