Tempted By Quiet Quitting?
I am by no means a woman of trend. I really wish I were. But I don’t know much about music, very little about the latest tv shows, and definitely nothing about fashion or beauty. I’m wrapped up in books, the news, work, and my little familial clan.
But I have heard about a term that happens to be very trendy – ‘quiet quitting’. First things first, it doesn’t have anything to do with quitting your job, even though the name suggests it. The TikTok video dissection of quiet quitting has been watched by millions and written about all over several publications I keep up with.
“You’re not outright quitting your job, but you’re quitting the idea of going above and beyond,” one TikTok-er said. “You’re still performing your duties but you’re no longer subscribing to the hustle culture mentality.”
I like the sound of that. As women, especially as women with children, we’ve been told for decades we can have it all – success at work, thriving relationships, beautiful homes, and children who feel our tender love and care all the time. Women have been, and still are, overwhelmed with the pressure to have a work-life balance as a perfectly rounded human beings who can juggle several hats at one time, without dropping any of them.
So, when someone comes along whispering the term quiet quitting, we take a deep breath and remember we can just do the minimum at work. We don’t have to hustle to get to the top. We don’t have to earn rewards or get promotions or be the star employee. We can just do what our work contract says and then go home.
The idea is appealing. But it isn’t anything new. In 2009, economist Mark Boldger coined the term at a Texas A&M economics symposium on diminishing ambitions in Venezuela. It’s only recently gained a bit of traction as the current culture considers mental health repercussions of work-life balance in the workplace. Whereas older generations put great value on working your way up, loyalty to a boss, and going all out in your career – younger generations are acknowledging that this type of push in the workplace can lead to poor mental health. Gen Z and Millennials still value work ethic, but not to the extent it demeans the value of life and health. Perhaps this is a result of the pandemic and the huge mental health impact we saw because of it.
But really, quiet quitting shouldn’t even be a term. If a person is employed to do a job, that should be the job expected of them to complete. Unless the job description includes ‘go above and beyond’ as one of the qualifications of the post, it shouldn’t be expected. Of course, there will always be driven people who will be driven to do more, achieve more – but that can’t be the expectation of every single worker (unless it is listed in the job description). Employers should ask for what they want and expect what they advertised for in hiring.
There is talk about employers really worrying about this trend and how it will impact their businesses and workplaces. In that case, employers need to start thinking about what they have expected of their employees and how they hire for posts. If there is a post you want to fill for an office receptionist, has the employer listed in the job description that the applicant will be responsible for planning the office Christmas party, keeping track of staff birthdays, and staying late to finish off extra paperwork? If it’s not in the job description, then it isn’t a fair portrayal of what the job is. By quietly quitting, your employee isn’t quitting, but simply setting boundaries in the workplace.
All this to say, for the everyday woman (or man) working a job, quiet quitting sounds like a healthy work-life balance we can subscribe to. Right?
But, as argued in this brilliant essay by Sheilla Mamona, quiet quitting only works for the privileged. For so many women, especially black women, working to put food on the table, quiet quitting isn’t an option. Excellence is the only option. You have to work harder than everyone else if you want the job. You have to stay later if you want to keep the job. You have to do more if you want to progress in the job. Otherwise, quiet quitting could become quiet firing.
Quiet quitting is a luxury for many that will never be “achieved” without repercussions on their ability to survive. So instead of encouraging peers of her to quietly quit, Mamona is instead “loudly calling out businesses to better cater to their employees' needs, with proper remuneration, in order to maximize quantity and quality of input and their genuine overall happiness,” she wrote. “The only solution here is for everyone to treat everyone fairly in order to create a better coworking society.”
So, are you tempted by quiet quitting? Or do you subscribe to excellence no matter what?