What Is Quiet Quitting?
Quiet quitting means only doing the minimum your job requires. Corporate workers are often expected to go the extra mile at their jobs by coming in early, staying late, and doing more work than they’re being compensated for. People who quiet quit reject this workplace culture and only perform the tasks they’re specifically getting paid to do.
People quiet quit to reduce stress and work at their pay grade. It’s not that they don’t want to work for a living. It’s just that they want to have a living to enjoy and not join the 44% of US employees suffering from burnout. With our fast-paced, grueling corporate job culture, that’s not always possible.
Employees quiet quit until they see improvement or find another job. Some companies take actionable steps to increase their employees’ satisfaction with their jobs, like raising their salaries or reducing their workloads. Others ignore the situation and wait for it to resolve itself. The “solution” is often the employee finding another job and quitting completely or staying due to a lack of options. Quiet quitters who can’t find new jobs may fall into a new workplace attitude called resenteeism. Resenteeism, meaning “resentment” and “absenteeism,” is when employees quiet quit and want to leave their jobs, but can’t find a better position somewhere else. Not only are resenteeism workers doing the minimum at the job, but they’re also doing it with an attitude of resentment. This puts even more pressure on business owners and managers to address the quiet quitting issue.
Quiet quitting gained notoriety in 2022 through a viral TikTok. The TikTok in question, posted by creator zaid leppelin (@zaidleppelin), discusses quiet quitting as quitting “going above and beyond” and “no longer subscribing to the hustle mentality.”
How to Quiet Quit Your Job (Without Getting Fired)
Stop doing any tasks that aren’t in your job description. If necessary, look at the description for your position and note the work you were hired to do. Then make a list of all the tasks you perform regularly and remove any of them that don’t match the description from your schedule.
Stop showing up early to work and only arrive on time. Don’t walk into the office or clock in until the exact minute you’re supposed to start working. For example, if you’re supposed to start at 9 AM, stop starting your day at 8:30 AM or even 8:55 AM. That extra time is unpaid, and you shouldn’t feel obligated to work during it.
Stop staying late in the office and leave on time. All those late nights you’ve spent at the office cramming for a presentation or laboring over a last-minute assignment from your boss end here. If you get off at 5 PM, that’s when you should leave. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the middle of a project. The hours after you’re supposed to clock out at work belong to you, not your boss.
Refuse office communications outside of working hours. Don’t answer any emails, Slack messages, text messages, or phone calls from your office beyond your regular 9-5. This includes evenings, early mornings, weekends, and any days you take off for sick time or vacations.
Don’t take work home with you. Bringing work home prevents you from enjoying leisure time and maintaining a healthy work-life balance. It also makes you burn out faster, which in turn makes it more difficult for you to perform even just your minimum duties.
Don’t attend non-mandatory meetings or social work functions. These are often a waste of your time and can also take place outside of business hours. You must show your manager that you have a firm boundary between work and life, as well as a second boundary between what they want you to do and what they’re paying you to do. Life coach Maggie Mitchell offers this advice for people who struggle to maintain boundaries at work: “Letting people know that you have boundaries and aren’t a push over is key... Always be your own time keeper by setting limits and controlling your schedule. You may have to say yes, but you can control the how and when.”
Quiet Quitting Real Life Examples
Daniella Flores quiet quit after their managers refused to promote them. They were working 50-60 hours a week, and the work was far beyond what they signed up for. So Danielle reduced their work week to 40-45 hours, focused only on their assigned tasks, and avoided non-mandatory meetings. Ultimately, Danielle quit their IT job completely to start her own website.
Clayton Farris adopted a quiet quit mindset in freelancing. He realized he was constantly anxious about whether he would get more jobs or if his clients were satisfied with his work. He decided to take a step back from work whenever possible, starting with small habits like closing his laptop when he’s waiting for a response to an email he sent.
Maggie Perkins quiet quit to avoid daycare fines. As a teacher, Perkins was expected to work 50+ hours a week and not leave the school to pick up her daughter until after the daycare’s pickup time. Once she made it clear that she would leave work earlier to pick up her daughter on time, she realized she could set other boundaries, as well. One of those included grading papers during an hour when they asked her to substitute for another teacher. Maggie is now a teacher advocate and holds a PhD in language and literacy education.
Is quiet quitting real?
In 2023, 62% of employees worldwide were disengaged from work. “Disengaged” means they show no enthusiasm or interest in work beyond the minimum required of them – essentially, over half the globe’s workers are quiet quitters. This is a real phenomenon that cost the economy $8.9 trillion that same year.
Reasons to Quiet Quit
Low pay with a disproportionately high workload. If you’re doing two or three times the amount of work you normally do or you’re being assigned tasks above your pay grade, but still getting paid the same low rate, that alone is reason enough to quiet quit. There’s no benefit to it for you if it doesn’t lead to a salary increase.
No upward advancement opportunities. Some employees will hang onto jobs, hoping they’ll get promoted higher up in the company. But when this doesn’t happen, especially after you’ve worked hard to prove you’re worthy of career advancement, it’s time to stop giving your company more of your time and talent than they’re actually paying you for.
Bad work-life balance. If your manager constantly asks you to work overtime, take projects home with you, and answer their messages on your time off, that’s a bad work-life balance. That path leads to stress, which can cause mental health and physical breakdowns. The only way to stop this toxic cycle is to erect a firm quiet quitting boundary around your personal time.
Stressful or toxic working environment. Employees may be driven to quiet quit if their workplace is dysfunctional, stressful, and unpleasant to work in. Reducing their hours to the minimum number and avoiding tasks that aren’t in their job description are necessary coping mechanisms to get them through the day.
How to Spot the Signs of Quiet Quitting
Drops the number of hours they work to a minimum. For example, if they had been putting in 50-60 hours a week and suddenly decreased to 40 hours a week, they probably determined they were working too hard for too little benefit.
Doesn’t show up to meetings or work functions. They no longer attend non-mandatory meetings, avoid appearing at work parties, and don’t socialize with their coworkers after business hours.
Communicates only when they feel they have to. They stay silent for as long as possible in meetings, only reply to important emails and Slack messages, and won’t answer any communications during their off hours.
Refuses to complete any tasks outside their job description. In our example about teacher Maggie Perkins, Perkins was told to substitute teach during an hour allotted to her for grading papers. Even though she was still present in the classroom, she made a point to grade her papers anyway and let the students perform their own work.
How Managers Can Prevent Quiet Quitting
Respect their time off. Don’t make them start early, work late, take work home, or attend events that aren’t critical to their job. This will help them foster a better balance between their professional career and their personal life, as well as lead to less burnout.
Acknowledge and appreciate their hard work and talent. Expressions of gratitude and approval go a long way to helping your employees feel like their work actually matters. When they feel their work is valued, they’ll be more incentivized to keep it up.
Offer support to boost employee happiness and productivity. Let your employees know you’re their resource whenever they feel overwhelmed or dissatisfied with their job. You may not be able to solve all their problems, but you can still take concrete actions like helping them prioritize projects, resolve communication issues, and reduce stress.
Next Steps After Quiet Quitting Your Job
Find another job or career. Keep in mind that just because you’re quiet quitting doesn’t mean your manager will treat you any better or improve your situation. In that case, your only option is to work somewhere else. So fire up that resume and your LinkedIn profile and starting networking for your next big corporate adventure. You don’t have to jump right into working for another company. Try starting your own business or taking on a few side hustles. Be your own boss!
Go back to school. In some industries, obtaining a higher-level degree can open you up to more lucrative jobs. If you have the means, enroll in a university online or in-person and add a new degree and career skills to your resume.
Check items off your bucket list. Since you’re not overworking anymore, you may finally have time to do some of the things you’ve been dreaming about your whole life. Schedule that trip to Mount Everest, register for a cooking class, or make your way through all those unread books on your shelf. The sky’s the limit!
Spend more quality time with family and friends. Before you started quiet quitting, you were so busy that you barely had time for yourself, let alone time for your loved ones. Now that you’re finally clocking out at 5 PM like normal, reconnect with the people you’ve had to neglect and make beautiful new memories together.
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