Have you heard all this “quiet quitting” buzz over the last couple of weeks? There is much hand-wringing and bemoaning the entitlement of these here young people.
So let me clear it up: Quiet quitting isn’t a thing.
It’s. Not. Real.
Have you read the descriptions? Workers not volunteering for extra shifts. Employees not responding to email after hours. Individuals refusing to work 10 hours but only log 8. In other words, what normal people call work-life balance. This isn’t about refusing to go the extra mile; it’s about being fairly compensated for your work.
This is the same gang of people who want you to believe that nobody wants to work. And, sure, nobody wants to work for an abusive employer for crummy pay, terrible hours, with a long commute and no real rewards.
Just like nobody should feel pressured to be on call 24/7 except in those few fields where that’s the actual job description—surgeons and fire fighters and the like. And even they take time off, because of course they do. You don’t want the EMT who’s about to save your life to be someone who’s burned out!
And we need to fight this ridiculous belief that everyone who isn’t us is lazy. It’s a harmful and unjust assumption, and it fails to address the very real issues that face us today: Under-paid staff who have to work second jobs. Wage theft. Union-busting. Unrealistic expectations that employees should be thankful just to have a job.
We have the power to change the way work works. We can advocate for higher wages, for better work conditions. We can quit jobs in which managers treat us like unruly children. But we have to start by understanding that there is no epidemic of quiet quitting and people not wanting to work.
