Quiet Quitting

In the NHS we called it 'retired on the job'. It applied to a lot of overpromoted Directors and admins.

Well I will be 80 in a few weeks and still running my own business. So no "quitting" for me although I have cut down some since the pandemic. Even being self employed I still have boundaries. I just call it "customer management techniques". I dont usually do amin business on a sunday. although I often do creative work like photo shoots and research.

Looking back in every job I have ever done I have managed to carve out some time for myself - even working in a call center. I once wrote an academic paper on how some employees managed to do that.

Rather than quiet quitting I just thought of it as "getting by"

I know an ex-colleague who worked as a teacher, a good one, then suddenly left to work in a private school, smaller classes, less stressful. She had a bike accident, so gave up entirely. Encountered some years later, she was working in Tesco, put my overall on, work the hours, hang my overall up, go home, nothing more to do with work, less stressful.
Next heard of, working as a Doctor's receptionist.
Last heard of, working in the Doctor's surgery away from the front desk, too stressful, patients were rude to her.

The problem:not the jobs, the person.
Sad, a waste of ability.

Germanshepherdsmum

I assume you left your desk/position/whatever at 4.30 rather than walking out of the door at 4.30?

The office closed at 4:30. My turning off my phone immediately and shutting down was apparently a problem because he emailed me after that and I’d left 🙄

Bump

Not everyone seeks promotion, management responsibility or a high stress/high earning position. That doesnt make them a weak or ineffectual person. There is a lot to be said for knowing and recognising your limits in life.

I had a chat with a Tesco driver earlier this year who told me that he had left a highly stressful job in the finance industry as a result of burnout. I asked him if the Tesco job was a temporary step to getting back into the workforce and he said no. He had taken a financial cut but was much happier as a delivery driver. And there were always extra shifts to pick up if he wanted extra money. He admitted there were some stresses to being a driver (traffic delays/rude customers etc) but that he was paid for the hours he worked and that suited him.

I must be a quiet quitter.
I work my contracted hours although am willing to work late if needed but would always take back the time
During my contracted hours I always give 110% and go above and beyond something my colleagues mention regularly and sadly some take advantage of.
Have been offered promotion twice but didn’t take it as I’m happy in what I do and don’t want the extra stress

I have and do now work with people that do as little as possible But they usually get caught out

NotAGran55

In my experience the quiet quitters always wondered why they didn’t get promotions, big bonuses or pay rises.

They did a job, nothing more, and the rest of us had a career.

In your experience 🙄...but not in mine .....I had / have a great career .....work for the nhs so am never going to get big bonuses or pay rises though.... maybe don't be so judgemental .... and actually understand what 'quiet quitting means....I got a good promotion after actively quiet quitting....the culture of the team which led me to do this...actually pushed me into looking for promotion before I thought I was ready for it...turns out I was

This is actually what quiet quitting is about. Doing the work but maintaining boundaries around what you are prepared to take on.

There are some older people in the workplace who are, quite literally, waiting to retire and draw their state pension. They dont have the same physical and mental energy as they had 20 years ago and are not interested in promotion, retraining or taking on more responsibility. Mostly they dont mind giving ad hoc advice, but allow younger colleagues to drive the business process. I know several people in this position. There is nothing lazy or reprehensible about allowing others to take the lead when you have already spent 40 years "doing your bit".

I think I'm doing just this at the moment.

I retired and returned to work two years ago, now working two flexible days a week. I have found that although I can complete my work on the days I am present I can no longer drive projects forward with the same momentum as before, due entirely to the fact that if I'm working say Mon/Tues one week and then say Thurs/Fri the following week I cannot follow up on actions in a timely way.
It wasn't something that I had considered before making these new working arrangements, but I recognised very quickly that it was simpler to allow others to take over aspects of service development as it got completed much quicker. I have also recognised that I now have less influence at work because it must seem at times I am hardly there.
At first I missed this but I have leaned into it and I no longer have my work email account on my personal mobile. I rarely take my work laptop home so I am not tempted to check in during my personal time off. I do not volunteer to take on extra work and have reduced the number of conferences/and study days I ask to attend.
I do however continue to come into work 30 minutes earlier than my start time because I enjoy the peace and quiet that allows me to prepare for the day. I will also stay late if necessary to support colleagues and the work environment.
I have 6 new colleagues who have all trained (within the past 3 years) to work in a role I have been doing for the past 14 years. Our experiences are very different, as is our drive and passion for the role. I am very happy to sit back and let them get on with organising team meetings and driving service development etc. I have found myself acting in more of a 'consultancy' role, with the newer members of the team coming to me for advice and guidance.
I do not, and never have, considered myself lazy or disinterested, just appropriately boundaried. I know that I am very fortunate to have found myself in this position and I intend to continue with this very beneficial work life balance for as long as I can.

A lot of people seem to have been very unlucky in their employers.

I don't think I have ever worked with quiet quitters but I have worked with quite a few people who seemed to think they were paid to be in the office, rather than for the work they did while they were in the office. At least there is a chance that quiet quitters might do some work.

In the run up to retiring I did this. Most of my job I did willingly as i worked with children withe special educational needs, but some staff changes and consequent new duties meant that there was rarely time to check email during working hours. We were expected to do it in our own time but as we were fairly low paid I thought this pretty unfair as previously there had been a time for that during the working day. I made it clear to my ssupervisors that if I didn't have time in working hours I wouldn't be doing it so if there were important things to be comunicated they should speak to us rather than put it in an email - we had a daily team meeting which could be used for that purpose.
In the end we went into lockdown and were working from home so the problem disappeared. Checking email and doing as asked was pretty much all we had to do!

People must be absolute superheroes these days.
Working, plus willingly doing lots extra, calling off on their way home to buy fresh veggies and food to cook from scratch.
Listening to their children read for 30 or so minutes of reading, before taking them off to activities, then getting home to all sit around the table...
How on earth is there enough hours in the day?!?

I believe it would take effort and some preplanning of attitude to fully accomplish this negative lifestyle…..and could easily affect you attitude to all areas of your work life and home life …..and worst of all friendships! Why put the effort into a habit like this that would lead you down the pathway to an overall miserable outlook on life!

My next door neighbour works for the nhs.

There has been huge upsets in her office due to the "higher ups" coming to expect and demand that people answer their phone, log on at home, do their jobs, plus hours and hours extra each week. It has resulted in a variety of things - none of which help the nhs in any way. Things like being shouted at "Hey! Where do you think you're going!?!" when they have finished their shift and an hour or so extra, unpaid.

I never wanted career.
So, if I did extra (which I did, frequently) it was to benefit the people I cared for, not the boss.

In my experience the quiet quitters always wondered why they didn’t get promotions, big bonuses or pay rises.

They did a job, nothing more, and the rest of us had a career.

Goodness! Banking not baking! I didn’t bake as well!

Sorry that should read shirking.

nipsmum

If this is the current attitude in the workplace now, I am glad I retired from the job I loved when I was 68.
I could not have been happy doing as little as possible. It's shirking as far as I am concerned

Quiet quitting isn’t doing as little as possible.

It’s doing Your job, doing the hours that you are contracted to work.

Not doing unpaid overtime, often this being expected and ‘normal’.
Answering emails during your holidays, weekends and evenings.

Being expected to take the days baking into the bank during your lunch break and having to almost argue to get an extra 20 minutes because you have to drive to the bank, in your own car, and stand in the queue to be served, then have your lunch break.

Taking work home to do because you can’t get it all done in your contracted hours.

Finishing your days work then being asked to do someone else’s work as well as your own because they are taking time off.

I also wondered how some staff managed to get so many smoking breaks during the day when I got 2 cups of tea and a lunch break.

Hardly skiving.

If this is the current attitude in the workplace now, I am glad I retired from the job I loved when I was 68.
I could not have been happy doing as little as possible. It's shirking as far as I am concerned

I think it is going to get harder and harder to expect much maligned carers to stay after their hours, to then be called scroungers, too stupid to do any other job, unqualified and all the rest of it.

If their shift finishes at 10pm, and they have to travel home, then back the next morning to start at 7am, well then it's hardly lazy to expect to finish roughly on time.

Doesn't it depend on what your job is? If you're in a professional or management position, or a caring role, I think it's expected that you would put in extra as needed, to get a task or project completed, or support a client, without clock-watching. If you're in a more routine job, especially on minimum wage, why should you work beyond your contracted hours - in effect subsidising your employer? I'm not talking about skiving, but about doing your job for the agreed hours.

Also, for me, a lot would depend on the attitude of the employer - ideally there should be give and take on both sides.

I think that there are some out there who want you to do that little bit more, then a little bit more, then a little bit more and so on, unpaid. It then becomes the norm, unless you take a stand. No one should be made to feel guilty if they refuse to do extra on a regular basis that is outside their contracted hours and unpaid. If unpaid extra work is regularly expected (but it’s not written in your contract to do it as required),then that is wrong and more staff are needed to cover this increased workload. To me, this is when quiet quitting is justified. As long as the employee is doing the work they are contracted to do. Over and above this should not be an expectation.

oops luch = lunch