Who Is Quiet Quitting For?

“I recently learned about this term called ‘quiet quitting’ where you’re not outright quitting your job, but you’re quitting the idea of going above and beyond,” says Zaiad Khan, a TikTok user with over 10,000 followers, in a soothing voice, juxtaposed with a video of the New York City subway. “You are still performing your duties, but you are no longer subscribing to the hustle culture mentally that work has to be our life.”

Clayton Farris, a TikTok user with 48,000 followers, who posted about the trend days later, says in his own video: “I don’t stress and internally rip myself to shreds.”

The phrase went mainstream from there. “If Your Co-Workers Are ‘Quiet Quitting,’ Here’s What That Means,” read a headline in a Wall Street Journal article on Aug. 12. The Guardian went with: “Quiet Quitting: Why Doing the Bare Minimum at Work Has Gone Global.” The term was defined and redefined. For some, it was mentally checking out from work. For others, it became about not accepting additional work without additional pay.

Many people feel perplexed: Why do you need a term to describe something as ordinary as going to work and doing your job, even if it’s not well? Some people feel validated for never raising their hands at work, or judged because they actually like being overachievers.

Gabrielle Judge, 25, who works in customer success for a tech company and lives in Denver, sees people on social media talking about quietly quitting without any regard for how it affects others. “Some people are taking quiet quitting as in passive-aggressively withdrawing, and that doesn’t win for everyone,” she said. “It isn’t always about you. You’re on a team, you’re in a department.”

This article was written by Alyson Krueger on August 23rd 2022 for the New York Times.

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