Quiet Quitting

Can I say, as a teacher I was in work at seven and worked every night and weekends marking and preparing. I just stopped doing my boss's work for him. So I definitely wasn't lazy. I worked for the benefit of the pupils. Doing tasks which he was both paid for and given time for? Nope.

👏👏👏 eazybee.

Well we are never going to agree on this but that does not make any side more right or more wrong.

Attitudes to work have changed very considerably since I began back in the 1960s. Now it is reported that the ones doing the quiet quitting are mostly younger age groups who have a very transactional attitude to work. Their sense of self is not so much invested in a job as a balance between work and family life/other interests.

I dont entirely think thats a bad thing. There is more to life than work.

halfpint1

If you don't like your job find another, this is your life passing you by. Many moons ago I worked in a civil service job which paid well but was was so boring, i left and my life took off.

It depends on the civil service job, of course.
They are many and varied.

However, there was always one person who managed to wander around, piece of paper in hand looking as if he was doing something, used dumb insolence to the senior manager but always got away with it.

petra

Mel1967

Quiet Quitting - ‘When an employee continues to put in the minimum amount of effort to keep their job, but don’t go the extra mile’

Does anyone do this?
It’s certainly something I’m considering 🤔

Why are you asking again you posted on this in January 24.

It takes a lot of thinking about 🤔

lixy

Is this similar as 'working to rule' in Trade Union terms? It's designed then to highlight how much 'above and beyond' work is involved in keeping any thing going at all I think.

As long as you genuinely do a fair day's work then it's fine, doing the bare minimum is not fine; that's shirking I feel, and very unfair on those who feel that they have to pick up the slack.

This.

That is fair enough but quiet quitting sounds like shirking, withdrawing yourself, not taking any interest or pride in your work and letting your colleagues down.

We've had someone join the organisation where I worked for the latter years of my working life, bounce in then announce they're going to book off all the school summer holidays, taking most of their annual leave then.
They were told quite firmly by others that no, they were supposed to work it out fairly with immediate colleagues so there was always cover and other parents could also have some time off.

biglouis

Well we are never going to agree on this but that does not make any side more right or more wrong.

Attitudes to work have changed very considerably since I began back in the 1960s. Now it is reported that the ones doing the quiet quitting are mostly younger age groups who have a very transactional attitude to work. Their sense of self is not so much invested in a job as a balance between work and family life/other interests.

I dont entirely think thats a bad thing. There is more to life than work.

And when redundancies occur they might have a shock.

Here are a couple of interesting pieces on the philosophy behind quiet quitting:-

www.linkedin.com/pulse/lazy-girl-syndrome-quiet-quitting-john-haslam

www.linkedin.com/pulse/quiet-quitting-what-how-prevent-mary-smith

What enjoyment is there in sitting in a corner, doing the minimum work and counting the hours to the end of day?

If you don't enjoy your job find one that you do, re train, accept responsibility because that frequently makes work more enjoyable, volunteer opinions because someone might listen and be impressed and be sociable to your colleagues.
Time passes so much more quickly.

I m all or nothing If I couldn’t or didn’t want to put my all into a job I d not be in it

If you don't enjoy your job find one that you do, re train

This is exactly why I left to go to university - something I had always wanted to do but not had the chance when I was younger. Giving up a well paid job to become a student and moving to another city to live on a rough council estate takes tremendous courage. But I knew it would give me other options.

My "quiet quitting" was from a job which had already taken 20 plus years of my life and I felt (rightly) that the changes in the profession were not to my benefit. It was time to take charge of my future. As I have explained, applying to uni is a year long up-front process. You have to read up on institutions and departments, visit the campus for your choices, attend open days and interviews. I used my annual leave for the days off - boss wondered why I was taking all those odd days but it was none of his business how I spent my leave. Boy was he surprised when I suddenly resigned without explanation.

So my time and energy went into my future plans and not into my past. I was certainly not sitting in a corner doing nothing!

So my time and energy went into my future plans and not into my past. I was certainly not sitting in a corner doing nothing!

But not fair on your employer because you should have been conducting your personal business in your own time, not theirs.

biglouis

*If you don't enjoy your job find one that you do, re train*

This is exactly why I left to go to university - something I had always wanted to do but not had the chance when I was younger. Giving up a well paid job to become a student and moving to another city to live on a rough council estate takes tremendous courage. But I knew it would give me other options.

My "quiet quitting" was from a job which had already taken 20 plus years of my life and I felt (rightly) that the changes in the profession were not to my benefit. It was time to take charge of my future. As I have explained, applying to uni is a year long up-front process. You have to read up on institutions and departments, visit the campus for your choices, attend open days and interviews. I used my annual leave for the days off - boss wondered why I was taking all those odd days but it was none of his business how I spent my leave. Boy was he surprised when I suddenly resigned without explanation.

So my time and energy went into my future plans and not into my past. I was certainly not sitting in a corner doing nothing!

And you’re actually proud of that fact 🤦🏼‍♀️ I don’t think your boss was surprised, just couldn’t believe his luck.

But not fair on your employer because you should have been conducting your personal business in your own time, not theirs

If you had read my posting a little bit more carefully my dear you would have seen that I took all those days off as annual leave. And the research was done in my own time. I just stopped using my own time to do extra research that I had done in the past for the job.

The profession in which I worked has now all but disappeared and the kinds of organizations in which I worked are now run by volunteers.

I made the right call in leaving while I was still young enough to do something else.

Maybe many of you haven't worked for an organisation (or with a manager) that owned you? Or at least, acted as though they did.

If you work overtime to get a report written or a funding bid in, or to cover a sick colleague or because a client family you are supporting is in distress - well, that is one thing.. but when you have a lazy, incompetent manager who takes all the credit and does stuff so badly and blames others, it's hardly surprising that you "quit" doing stuff "over and above" for her!

I think thete are different ways of "quiet quitting" - and in defence of it, if you are quitting, clearly you have at least started something first or you couldn't quit it... some people have been at work for years but haven't yet started!

I'm with Grandmabatty on this one!

Working is a business contract - piece of paper between you and an employer. Its not a personal relationship.

Its a sad state of affairs where working to your contract is framed by the judgemental as a form of “skiving”. Expectation of going over and above - providing unpaid labour to your employer, and making yourself ill in the process - seems to be the norm with some people. No job is worth more than your own health.

Most employers don’t give a f**k about you and will suck the life out of you if you let them.

Its a sad state of affairs where working to your contract is framed by the judgemental as a form of “skiving”. - yes, this too.

Better to find an exhilarating job you love so you can quit loudly.

There seems to be 2 schools of thought.

You can do your job within your working hours contract, do a good job, but go home to your family and enjoy your evenings and weekends. Of course you care about your job, but if it take extra hours then they should employ another person.

Or you can go to work early, stay late, work weekends and always answer work emails and phone calls out of hours.

No matter how much you enjoy your job, surely anyone can see which they would prefer to do. If you leave and they would need to employ extra people to do the work that you did on your own, then surely you can understand that your halo needs to be adjusted or thrown into the bin.

That should read

Employ an extra person…

Oopsadaisy1 good post & sums up the discussion well

Well said Oopsadaisy.

Petra

I've seen both sides of this within the NHS, and it seems to me that if you are lucky enough to be in an inclusive, dynamic, transparent group of colleagues then most people are happy to go the extra mile.. however I've also seen groups where people are passive aggressive and unco-operative and it's very noticeable how people will then quiet quit..

Teaching is such an open-ended job, Most teachers know that there are always improvements or additions which might enable pupils to reach their potential or become their best selves.
I don't think quiet quitting is an option in this profession.
Perhaps that's why there is such a high burn-out rate.