Marketing Scoops: What Is Quiet Quitting & How It May Be a Misnomer For Setting Boundaries at Work

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Closing your laptop at 5 p.m. Doing only your assigned tasks. Spending more time with family. These are just some of the common examples used to define the latest workplace trend of “quiet quitting.” Some experts say it’s a misnomer and should really be defined as carving out time to take care of yourself. Ed Zitron, who runs a media consulting business for tech startups and publishes the labor-focused newsletter Where’s Your Ed At, believes the term stems from companies exploiting their employees’ labor.…Continue reading….

By: Amina Kilpatrick

Source: NPR

Critics:

Quiet quitting is defined as a disengaged employee doing the bare minimum, eventually leading to their departure. Despite their dissatisfaction at work, quiet quitters continue to collect a paycheck until they finally leave or are terminated. Employees who are quietly quitting may exhibit noticeable changes in their attitude and behavior. They may become more irritable, easily frustrated, or display a lack of enthusiasm or interest in their work.

For example, an employee who used to be positive and optimistic may now display a negative or cynical attitude. Have you ever heard the saying “no news is good news?” Unfortunately, that rule doesn’t apply where employee disengagement and quiet quitting are concerned, as it seems many of the same issues that plagued companies during 2022 and 2023 are still very much present in 2024. In addition to feeling overworked, these younger workers are also having negative interactions with people on the job, whether that’s “managers, co-workers, or customers” and more so than employees in other generations.

According to Pew Research, one of the main reasons employees quiet quit is due to low pay. As work hours increased due to remote work and other factors, many employees feel they haven’t been compensated for their increased productivity. Quiet quitting is an act done by people who are not satisfied or engaged at their jobs – they do the minimum level of work and are usually looking for a new job at the same time. There’s a lot of talk about quiet quitting these days. In fact, quiet quitting is not new; it’s just been given a catchy name and gone viral.

Quiet quitting doesn’t mean an employee has left their job, but rather has limited their tasks to those strictly within their job description to avoid working longer hours. They want to do the bare minimum to get the job done and set clear boundaries to improve work-life balance. A drop in engagement can be a sign of quiet quitting. Disengagement can take various forms. Disengaged employees are quieter in team meetings, stop taking the initiative, don’t participate in non-mandatory events, etc. They do the bare minimum required on their contract and don’t bother going the extra mile.

Quiet quitting can have many benefits if people do it for the correct reasons, such as taking care of their health or of a family member, instead of just doing it because they hate their job, she adds. Schroeder says that unless someone is in a toxic situation, quiet quitting should not be their go-to move. Simply quiet quitting without warning is a risky strategy. If you have a reputation for going the extra mile, it’s a bad idea to abruptly switch off that part of your workplace persona.

Transparency is important, and good managers will be supportive when workers raise concerns about burnout and lack of engagement. Quiet quitting can be a way for employees to protect their mental and physical health, by gradually disengaging from their work. Lack of job satisfaction: When employees are not satisfied with their job, they may gradually disengage from their work and lose interest in their responsibilities.

Quiet cutting is a strategy from employers where employees are reassigned to a different role rather than being laid off. The term arose in 2023 to describe a phenomenon seen in the American labor market. Quitting in place, however, crosses the line into unethical behavior. In the end, whether quiet quitting is good or bad comes down to the ethics behind the decisions employers and employees make. We can all agree that quitting in place is ethically wrong. Quiet firing and quiet hiring are ethically wrong.

The first step is simply making the conscious decision that you are going to commit to proactively make the situation better. Some might argue this isn’t a necessary step, but there are a couple of reasons why it is. From an employee perspective, quiet quitting usually represents a silent protest or disengagement from a role or organization due to feeling undervalued, overworked, or disconnected. It can stem from dissatisfaction with work conditions, lack of career growth opportunities, or personal reasons.

Quiet quitting can be a sign that a worker is unhappy in their role or is feeling burned out. In fact, many workers engage in quiet quitting to help alleviate work-related stress and burnout. Silent firing is the new quiet quitting. Companies need to find a way to pay for investments in artificial intelligence. There may need to be a new term invented for the wave of jobs that will be lost due to AI. For those who missed it, quiet quitting gained momentum during the pandemic.

“Quiet quitting: why doing the bare minimum at work has gone global”. the Guardian. 2022-08-06. Retrieved 2022-08-12.

“In Defence Of ‘Quiet Quitting’ Your Job”. http://www.refinery29.com. Retrieved 2022-08-12.

Could ‘quiet quitting’ your job be the answer to burnout? What you need to know”. Metro. Retrieved 2022-08-12.

“If Your Co-Workers Are ‘Quiet Quitting,’ Here’s What That Means”. The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2022-08-12.