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Closing your laptop at 5 p.m. Doing only your assigned tasks. Spending more time with family. These are just some of the common examples used to define the latest workplace trend of "quiet quitting." Some experts say it's a misnomer and should really be defined as carving out time to take care of yourself.
Ed Zitron, who runs a media consulting business for tech startups and publishes the labor-focused newsletter Where's Your Ed At, believes the term stems from companies exploiting their employees' labor and how these businesses benefit from a culture of overwork without additional compensation.
"If you want people to go 'above and beyond,' compensate them for it. Give them $200. Pay them for the extra work," Zitron told NPR over email. "Show them the direct path from 'I am going above and beyond' to 'I am being rewarded for doing so...Continue reading….
Source: Quiet quitting is a trend taking over TikTok and possibly your workplace : NPR
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Maggie Perkins, a Georgia-based teaching advocate, had been working as a teacher for nearly half a decade before she decided to "quiet quit" her job. The decision didn't mean she'd leave her position, but rather limit her work to her contract hours. Nothing more, nothing less.
"No matter how much I hustle as a teacher, there isn't a growth system or recognition incentive," Perkins told TIME. "If I didn't quiet quit my teaching job, I would burn out."
Perkins joins a larger online community of workers who have been sharing their experiences on TikTok, taking a "quiet quitting" mentality—the concept of no longer going above and beyond, and instead doing what their job description requires of them and only that.
The movement comes in the wake of a global pandemic that caused employees to reimagine what work could look like, considering the potentials of extending remote work, not working much on Fridays, or in some cases, amid the Great Resignation, not working at all. Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post and CEO at Thrive, wrote in a viral LinkedIn post, "Quiet quitting isn't just about quitting on a job, it's a step toward quitting on life."
With worries of an economic slowdown swirling, productivity levels are a major concern to company executives. U.S. nonfarm worker productivity in the second quarter has fallen 2.5% since the same period last year, its steepest annual drop since 1948, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Companies are now looking at productivity scales as a metric for excellence, with some going as far as moderating employees' keyboard activity.
Major tech companies like Google are signaling that they are slowing hiring and could lay off staff amid concerns about overall productivity. Johnny C. Taylor Jr., President and CEO of Society for Human Resource Management, the world's largest HR society, says remote work has caused severe burnout, Zoom fatigue, and made it harder for some workers to take breaks from home.
"I don't know a company in America that is not sensitized to burnout and the need for employees to step away from the workplace for their mental health." Taylor, who, as a CEO himself leads a team of over 500 associates, advocates for his employees taking time off when they're feeling overworked, but he doesn't see how embracing quiet quitting will be helpful to employees in the long term.
"I understand the concept, but the words are off-putting," he says. "Anyone who tells their business leader they are a quiet quitter is likely not to have a job for very long." Gergo Vari, CEO of job board platform Lensa, also believes the decision won't serve employees long-term either. "Anytime that you silence your own voice in an organization, you may be depriving yourself of the opportunity to change that organization," says his spokesperson.
Employees acting on their dissatisfaction at work isn't only potentially affecting their job security. Gallup's State of the Global Workplace report found that job dissatisfaction is at a staggering all-time high and that unhappy and disengaged workers cost the global economy $7.8 trillion in lost productivity.
The decision to step away from "hustle culture" can cause tension between employees and company executives, and can also cause a rift between fellow colleagues who may have to pick up the slack. "Whether people feel like their coworkers are committed to quality work can affect the performance of the organization and cause friction inside teams and organizations," says Jim Harter, Chief Scientist for Gallup's workplace management practice…
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What is the Meaning of Autonomy Today?" by Bifo Archived 26 September 2019 at the Wayback Machine
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