Ask a Manager: All this talk about "quiet quitting" is absurd

[minoanmiss]

At Slate today, I wrote about the terribly-named “quiet quitting” trend — how it mirrors a larger change in people’s relationship to work, and why a lot of workers are disgusted with the idea that they should do more than “quietly quit.”

https://slate.com/human-interest/2022/10/quiet-quitting-terribly-named-work-trend.html

https://www.askamanager.org/2022/10/all-this-talk-aboutquiet-quitting-is-absurd.html

Comments

[ashbet]

minoanmiss Hahahah, I misread this at first, and was like "Ooohh, you wrote an article for Slate??"

I have now developed actual reading comprehension and see that it was a quote ;)

[lethe1]

So did I :)

And yes too everything in that article.

[minoanmiss]

blushes ahaha don't I wish!

[raven]

Ahahaha, I was literally typing into a discord box "...I think someone I know is Alison Green???"

[green_grrl]

The first time I heard the term “quiet quitting” I misunderstood that it meant someone who was really spending all their time looking for another job (or online shopping, or watching Netflix, or on social media) while still on the payroll. When I realized it was people actually fulfilling their job descriptions I was incensed. That is not remotely quitting of any variety!

[resonant]

Yeah, for a while I thought it was what my state government coworkers used to call RIP - Retired In Place - i.e. I'll do the absolute minimum, I'll do it on my own timetable, and eventually all real work will be routed around me. (Which obvs is a real phenomenon,and not a new one, since I was in that job in the '80s.)

Pretty annoying that instead we have a scary term for "sorry, boss, I don't work for exposure."

[leeshajoy]

Pretty annoying that instead we have a scary term for "sorry, boss, I don't work for exposure."

THANK YOU. I was just about to comment that this sounds exactly like all those clients who insist "it'll be great exposure!" to work for them for free.

[gingicat]

This is good too:
https://www.tumblr.com/chrisatola/698405592671404032

[ashbet]

That is excellent (and, amusingly, one of my longtime RL friends is in that response chain!)

[xenacryst]

I am nowhere near a "young employee" and I've been working to rule for quite some time - in fact, it was one of the benefits of jumping from academia IT to corporate IT. I got a little stricter about it a few years ago when we got some deck chairs shuffled in a way I didn't really like, and a year ago I made it a really hard line by becoming a contractor at the same place. I have a bloody life, and I intend to live it, and if anyone has a problem with that it doesn't seem to be my coworkers or my immediate management chain.

[laurajv]

I work in a research group where the PI WANTS us to work to rule. "they don't pay you enough to do extra! don't do it!"

I love her.

[lassarina]

When I interviewed at my current employment thirteen years ago, the executive director sat me down and said "Listen, we really like you and we've loved your interviews, but I have a concern. I know you went to [prestigious university] and did well. The thing is, this is a place where I expect your best for the hours you're here--and then I want you to go home and leave the work here. Are you going to be okay with that?" It was an A++++ conversation.

[minoanmiss]

That is MIRACULOUS. I feel like you just told me about the time you petted a unicorn or something.