Over the last few months, you may have heard the term “Quiet Quitting” floating around the workplace. So, what does it actually mean?
Quiet Quitting, in plain terms, means doing your job. It means accomplishing the requirements of your position and not overexerting or exploiting your time and energy to go above and beyond.
When employees suffer from burnout, the onus is typically placed back onto the employee blaming them for their lack of self care & inability to balance. But really, it is the exploitative employer at fault and if we’re really being honest, a system that operates best when it can manipulate its employees.
Prior to the pandemic, work culture was based on going above and beyond. How many after work events did you attend? The term “Side Hustle” is a part of our everyday vernacular. It seems that if you don’t have multiple side hustles in addition to your job, are you even working hard?
Our society often equates exhaustion/burnout with hard work but you do not have to sacrifice your well being for your employer.
Because of the pandemic, we all had a moment to stop, take a breath, and evaluate what is most important to us. Surprise, surprise, for many people it turned out that work is not the most important thing anymore. While our society faced immense loss and collective tragedy, people started to be the focus again, not work. In a world that told us coming into the office was essential and could not operate any other way, we discovered that was untrue for many companies (not counting us, as we’ve always been and will always be remote!)
The world of 2022 is much different than that of 2020. With remote work booming and the “Great Resignation” now in our lexicon, “Quiet Quitting” feels like the next frontier.
But why are employers afraid of Quiet Quitting? If an employer fears you taking time to care for yourself, something needs to change. Organizational shifts, both in for-profit orgs and nonprofit spaces, are difficult, but necessary for the well being of everyone. For far too long, the capitalism machine has manipulated employees’ passions in order to earn get more labor and time from them.
For us and for many practitioners of conscious capitalism, Quiet Quitting means we’re doing something right.
Employees have the right to make and keep boundaries. Healthy & balanced employees stick around longer and ultimately perform better at their given tasks. You are hired to perform a job and perform said job tasks well. Quiet Quitting allows employees to do just that. Here at Digital Mountaineers, we hire passionate people who care about the well being of humanity. In turn, we respect one another’s humanity by encouraging a Life/Work balance, not the other way around. Albeit a challenge in a hurried world, we defend our team members right to do the job they were hired for, and clock out!
Pre-pandemic, folks were promoted or considered more often for raises because they were outgoing and social. Though in many of those positions, extra curricular socializing is not in the job description. Working from home has turned out to be a great equalizer, with an employee’s merit & value now solely based on, you guessed it, their work. It doesn’t come as a surprise that folks feel worried that this Quiet Quitting could lead to an overall dissatisfaction with work. At the end of the day, a job is just that – a job. And that’s okay to say out loud.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on Quiet Quitting? Share them with us in the comments below.
