After “the Great Resignation” and “the Great Shuffle,” the new viral term that’s going to the dictionary is “Quiet Quitting.” It is the idea of doing your job and nothing more.
Is it a new trend? Not at all. The discussion on the trend was reignited by a viral TikTok video posted by @zaidlepppelin in July 2022 with the phrase “quiet quitting.”
The video has since received more than 3.4 million views, while the hashtag #QuietQuitting has more than 21 million views.
What is Quiet Quitting?
In the original viral TikTok, @zaidlepppelin described Quiet Quitting like this: “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.”
What’s the fuss all about?
The viral TikTok has reignited the debate on work-life balance, and the current discussion is if the “Quiet Quitting” trend is a slacker mentality or not.
There are mixed opinions about the trend.
Arianna Huffington, the founder of the Huffington Post, wrote on her LinkedIn, “quiet quitting isn’t just about quitting on a job, it’s a step towards quitting on life.”
Kevin O’Leary, the co-star on ABC’s “Shark Tank” and chairman of O’Shares ETFs, called the trend a horrible approach to building a career: “You have to go beyond because you want to. That’s how you achieve success,” he said in a CNBC video essay.
TikTokers have pointed out that to an employer’s ears, the trend could sound like suddenly getting less out of their employees, regardless of whether those employees were getting paid to do the extra work anyway.
Some of the controversies around the term surround these questions:
- Is Quiet Quitting a healthy approach to your profession, or is it a slacker mentality?
- Should anyone be expected to do more work than they’re being compensated for?
- Should employees go above and beyond to make the business work and climb their way up?
A few also see Quiet Quitting as a backlash to hustle culture – the mentality that one must work all day every day in pursuit of their professional goals.
What should employers do?
Quiet Quitting could be a by-product of the pandemic, great resignation and burnout culture. Employers must acknowledge that burnout can negatively impact employee productivity, performance and general job satisfaction. It is hard to thrive with a workforce plagued by unhappiness and exhaustion.
So the best thing employers can do is to keep their workforce motivated and engaged. You can organize well-being meetings to discuss workloads and job satisfaction. Find out how your employees genuinely feel about the job and what you can do to prevent burnout.
Quit Quitting is becoming popular among employees in Canada and could rise quietly in your workplace. Outsource your HR to a dedicated HR manager from HR Covered and relieve yourself of workforce challenges. Contact us now!