#quietquitting

In these days of inflation, not getting a COL raise is the same as getting a pay cut. They don't need to lay folks off if they can compel their employees to leave voluntarily. Why else do you think they're bringing folks back to the office? #SilentLayoffs, #Quietquitting. What comes around, goes around.

The secret's out. After realizing that hustle culture is a one-way ticket to burnout, mental health issues and premature signs of aging, the hottest trend in the workplace is "quiet quitting."

What is quiet quitting? Hint: It's not the name of John Krasinki's next silent horror movie.

The phrase comes from—where else—kids on TikTok. Here's how user Zaid Khan explains it: "I learned about this term called 'quiet quitting' where you're not outright quitting your job but you're quitting the idea of going above and beyond at work. You're still performing your duties but you're no longer subscribing to the hustle culture mentality that work has to be your life. The reality is, it's not and your worth as a person is not defined by your labor."

The concept is simple enough: Do your job but don't ki-l yourself. Going "above and beyond" is optional, not mandatory as many of us have been indoctrinated to believe.

And if your job expects superhuman commitment, then you better be compensated like one.
“I realized no matter how much work I put in I’m not going to see the payoff that I’m expecting,” said Khan, a 24-year-old software developer and musician. “Overworking only gets you so far in corporate America. And like a lot of us have experienced in the past few years, mental and physical health really takes a backseat to productivity in a lot of these structured corporate environments.”

Quiet quitting is resonating in a big way. As NPR reports, the hastag #quietquitting quickly garnered 8.2 million views since the TikTok was posted.

It's easy to conflate quiet quitting with glamorizing underperformance but this isn't about discouraging ambition. You should dream big. But spend those extra hours having fun, pursuing passions and hobbies and building your personal brand.

As expected, those in the C-suite are fighting this. “Quiet quitting is a really bad idea,” said Kevin O’Leary, an investor and star of ABC’s Shark Tank, according to CNBC. “People that go beyond to try to solve problems for the organization, their teams, their managers, their bosses, those are the ones that succeed in life."

That sounds fine and good for a guy with an estimated net worth of $400 million. He (like all business owners) benefit from the sweat equity of their employees. But how many of these employees ever see even a sliver of that wealth?

As someone who works in the music industry, I know first-hand the obscene discrepancy between those at the top and everybody else. I've seen people slog for years in unpaid internships, entry-level positions and middle management. Hamsters on the wheel to nowhere. Budgets get cut while execs spend millions on vanity projects and ego st-----g. Employees live in constant fear of the next round of layoffs. Many can't even do basic adulting like purchase a home or have real retirement savings.

I don't even need to bring out the statistics on how this breaks down in terms of gender and race. You already know.

Call it quiet quitting or smartening up.

Don't confuse YOUR self worth with a company's net worth.