Have we done the latest work trend yet?
Most workers are “quiet quitting”, according to a new survey released by Gallup. Quiet quitting describes employees who put in minimum effort and feel disconnected from their work.
Gallup estimates that lost productivity owing to low employee engagement could account for $8.8tn globally, or 9.9 per cent of global gross domestic product.
FT: https://www.ft.com/content/20f50964-9ed6-4c88-87bf-5f1b94574825
Also Gallup: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/398306/quiet-quitting-real.aspx
That sounds like my whole working life
I prefer managed mediocrity.
I prefer managed mediocrity.
Wasn't that 2022?
New ? Been in a pipe for the last 18months ?
And let's be honest many companies that suffer from quiet quiters often brought it on themselves
Its a fancy term that seems to have more than one definition. I've normally seen it used to describe a work to rule/no additional hours or roles scenario.
I think it has always existed. Talking with friends I get the impression that demands and expectations in a variety of jobs have got so disconnected from what is realistically attainable that people have given up trying.
demands and expectations in a variety of jobs have got so disconnected from what is realistically attainable that people have given up trying.
Yes many companies have expectations and demands that are reliant on goodwill.
In essence they are making an unviable business viable in many cases by making goodwill their profitmargin.
It's a perjorative phrase invented by the business media world to describe the unforgivable action of a worker who does exactly what they are contracted to do. To be bandied around by middle-managers when they're annoyed their underlings aren't on call 24/7 but aren't able to reprimand them because they're not actually employed to be.
Gallup estimates that lost productivity owing to low employee engagement could account for $8.8tn globally, or 9.9 per cent of global gross domestic product.
Another way of wording this might be: Gallup estimates that $8.8tn globally is added to businesses' top line through the goodwill of employees who go over and above what they're employed to do for no extra remuneration.
I had a boss years ago that asked me if I really wanted to be working there (joinery company) as it didn't seem like my heart was in it.
I had to admit that I didn't, so I left.
August 2022 - Quiet quitting is the new big thing
October 2022 - quiet quitting is over
https://www.businessinsider.com/quiet-quitting-already-over-layoffs-jobs-recession-economy-2022-10
Post covid news: Create new world for something that has existed since the beginning of time. Claim it's a new trend or mental model and blame it for the downfall of society.
It used to be called lazy described half the workforce some of the places I had summer jobs at growing up.
It also requires B grade or lower quality managers to exist and flourish.
Some might call it quiet quitting, but the pre-cursor to that, I call, being 'managed out'.
- Being forced to be on call for a pittance and not being allowed to go to the pub when on call (remote IT support job, not driving or medical stuff).
- Getting blamed for not resolving issues when specialised technical resources are not made available (by the same manager)
- Getting writen up for turning up late to work when you've been up till 4am dealing with some BS that you don't have any control over.
And yes, I've been there!
I'd hoped that I'd have been made redundant from the total bunch of #%@£ts that reverse-took-over and wrecked the Co I was in for near 30 years. But the wehaaaankers wouldn't, even when they put others at risk of redundancy.
Several friends there who were similarly brassed off (quite a lot!) decided to 'quiet quit' and hold out until either they got shoved out, or their min pension age was reached.
(I decided I couldn't wait that long and couldn't suck up the total baaaalux any more, and ****ed off to an alternative business in the end)
Have we done the latest work trend yet?
Latest trend is "lazy girl jobs"
There doesn't appear to be male equivalent, because misogyny.
It used to be called lazy
I disagree, lazy has always been there. But a lot of people have taken stock and reacted to the poor corporate working conditions that have been on the rise. People are just saying **** it, I am not going to take this shit anymore, people who have histories of grafting throughout their lives are realising it has got them nowhere, and are returning the "loyalty" that their employers have shown them.
Most people want to be productive and engaged in their working lives, but if that option isn't available due to poor management and inane corporate structures, then they are now just looking after themselves without the pretence of a career and the hard work myth, most people have jobs not careers.
It used to be called lazy described
It also requires B grade or lower quality managers to exist and flourish.
Agree'd lazy as a B grade manager would call it. Head too far in the sand out of touch with the issues on the shop floor managing from the back.
A leader* would see it from the floor and work with the team to promote and develop a non toxic culture.
Truth is - many managers are adopting the same attitude because they are not getting the support and resource required to adequately deliver the expectation.
*I've had some great leaders in full on shitshows that have fostered a team spirit against the odds pulled the delivery oy the bag . And I've worked in some great teams micro managed by a total shitshow who have had hand out projects go to pot.
slackboy
Full MemberThere doesn’t appear to be male equivalent, because misogyny.
article:
The posters appear to be unanimously women
🤔
I quiet quit every time my CEO (who I have the mis-fortune to report directly to) tries to micro-manage the entire workforce, interferes in everyone's work AND sets insane targets for deliverables.
(Frankly, I don't know how he has time to do all the meddling he does....
Actually, yes I do...because he spends zero time thinking about strategy and where the company is going)
But a lot of people have taken stock and reacted to the poor corporate working conditions that have been on the rise. People are just saying **** it, I am not going to take this shit anymore, people who have histories of grafting throughout their lives are realising it has got them nowhere, and are returning the “loyalty” that their employers have shown them.
Nail on the head. I think less and less people are willing to put up with work bollox any more, especially with such a buoyant job market (in the UK at least).
I quiet quit every time my CEO (who I have the mis-fortune to report directly to) tries to micro-manage the entire workforce, interferes in everyone’s work AND sets insane targets for deliverables.
This +1, new boss for ~12months has killed the enjoyable job. I'm coasting and seeing how long I can get away with it.
This +1, new boss for ~12months has killed the enjoyable job. I’m coasting and seeing how long I can get away with it.
I was insulated from a lot of this shit until my boss quit a few months back and he hasn't been replaced, hence no sanity buffer between me and the CEO...
vlad - time to get out.
frankconway
Full Member
vlad – time to get out.
Too close to retirement to consider another full time "career"...I'm counting down the weeks
Too close to retirement to consider another full time “career”…I’m counting down the weeks
If it all works out for you you may get unfairly dismissed and get a double payout at or just after retirement.
I've been sliding into this mindset since our Dept was subjected to a disastrous and ill-conceived restructure 2.5 years ago - we were losing 1 person a month last year, which in a team of 40 is huge.
I've decided i want out - at 50 years old i don't think i can face another 15/16 years of being overloaded, unsupported and fed up. I've been doing a Project Management qualification which was going to be my ticket out (hopefully around Christmas) but just failed the exam, so the whole plan will be shifted back 4-6 months.
Poor leadership (Grade B managers) are 100% responsible for my mindset.
I'm doing this now as well.
I was a low-level manager with a small team, working my socks off. After a couple of changes to my immediate line manager, and the continual ratcheting up of the processes I was supposed to operate, I realized I could no longer do my job to the standard I expected of myself.
So for a while I became a quiet-quit manager (no-one noticed, so I think I must have really sucked as a manager even before) and then eventually I switched role back to software development.
It was quite an emotional wrench to leave my team (and apparently they are not happy about it) but trying to do my original job was slowly killing me and sucking all the joy out of everything I did.
I'm still with the same company, and I'm still in two minds as to whether I should have just left entirely. Only time will tell, but Quiet Quitting so far is much preferable.
As above, it's been and gone mate.
Yep I resemble that remark.
Did 8 hours overtime last year. Planning on hitting zero this. Could use the extra as everyone could but am lucky to be ok financially. But hate the company who seem to be enjoying the financial crisis to basically force the staff into working extra hours. Nobody has had a pay rise in a decade, but you can work an extra shift a week to make your money up. Manager wasn't impressed that I was planning on telling my barber to work Sunday too instead of passing on a 20% increase.
Hopefully they crack and lay me off in the not too distant future.
So for a while I became a quiet-quit manager (no-one noticed, so I think I must have really sucked as a manager even before) and then eventually I switched role back to software development.
Sounds like we've had similar experiences. I remember a few years ago telling my boss that he was demanding the impossible (he wanted me to recruit a software team paying 10-15k below market rate salaries) so I passed on the responsibility to someone else and became a developer again. I probably should have left at that point, and I would be better off now if I did, but the only reason I didn't was because that's what he wanted/expected. Instead I quietly compensated myself for all the stress and ball-ache by working an unofficial 4 day week and no one noticed. It was at that point I realised that I'd figured work out. 😀
Working hard seems to have very little correlation with job security as redundancy / closure is usually a board level decision with no link to the individual.
Working hard also doesn't seem to get you promoted or paid more as much as simple networking or toadying or even just lying.
To quote an old Viz comedy tea mug "churn it out and F off early" life is too short and more and more people are now waking up to that.
Blackflag pretty much sums it up for me.
To quote an old Viz comedy tea mug “churn it out and F off early” life is too short and more and more people are now waking up to that.
My old boss (the last time I had a permanent job before going self-employed, 9 years ago), bought me that mug as he said it summarised my attitude to my job. I take that as a badge of honour! 😀
Yes noticed references in that guardian article about lazy girl jobs to hustle culture and couldn't help but think it more as hassle culture.
I think its mostly an office culture thing, and I think its been around for years just has a 'label' now.
People work really hard and have decent success increasing thier salaries and responsibilities until they hit the middle/senior management ceiling. At that point working hard work seems to have little correlation to getting promoted or pay increases. In fact the observed behaviours of senior / exec are in fact the opposite of what you;ve done so far to get up the slippery pole.
Choices:
- change - work on 'politics' and forget about working 'hard'
- continue working harder and harder - eventually burnout due to lack of recognition
- quiet quit - work to the objectives you;ve been asked to
- get another job - and start the cycle again. all you are doing is buying a little time before you realise you are back in the same loop
I've been asked over the years to take on more responsibilities, covering resignations, needing to 'prove' you can work at the next level before you can be promoted. Etc... its just a mugs game
Next time I have my builder in, I'll ask him to do a few other jobs, not on the quote and say its because I might pay him more next time!!??!?! wonder how that conversation would go.
My work in particular is having a really hard time with staff engagement, and is kidding itself that it can keep paying below market rates and offer way way below inflation rises and keep people. To quote one director - ' they want to give us meaningful work'. Nearly spat out my coffee. And no, I do not work at a charity.
Yea ........
I've been made redundant, then (eventually, after pursuing a different career for 5 years) hired back on a fixed term contract, then that was ended, then hired back on another one, then extended.
I've not quiet quit, but I suspect I take less shit, do less extra curricular stuff and have openly discussed the mechanics of how to quit my job and come back on a proper contract rate without upsetting IR35 with my department manager and how if I don't see some career development soon I may as well double my money, which can't be normal 🤣.
People work really hard and have decent success increasing their salaries and responsibilities until they hit the middle/senior management ceiling.
It isn't a middle manager thing, it happens all down the food chain, lots of people work hard without any success in moving up the ladder or increasing their salaries.
There has been a working myth sold to society throughout my working life, which seems to be based on 'survivorship bias" rather than the reality of the majority experience.
To quote an old Viz comedy tea mug “churn it out and F off early” life is too short and more and more people are now waking up to that.
Well, it can be a bit more complex than that. For me, I actually enjoy being able to get stuck into a good job and help people out. Obviously I'd rather not have to work, but if I do I want something stimulating, challenging and rewarding. If I get that, then I will work really hard and I will be happy. I will continue working on an interesting task because I actually want to see it through. However, if my manager gives me shit; I only get recognition for what I don't do not what I do; I get bogged down with boring pointless tasks then my entire life becomes miserable regardless of how many hours I am sat here.
If you're just sat there compiling TPS reports all day or whatever, then yeah it's a continuous task stream and you can and should start and stop at defined times. But my job's not like that and that seems to be the case for more people these days.
As well as pay staff well, what employers really need to do is stimulate their staff. Most of us want more than just money, we want a life worth living, and work is an unavoidable and huge part of that for most of us.
“churn it out and F off early”
Made me chuckle
You're too late its "Lazy Girl Jobs" now....
Its almost like the media just spend their time trawling Tik Tok for random catchphrases to spin into a news story.
Having said that, I agree with the majority of the posters general opinions on this thread.
I also think "quiet quitting" (if we have to call it that) is likely a reaction to the kind of slightly unhinged lunatics you see preaching on Linked In telling everyone how they work 100 hours a week and get up at 3am every day and how everyone should be "hustling".
It seems that if you do the job you're asked and no more it is now some sort of form of protest- it used to just be doing the job you were paid for. My dad is 73 and could never understand why me and my brother would sometimes work after 5pm if we weren't paid, and we would shake our heads- but I'm starting to see his point.
My wife and I quiet quit our last jobs (same employer, 10y ago), made the decision to leave around April but had to hang on to the end of the year thanks to a prior commitment that we didn't want to renege on. I spent most of the intervening months learning to swim properly (which somehow I'd missed as a child) and training for my first marathon, both of which have been far more long-term benefit than another 8 months of hard work would have been. Toxic employer wasn't treating us fairly, managers knew this but wouldn't stand up for us because they were weak and basically phoning it in themselves.
Actually, when I say "quiet quit", we were quite vociferous in our complaints over that last year. When we weren't at the pool. (which only opened at 9am, so meant cruising in to work around lunchtime).
an anti-work, anti-ambition sentiment has been brewing among gen Z for quite some time now
Good. I've been hoping for a while that this would happen and start to bring in a new age.
I'm reluctantly at this stage myself, employer has been cruising on goodwill for too long now and enough people have left and not been replaced that we can't realistically pick up the slack anymore. Management are hiding behind us from our clients and that's the point where I checked out because I'm not covering for their problems forever.
Currently coasting until I can decide what to do next and in the last six months I've been able to lose two stone and massively improve my health and fitness by concentrating more on myself.
