Photo by Noelle Otto
It was Neil Young who said, "It's better to burn out than to fade away," but quiet quitters silently disagree.
The world is awash with hot takes on quiet quitting. Is it a commentary on job satisfaction, or is it a TikTok trend that will fade away with the jump-to-change outfits? (Fingers crossed!)
Is quiet quitting another sign of Gen Z's supposed lack of professionalism, or is it the antidote to the enduring hustle command?
And whatever happened to just doing your job as described, anyway?
We're exploring five takes on this new workplace trend. Make up your own mind on what quiet quitting means to you—and whether you'll be bringing the rage or a simple silence to your next resignation.
Hot Take #1: Quiet Quitting is a Lazy Gen Z Trend
Extra! Extra! Read all about it!
Any headline claiming an entire generation is a group of misfits is clickbait. As Millennials are tasked with taking the blame for the housing crisis and low birth rates, Gen Z is (ironically) "hard at work." Their job description? Destroying the workplace.
In the thought pieces detailing quiet quitting as a characteristically "Gen Z" action, let's explore what we're looking at when it comes to this behavior.
The Elements of Quiet Quitting:
- Mentally checking out of work, meetings, and correspondence
- Feeling exhausted from work volume
- A disengaged employee with a lack of enthusiasm for work
- Reluctance or refusal to take additional tasks or extra projects
- Learning the bare minimum effort to make at work, then making that effort
This sounds an awful like worn-out or under-challenged burnout. Employees, especially young workers in an unstable economy, are constantly gaslighted into believing that they are lucky to have their jobs and that they should do whatever they can to keep them.
Oftentimes, the "whatever they can" includes a bunch of work that falls way out of their pay grade. Perhaps Gen Z, having grown up listening to their parents' lack of work-life balance, isn't feeling inspired to repeat the cycle. Instead, they're prioritizing healthy work-life balance over the damaging hustle culture mentality that nearly destroyed their parents. Can we blame them?
We think this take is lazy. It reiterates a generational divide in a time where there are more generations working together at once than ever before. Rather than promoting divisiveness, we should be looking for new ways to work together.
Hot Take #2: Quiet Quitting is a Call for Work-Life Balance
Like we said, quiet quitting seems like a call for work-life balance. In 2020 and 2021, The Great Resignation gained steam.
Finally, feeling a sense of our own mortality, it seemed that employers were listening to their employees. Yes, we could work from home! No, it would not destroy our productivity! Yes, it improved retention, happiness, wellness, and health! Working from home was awesome until it was no longer the only option.
Then, to make things worse, the economy started to fizzle. Suddenly, everyone from Elon Musk to Malcolm Gladwell had a hot take on how working from home is destroying everything. (Sidenote: Why, Malcolm, Why???)
Moms and caretakers were ready to chop heads, but we all needed to keep ourselves paid, so we became really, really quiet. We are TIRED.
Hot Take #3: Quiet Quitting is Simply Doing Your Job With Boundaries
Since when is completing your job as described a call to panic?
Some folks have called the quiet quit by a much more familiar name, "just doing our jobs,"—which is an offensive notion in a world that has been unsuccessfully trying to detach from our hustle problem.
Why can't we just do our jobs as described? Why can't we be complacent in a good enough job, earn our paychecks, and live our real lives outside of work?
Maybe, folks surmise, quiet quitting is doing your job with boundaries in place. While you might want to be a team player, sometimes you have to say no at work. While you may desire a promotion down the line, should you really have to sacrifice dozens of hours a month to maybe, possibly, potentially get it?
Maybe quiet quitting is the antidote to this call to hustle and work until you have nothing left. We grasped this idea for approximately 14 seconds in 2020, so how did we lose hold of it so quickly?
Hot Take #4: Quiet Quitting Isn't Real, But Toxic Workplaces Are
Anything that is described primarily as a TikTok trend is destined to have a short life. So while there are TikToks labeled "quiet quitting," is it really, actually a thing?
Some folks say, nope.
Quiet quitting is actually folks that are tired of bad bosses, toxic workplaces, and downright hostile work environments. It's simply been rebranded and hashtagged.
It's not a symptom of laziness or entitlement. Rather, it's a symptom of a much bigger sickness a the core of the company culture. This brings us directly into our last take on this current job trend...
Hot Take #5: Quiet Quitting is Terrified Employees in a Terrifying Economy
Finally, maybe quiet quitting is a sign of a tired, burnt-out, and terrified workforce. It's very easy to point fingers at a generation and say, "You're lazy!"
Comparatively, it's not easy to take an honest look at the entire American workforce to figure out why were work the way we do.
- Why is time spent in a chair under fluorescent light in a random building more important than the thoughtful output of quality work?
- Why is a zero-laden paycheck more important than teaching our kids to be decent humans?
- Why are we so afraid to change a work culture that only works for a privileged few?
Instead of looking at problematic generations at work and repeating that "nobody wants to work," perhaps employers should look at their retention rates, poll for employee happiness, and check in with their employees once in a while. It doesn't take much to show another human that they matter in some way, even if it's "just because" they are on the payroll.
Before declaring another new term that Gen Zers are spreading on TikTok, let's look at what young employees want. It's not that radical. It's fair wages, a reasonable volume of work, a realistic work schedule, personal lives, less stress, and some semblance of mental health.
What are we really teaching the next generation of employees before we start blaming them for the problems we never corrected?
