Please explain quiet quitting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Quiet quitting is when you quit doing anything outside of your job requirements. Handbook says you work 8:30-5pm? That’s all they get. Someone quits and their responsibilities keep getting thrown at you? Not your job.

Crazy when employees expect to do the job they're paid for isn't it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Business owner here and I think it's employees phoning it it. Look when you clock out and you see a mess on your way out you should take an extra hour or two to clean it up. Ok so you're off the clock, big deal. We're a family and we do things to help each other out. No one forces me to throw a once per month pizza party (one slice per employee) but I do it anyways. Also, I'm seeing employees not coming in early and helping to set up before they clock in.

Are these people salaried or hourly? If the later, why are you expecting them to set up off the clock before work or work late an extra hour or two uncompensated to clean up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Quiet quitting is when you quit doing anything outside of your job requirements. Handbook says you work 8:30-5pm? That’s all they get. Someone quits and their responsibilities keep getting thrown at you? Not your job.

This. Employees do not benefit when they do more work for the company. The company benefits by paying less people to get the same output.

Quiet quitting is people saying I want 60:40 me time:work time vs 40:60 me:work when comparing non-sleeping hours.

[Anonymous]

I think it’s an inane title for setting boundaries. A lot of boomer workplace holdovers - go above and beyond, don’t make a fuss, and clock-watching - may have benefited those workers but demonstrably do not benefit workers now.

I have a killer work ethic and have always done every job I’ve had to the best of my ability. I beat deadlines and solve problems. But I’ve never been one to put in a lot of extra time - why? It’s a weird optics thing that only impresses employers that favor workers who prioritize work over personal life - skewed priorities IMO.

The workplace will replace you, manage you out, etc on a dime. So why should any worker make extreme sacrifices for said workplace, unless they are owners or upper management (and being compensated as such)? No reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Business owner here and I think it's employees phoning it it. Look when you clock out and you see a mess on your way out you should take an extra hour or two to clean it up. Ok so you're off the clock, big deal. We're a family and we do things to help each other out. No one forces me to throw a once per month pizza party (one slice per employee) but I do it anyways. Also, I'm seeing employees not coming in early and helping to set up before they clock in.

Are these people salaried or hourly? If the later, why are you expecting them to set up off the clock before work or work late an extra hour or two uncompensated to clean up?

PP here and these folks are getting a lot of great experience for their resume. Also did you see where I wrote about the pizza parties? I do that at my expense you know but I don't complain because we're family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Business owner here and I think it's employees phoning it it. Look when you clock out and you see a mess on your way out you should take an extra hour or two to clean it up. Ok so you're off the clock, big deal. We're a family and we do things to help each other out. No one forces me to throw a once per month pizza party (one slice per employee) but I do it anyways. Also, I'm seeing employees not coming in early and helping to set up before they clock in.

Are these people salaried or hourly? If the later, why are you expecting them to set up off the clock before work or work late an extra hour or two uncompensated to clean up?

PP here and these folks are getting a lot of great experience for their resume. Also did you see where I wrote about the pizza parties? I do that at my expense you know but I don't complain because we're family.

Don't feed the troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It used to be called “work to rule”. You do only what is required by the book. It can be common in government when you have a mercurial manager who praises you and promises you all kinds of things if you do all this extra work, and then the next day writes you up for taking a sixteenth minute to go to the bathroom, or for not filling out the TPS sheets in blue ink. Then you do everything by the book after that.

+1 working to rule and caring exactly as much about your employer as they do you (aka not at all)

[Anonymous]

I’ve seen a few new hires initially working crazy hours hoping for a promotion, then pulling back to normal hours once they got passed over. That doesn’t seem like laziness to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Business owner here and I think it's employees phoning it it. Look when you clock out and you see a mess on your way out you should take an extra hour or two to clean it up. Ok so you're off the clock, big deal. We're a family and we do things to help each other out. No one forces me to throw a once per month pizza party (one slice per employee) but I do it anyways. Also, I'm seeing employees not coming in early and helping to set up before they clock in.

Wrong dude - we are not a family. If I get sick you’re not staying up til 3AM checking my fever. If I can’t work you will fire me.

The entitlement to ask for an ‘extra hour or two’ is why so many young people (by that I mean 40 and under) are burnt out and broke to boot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Business owner here and I think it's employees phoning it it. Look when you clock out and you see a mess on your way out you should take an extra hour or two to clean it up. Ok so you're off the clock, big deal. We're a family and we do things to help each other out. No one forces me to throw a once per month pizza party (one slice per employee) but I do it anyways. Also, I'm seeing employees not coming in early and helping to set up before they clock in.

Wrong dude - we are not a family. If I get sick you’re not staying up til 3AM checking my fever. If I can’t work you will fire me.

The entitlement to ask for an ‘extra hour or two’ is why so many young people (by that I mean 40 and under) are burnt out and broke to boot.

DP but I’m amazed how many ppl don’t realize this was a joke. I thought the one slice per person parenthetical pretty much gave it away

[Anonymous]

It’s another name for “work life balance”.

Everything else is noise.

[Anonymous]

It's the dumbest term ever because it has multiple meanings

Some people think it means setting boundaries - the name doesn't make sense. Gen Z are idiots.

Other people think it means just doing the bare minimum until you get fired. In that sense, the name makes sense.

[Anonymous]

OP you can Google the articles that were written after a TicTok post. Look especially at the WSJ article + subsequent Linkedin post. "Quiet quitting" or "Casual Coasting" is as you wrote where workers put in their required hours. After the article first appeared-- some discussions moved to your second premise- i.e. workers setting more boundaries to try to achieve better work-life balance.
To the business owner who posted that his business is a family...good one- LOL! Do you really think your workers are that stupid? I call troll..you snarked about giving each employee one piece of pizza. Get real.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was out with friends discussing this and it seems there isn't a consensus on what quiet quitting is.

A few think it's "phoning it in". Doing the absolute bare minimum to not get fired. Not having a good work ethic and not producing high quality work.

Other friends think it can be high performers who are creating boundaries and no longer willing to work above and beyond - either due to burnt out or the realization that the extra work didn't get them a promotion or a larger raise than other employees who didn't work as hard.

What's the general take on this?

Correct, there is no consensus.

One group thinks it’s bare minimum and being unavailable outside of 9-5pm.

The other group thinks it’s putting boundaries and mental health above 24/7 work communication, responses, and work.

I don’t think it’s anything new. Highly organized and efficient people can manage a lot and not totally intrude on their family life, and if a place is doing so they can readily ID that and make changes or leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's the dumbest term ever because it has multiple meanings

Some people think it means setting boundaries - the name doesn't make sense. Gen Z are idiots.

Other people think it means just doing the bare minimum until you get fired. In that sense, the name makes sense.

I don't think you understand who's using the term. It's a term ONLY used by those with the old mindset of "do what you're supposed to plus more." When employees push back and do only what they are paid to do - declining to donate their free labor to a company that doesn't give a crap about them - they think of it as simply enforcing boundaries, doing their job as agreed, etc. They don't use the phrase "quiet quitting", although they are accused of doing exactly that.

The problem is that quiet quitting is a phrase in the culture now, so people like you assume it's being used by everyone. It's not. Just the old fogeys who are now upset that they can't get their employees to work overtime for free.