Quiet quitting is slowly becoming popular among employees, for whom quitting their jobs is not really an option. It is now trending both in social media and at workplaces. While the ‘great resignation’ took over the world in 2021 and is still pretty much continuing, resigning from your work is not an option for many, and this has given rise to quiet quitting — the practice of giving minimal effort at your work and only doing the things that you are absolutely required to do.
Quiet quitting is essentially a movement of working professionals who are analysing the benefits of giving that extra effort at work and ultimately opting out. In other words, it is about refusing to do more work than the compensation. This has risen from a culture of getting quick burnout due to excessive work pressure. The trend, which has resulted from social media platform Tiktok, is resonating with many young professionals.
While the quiet quitting culture has frustrated employers and seen them complaining about employees slacking off, it is more about having a life outside work and not avoiding the work completely.
As per a report by Business Insider, quiet quitting is aimed at working out boundaries between work and personal life for employees. However, despite the popularity this new culture is gaining in the US, career advisors have urged employees to think about the consequences of it.
Over the last 20 years, many people have joined a global culture of overwork, with unpaid labour becoming an expected part of many jobs. With a lack of opportunities, millennials and Gen Z in particular have struggled with jobs and financial security, which has made them go above and beyond their responsibilities to get promotions and bonuses. However, all this have gone in vain most of the times, resulting in burnouts.
This is perhaps the reason why many young professionals are now increasingly seeking flexibility and purpose in their work, and get a work-life balance, as per a Deloitte study.
Josh Bittinger, who works at a management consulting company, explained The Wall Street Journal that quiet quitting is about avoiding burnouts at work. The whole idea behind is to stop saying ‘yes’ to everything and learn to say ‘no’ when you need time for yourself.
“You’re quitting the idea of going above and beyond,” Zaid Khan, whose video on quiet quitting went viral, further told the publication. “You’re no longer subscribing to the hustle-culture mentality that work has to be your life.”
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