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The past couple of years have changed so many things about our lives, but arguably one of the upsides is that people seem to know their worth and be willing to demand better treatment at work.
One of the ways this is happening is through “quiet quitting,” which is the practice of doing the absolute bare minimum to get by at one’s job and offering no more, because your employer gives you no reason to go above and beyond.
These 16 people have opinions on the matter, and they’re really all over the board!
16. The term itself is rude.
I resent the term “quiet quitting”, as a person who is protective of their time outside office hours. This doesn’t make me a bad employee, it makes me a better one.
I’m very good at my job, and am able to do it better than some in fewer hours, and I don’t suffer from burn out because I make sure I get time to switch off. Measure my performance on the work I do, not the time I’m available.
This term really is corporations responding to the mass realisation that they can’t bully and trick 1 person into doing 2 people’s jobs any more.
15. There are no discounts.
The phrase “you get what you pay for” applies to employers too. They shouldn’t expect to get premium production at a discount.
14. The wage determines everything.
I have a $35k/year secretarial job while I study for my Salesforce admin cert.
I’m not “quiet quitting”. I develop myself in my spare time and am not paid enough to sacrifice my future for your company.
When I’m making $80k as an admin, I will act like someone who makes $80k and sacrifice as needed. The wage determines everything and after years in various corporate roles, I draw boundaries with people from the beginning.
13. If it can wait…
I was in the Army when a Colonel told me to act my pay grade. Stop doing extra and do what my rank was assigned without the bows and ribbons. Take my lunch, quit working though it.
I was worried about things that could wait until the next day.
Work your wage, yo.
12. More and more people are jumping on the bandwagon.
Just today I decided to do this. I get here 2 hours early to make sure everything is straight so that I can give my boss any updates needed from the night crew. I am supposed to have a 30 min unpaid lunch, I usually work through this. I will also stay later than anyone else just to cover for my bosses so they can go home at their normal time. I am hourly and get overtime so it worked out. I am supposed to only create the training material and make sure everyone is highly trained. This is a industrial environment so we take it seriously. It also causes me to have to come in on my days off sometimes to meet with trainees. I also deal with contractors which is something that no other person in my role has to do. This causes me to some days work from 5am to 10pm (I did this Monday and Tuesday this week already) as I am not allowed to work over 16 hours a day. I have never complained as the money was good.
Today my department is told all overtime has to be approved daily. I asked if this included me and it does. Because certain individuals have been caught not working while they are on overtime, the entire department has been punished. I asked if I could go ahead and get my stuff approved as I get up and leave my house around 4:30am and I don’t want to have to call him that early. I was told he sees no benefit of me coming in that early or staying that late.
So I will only work my 8 hours, and I am cutting my phone off during my lunch break. I will not cover for them again nor will I work late to help get us back running. I have turned over the contractor paperwork and will no longer be handling it. Seeing as all that I do is not beneficial, it should not cause us any disruptions.
11. Not new advice.
This advice is key. Where I work we are chronically short staffed and tasks that you volunteer for tend to become permanent.
I learned a long time ago that you get the same 2.5% raise as everyone else regardless.
10. Above my pay grade.
I mean I signed a contract that I would work x hours in this role. Both parties agreed. Of course there might be peaks that require overtime.
But if I’m required to work more hours than agreed on a regular basis, that’s a problem for my manager.
9. There’s just more work waiting.
Unless it’s literally your own business, or you earn bonus/commission based on how much you produce, there is almost 0 incentive to work harder/longer/through lunch/etc.
Chances are, you’re just gonna get more work for the same pay, and you won’t get any promotions if you’re good at your job because the company wants to keep you right where you are.
8. Do what you’re paid for.
Its a fancy term for “doing what you’re paid for” to make it sound like you’re not doing what you’re paid for.
I don’t think everyone should do it, but I do think everyone has the right to do it. If you want to get ahead or a promotion or a bigger than average wage, then you probably should be doing more, but if you’re happy doing your job at the wage you’re being paid, just do your job.
Also, if you realise that if doing more doesn’t actually get you those things above with your current employer, just do you job and look for a new one.
7. Just common sense.
I’ve been doing this for years lol. Just common sense to me. I do what I get paid to do. I do my hours, no more no less. If I have to work overtime I’m claiming every single millisecond of it. It’s a job. Not my life
Had a situation once where someone called in sick and no one could come in to replace them. Which is not the end of the world. Had to stay 30 minutes passed my scheduled time to ensure everything was done, so I put that on my timesheet.
When I came in the next day I saw someone scratched out my 30 minutes extra and put in my normal finish time. Obviously that pissed me off so I went to the boss and asked what the fuck was this. They said they don’t pay overtime and other shit.
So I said well here’s what’s gonna happen. Either you pay me for the extra time or I’ll go straight to the department of labour and file a complaint. Don’t think they expected a 20 year old (at the time) to stick up for themselves.
6. It’s just negative spin.
You’re not “quitting” anything. You’re doing the job you’re being paid to do, no more, no less. Otherwise known as…working.
It’s a bs term with a negative spin to demoralise and segregate those who are just happy with what they’ve got and the job they do. No-one should ever feel like they should do more than is required of them. There more to life than your job.
5. Just so you know.
It’s like the old story of the welder at a job interview for a position that pays “$20-$40/hr.” They have the welder do 2 test welds to show their skill. One is a perfect weld, the other is a sloppy mess.
The interviewer asks why they did so bad on the second weld and is told “that’s the $20/hr weld, the other is my $40/hr weld.”
4. It’s not quitting.
Quiet quitting was coined by corporate to make it sound bad and put employees who do it in a bad light.
Simply put, it means doing exactly what you agreed to and what you are paid for.
This is not quitting by any dictionary I am familiar with. This is plain and simple doing your job.
Corporate ‘culture’ has it you have to work more than you agreed to, more than your contracted hours, more than you are paid for, to impress the employer, to “show you care” and other bullshit like that. People are gradually waking up to the realisation that this is all unacceptable.
If we flip this on its head, why doesn’t the company pay me more than we agreed? Or why doesn’t it cut an hour or two off my day’s shift? I’m sure any corporate linguist could find a variety of reasons to respond to that, and those are the exact reasons why the employee should not work past their hours and pay.
So no. ‘Quiet quitting’ doesn’t exist, purely because it has nothing to do with quitting.
3. Don’t fall for it.
Has anyone here ever worked somewhere, had a supervisor quit, then had to do the supervisor’s job, but while being told they can’t actually make you officially the supervisor yet, just so they don’t have to give you a pay rise?
I’ve known several people who have had this happen to them, and they get strung along with the promise that eventually they will have the title and pay rise.
No one should fall for it.
2. No incentive to try.
As someone who used to bust my a$$ and bend over backwards I stopped. Because I was laid off permanently while all the new guys got to keep their jobs because they were “cheaper” and all the promotions I’ve worked off for were all given to outside hires with no experience.
So now I look at as “why bother trying?” There’s literally no incentive to try. Raises aren’t different for people who work harder anymore. It’s all based on how long your with the company.
1. That and nothing more.
This is why it’s so important to always copy the text in the job opening and save it somewhere on your drive. Whenever salary or responsibility comes up you can point at that text and state you were hired for that and nothing more.
Many people take on responsibilities because they want to help or think they will get recognition. Then time passes and people start expecting them to always fulfill that function.
It’s so interesting to hear random opinions on subjects like these.
What do you think of “quiet quitting” or “acting you wage?” Tell us down in the comments!
