‘Quiet quitting’ ... have you heard of it?

All of my dc are ambitious so I don’t think it’s something they’d be interested in doing, they’ve got plans they want to achieve.

I suppose it depends partly on your job, though, and how much you enjoy doing it.

The social contract between employer and employee is now broken. In the past there was an implicit understanding that if you worked hard and loyally for an employer they would "look after" you and promote you when you deserved it.

That has all gone.

Now most employers (not all) will screw their employees for all they can get and drop them like a stone when it suits them.
I have never felt loyalty to any employer. Not since they began to disregard experienced qualified professionals in favour of kids straight out of uni who had a shitty little bit of paper we did not have. A degree - and often not a very good one.

Once I had made up my mind to return to education I coasted for the last 18 months of my time in that employment. I arrived and left on time, filled up the hours, and no more. I did what I was paid to do and nothing extra.

I worked my ass off at uni (1980s) because it was something for me.

Now Im self employed I work harder than I did for any employer because I have the best boss in the world.

I was never happy in a work situation- always just wanted to be at home!

So yes, that’s probably me!

I hadnt heard of the phrase until OP mentioned it. However I would like to bet that some of us here have done it - especially those who are of an age to begin coasting towards retirement. You dont feel valued anymore, and know you wont get promotion. You are just hanging in there for your state pension.

Entirely understandable to quietly quit.

I thin it's a silly misnomer. I would call it fulfilling my contractual obligations.

I work hard and do a good job while I am at work. I shouldn't be thought less of if I arrive on time and leave on time. If the company wants more from me, they can pay me longer hours, or negotiate a different contract.

I pretty much perfected this when I was doing my O levels. Working just enough to get reasonable results. Carried on with it through most of my working life except for a couple of jobs where I was really involved in what I was doing and worked silly hours because I wanted to make it all work.

Hmmm..

I'm really not sure on this, because I have found that people who actually work less than the hours contracted, but spend time on their phones, nipping out to buy things they need at home, and generally taking the pee seem to be thought more of, as long as they include sucking up to the boss in their 'ways to avoid work' box of tricks.

Because I work with people, though I couldn't ever just leave them uncomfortable because my shift ended on the dot.

I would sooner stay, and ensure things were done, and the paperwork completed.

I was always a hard worker, not that it was particularly appreciated ( until I left!) because it was drummed into me from a young age and I just couldn’t help myself. I used to get to work early and leave late- silly when I look back at it really. Protestant work ethic ?

It's what we used to call "Working to Rule" - ie you did as per your work description. I used to go way above my pay grade until I realised that the more I did the more I was expected to do while others sat around doing little or nothing. So, I asked for an upgrade to the appropriate level and was refused. My response was to Work to Rule or Quiet Quit. My upgrade came soon after. Basically it was industrial action.

I also think that as people are contactable 24/7 a lot of Companies expect you to answer queries via email or text all hours of the day, night, weekends and holidays. Why should you?
Work life balance has to start somewhere. I don’t see it as ‘coasting’ it’s just working the hours that you are paid for and overtime if you work extra hours.
Of course there are Management jobs that require you to work as and whenever you are needed, but the wages usually compensate you for that.
But I still think that unless it’s very urgent emails and texts from the office should wait until the next working day.

My DH at one time worked for an American company. They admired the first person there in the morning and the last to leave. It didn’t seem to matter how long they took to do things.

In the Netherlands they believe that if you can’t do the job between 9 and 5 and complete all tasks then you were incompetent. Everyone stopped at 5 and went home. They had a better life balance.

My two DC work hard until 5 then stop unlike their father who worked long hours.

I think the youth today tend to work to live not live to work. I envy them that.

CanadianGran

I thin it's a silly misnomer. I would call it fulfilling my contractual obligations.

I work hard and do a good job while I am at work. I shouldn't be thought less of if I arrive on time and leave on time. If the company wants more from me, they can pay me longer hours, or negotiate a different contract.

Yes

We employ ten full time staff

Apart from one, who literally works by the book, they are all hard working and flexible.

We have a really high regard for them all and genuinely appreciate what they do, and tell them so.

If someone has to pop out, appointments etc , that’s fine.we currently employ someone whose mother has dementia, and she often has to pop out.

Our longest serving member of staff has been with us for twenty five years, he came as a Saturday boy when he was at school, and all of them have been here quite a while.

We never expect them to do anything we wouldn’t do ourselves, and with it being a small company, although we all have our rolls, we need to be flexible.

I would be really annoyed I thought any of them were Quiet Quitting, If you don’t like your job, if you feel undervalued or underpaid, go and find another one.

That is an example of a good employer getting the best from their staff, and is eveyones ideal, I would think, but those kinds of jobs are becoming rarer and rarer.

It's a competitive world these days, and people end up as no more than faceless numbers.

Some interesting points of view. Thank you for contributing to the discussion.

There isn't a person in the world who is not replaceable at work; why would you make yourself replaceable to your family and friends? Some people duck family events ‘due to work commitments’. Many of my cohort have themselves worked up about the quiet-quit attitude, but none of the interviewees are saying they aren't working--they say they're doing the job they're paid for.

If companies want highly engaged overworked employees, they need to pay for it. This generation is smarter than we were perhaps? Many of us had a drawer full of ‘thank you’s’ at work.

I imagine working within a large organisation facilitates those easier who want to be ‘quiet quitters’. Small businesses, not so much.

Your company values your employees Sarah1954 which is why you have a loyal workforce. Kudos to you.
?

But not all employers do. I find it morally reprehensible that some expect their employees to put up with shabby T&C - they would be horrified if their own family members had to endure. Owners of care homes comes to mind as an example. They make for a very lucrative business whilst their employees are run ragged.

‘Quiet quitters’ do just the necessary to avoid criticism. Easier in some jobs than others I expect.

I think a lot of people have just woken up to the fact that work was taking over many peoples lives and many employers were totally exploiting staff. WFH has reminded people that quality time with family and friends and a sense of engagement with their community will make them far happier than keeping on the bosses good side all the time, or bragging about the long hours they work.
A quiet and long overdue revolution.

I’ve never heard of this expression. I agree that it would be easier in some jobs than others. I certainly encountered doing the bare minimum and clock watching when I worked in a local authority legal department. People who operated in that way wouldn’t survive in private practice. I’ve always had a strong work ethic and couldn’t respect someone who did the bare minimum in order to draw their salary. I suspect there are a great many of them.

When my daughter was dying, I had just begun a new job with a lovely company.
I spoke to the manager, and she was very kind, but told me I needed to give one months notice.

Minimum wage, looking after and supporting someone else to live independently whilst my own family were in the midst of a terrible trauma.

I pored through my contract, and found that my first 3 months were probationary, so in effect, either the company or me could end my role without notice.

That is how jobs are, now.

We have some good friends who went bankrupt, they employed 200 people.
They worked tirelessly trying to find positions for their staff, and out of the whole sorry business, it was the feeling that they had let their staff down, which hit them hardest.

MissAdventure
That’s really sad, whatever has happened to compassion?

Well, it was a small, but growing, family run company.
I suppose they have to be seen to be providing safe, secure, long term support for their service users, or their business will sink.
I don't hold it against them, but obviously their employees will sometimes need a helping hand sometimes, and ultimately these situations will arise at times.

I did realise I was going to leave them in the lurch, but my girl was taken to hospital that day, and never came out again.

You are very understanding MissAdventure, and probably what you say is true, but I would have thought something could have been worked out.

Well, their client was a grumpy old sod, anyway, so that is some consolation.
He had thrown out everyone else, so they had searched for someone he would accept into his home (me) and then I left.

I'm glad they are the sort of company to put so much effort into caring for someone, it is how it should be.

people get fired at our place if they don't meet their targets and tbh I resent having to carry someone who isn't putting in any effort anyway