The hot new trend in work is to, uh, not work, or at least not work very hard.
It is called “quiet quitting,” and advocates, who are mostly from Generation Z, say it means just doing the minimum at work to avoid the stress of “hustle” that often exists in the workplace.
TikTok has plenty of video clips of young quiet quitters who say things like:
“You mentally quit your job and check out. You just do the bare minimum to not get fired.”
Quiet quitters are “not chasing the hustle culture at work. They are just doing the required minimum.”
“Your worth as a person is not defined as your labor.”
The Wall Street Journal reported, “Jim Harter, chief scientist for Gallup’s workplace and well-being research, said workers’ descriptions of ‘quiet quitting’ align with a large group of survey respondents that he classifies as ‘not engaged’ — those who will show up for work and do the minimum required, but not much else.”
Ah, the sweet bird of youth. It is not uncommon for an up-and-coming generation to believe they have invented something unique to them. In fact, “quiet quitting” has been around forever.
As long as there has been labor to be performed, there have been workforce participants who have been satisfied with doing the minimum. Labor unions use it to put pressure on employers and they have a term for it — work-to-rule. That is when workers perform the minimum requirements of their contract, but no more as part of a job action.
And has no one from Gen Z seen the movie “Office Space”?
For full disclosure, I am an aging baby boomer, born in 1955 and raised with an ethos of work. It was understood and quantifiable that hard work paid off. Those who were willing to go the extra mile were more likely to get ahead.
That worked for me, my brother, many of my friends and acquaintances. To achieve success, we subscribed to the mantra of, “The harder you work, the luckier you get.” The longer hours and additional responsibilities created stress, but you learned to deal with it.
The rewards included higher pay and the intrinsic benefits that accompany success such as confidence and a sense of accomplishment.
I’m willing to consider that some younger workers are not seeing the benefits of going the extra mile. They are saddled by student debt, consumed by anxiety and disappointed that, for them, the old work ethic model does not seem to be leading to a better life than their parents had.
However, “quiet quitting” sounds like an excuse. It is a professional-sounding term for mailing it in at work. And since work migrates to those who will do it, somebody else is going to have to pick up the slack.
What would happen if this caught on?
Imagine the EMS crew that is slow to respond because it is sooo close to the end of their shift? How about the schoolteacher that cannot be bothered to spend a little extra time with a student that needs help? And how upset are all those Gen Zers going to be if they have to stand in line for 15 extra minutes at the coffee shop because a barista has decided to work-to-rule?
As an aging boomer, my advice to those engaged in “quiet quitting” is this: Just go ahead and quit! We will find someone else for the job. There is work to be done.
