With each passing year, the workplace goes through trends. We’ve experienced girl bosses, hustlers, and solopreneurs — but 2022 is the year of the quiet quitters.
In this phenomenon, individuals choose to do the bare minimum, but they keep their jobs — at least until they find a new one or their current employer interferes. But, the key to quiet quitting is keeping your mouth shut. You come to work, do what’s absolutely required, and get your paycheck.
Recent assessments of the trend would have you believing people are simply doing this due to burnout or stress, but there’s more to the story. In fact, assigning all responsibility to the employee understates the real issue at hand. The workplace is changing with the times, but employers aren’t adapting. So, people aren’t expecting change.
These terms might be new, but they’re a culmination of decades of problems, and the fact that workers are calling themselves quiet has got a lot of people talking.
Quietly Quitting
The concept of quiet quitting started getting traction — like most modern trends — on TikTok when users started adding the hashtag in early 2021. This was a time period perfect for changes in the workplace. First, the pandemic changed a large number of work environments, then the job market rebounded in 2021.
If people were going to make moves, this was the time to do it, but many people were exhausted from the past year. So, to avoid burnout, they decided to float in their jobs. This meant doing exactly what was required to receive a paycheck without going above and beyond. People weren’t becoming slackers, because that would mean having to address performance issues. Rather, they wanted to avoid letting their jobs consume their lives.
For some people, this displays a lack of ambition; for others, it’s giving their employer what it’s paying for. In fact, 87% of employers have dealt with burn-out-related issues. If employees are accomplishing their job and maintaining a good work-life balance, where’s the issue?
Despite doing their job, many people feel they’re not doing enough. Up to 85% of people feel they have imposter syndrome at their jobs, meaning many people feel they need to put in a great effort to simply maintain their employment.
Quite Promotions
Before we point the finger at the employee, we need to understand why people feel such pressure to exceed expectations, and the things required to perform well. In America, this often means long hours, little vacation, and silently complying with your boss. It gets exhausting, but workers who want a raise or promotion can’t just excel in their duties. They need to play this game.
Often, managers will assign competent workers with additional tasks and responsibilities. This comes with more stress and potentially more hours, but no additional pay.
And yes, this is legal. There’s a good possibility that your employer knows exactly what it’s doing by recognizing potential and giving additional work before contracts can be updated. After all, job descriptions often have “other duties as assigned” included to account for such changes.
These quiet promotions, sometimes called invisible promotions, can take a mental toll on workers, especially when they’re given additional responsibilities and often more advanced ones. By the time there is a job opening, it’s common for the overworked employee to get passed over for an external hire, rendering their efforts useless.
Of course, this is not the case in every situation, but it’s a scenario common enough to get mocked on television. Employees familiar with this office dynamic don’t want to partake in the games, so some choose to avoid spreading themselves too thin for a chance at getting a promotion.
Quiet Firing
The quiet quitters may feel they’re avoiding the workplace stresses that foster quiet promotions, but employers are responding with quiet firings. This describes a tactic employers use to isolate employees and make them feel unwelcome, hoping it will force workers will leave on their own accord.
So, why not just fire the employee? There can be a number of reasons that complicate the process, or employers don’t want to dismiss the person without just cause. But often, managers are just protecting themselves, because they have managers too. They’d rather an employee leaves on their own accord than have to explain the decision to a superior.
Nobody wants to get fired, but it’s especially frustrating when you can’t work to correct errors or improve your performance. However, quiet firings are often used in scenarios where work is satisfactory and the issue is more personal. So, there isn’t much to document, but at least the employee won’t have the blemish of termination on their record.
It’s easy to understand why many people don’t feel safe in their position at work. Either you’re taking responsibilities beyond your pay grade, or you’re adhering to your assigned duties and looking like a slacker. And by the time you notice things are going awry, you’re already getting quietly fired.
The Message In the Quietness
All of these “quiet” terms — quitting, promoting, and firing— describe s that aren’t exactly new, but they’re prominent in our current working landscape for a reason. With the pandemic, many people have reassessed their career paths and priorities. Many people had the opportunity to work remotely, which led to a better work-life balance. In some cases, they’d rather stay home than take a job that jeopardizes their new work style. Other people want to explore different fields, and in those cases, they just don’t care to rock the boat.
But those are the best-case scenarios. These phenomena all have one major commonality: Communication is broken. Roughly 70% of managers in the US dislike talking to their employees, and that helps form an environment that encourages silence.
If you view the issue from the other angle, employees aren’t doing much better. If someone is feeling stressed or upset, they’re likely to suffer in silence. About 54% of people won’t talk to their employer about issues impacting their mental health, and money adds another layer of complexity. If someone wants a raise, they’ll probably fall into the 57% of people who won’t ask. So, they’ll likely take the alternate approach of getting more money and look for a new job.
Who is this bad for? It depends, but right now the market seems to favor job seekers. So, employers might want to try connecting with the silent employees they’d like to retain. But don’t get too comfortable doing the bare minimum in your job. The tide could turn, and those unimpressive habits could catch up to you. When it becomes an employer’s market and your supervisor is suspiciously mute, you might be getting quietly fired so a young, eager employee will come to take your desk and 120% of your work.
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