Quiet Quitting - the new “great resignation”

Richard Hillman

If you are working reasonably hard and you are not finishing your tasks between 9-5 or whatever your work hours are, then your tasks need to be redesignated or the company needs to hire more staff.

Never ever work beyond your designated work hours. Your manager doesn't care about you. The CEO doesn't care about you. The shareholders do not care about you. You are giving up your time for free, how other people can profit from it.

I don't see it as quiet quitting. It's just being sensible and loyal to yourself.

Former Former Former

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119530846#Comment_119530846

Yep absolutely

But there's a cost to that attitude, especially if you're in a job that is your career.

If you're stacking shelves in Dunnes or making coffee in Insomnia, go for it.

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119530955#Comment_119530955

I don't see why everyone should not be able to do their job in office hours. I work in IT trust me I have seen it, the amount and quality of work does not usually equal the hours put in. In my experience it is largely for show it wouldn't encourage me to promote someone over someone else, it's all about the quality of the work they do.

Obviously in certain jobs they work people to the bone but people can only do that for so long. I also think people will demand more work life balance in the future which is a good thing.

Sunny Disposition

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119530942#Comment_119530942

This is eminently sensible, but it was a deeply unfashionable way of thinking for maybe 25 years.

I’ve a few companies, different sectors, and it is genuinely amazing how the idea of time off in lieu came to be accepted rather than extra payment. Incredible. One of my companies saved close to €100k the first year it was introduced. In essence me and a partner were up that money and the workers were down it. And nearly all of them stayed until the company folded in the recession.

Someone else said there’s a cost to not putting in extra work etc. Young people need to be very wary of this way of thinking, if overtime isn’t being paid the cost is far more likely to be to you than anyone else. Don’t get lured in by hopes of promotion, unless there is a very, very clear path.

By all means work very hard during the hours of work, but don’t donate your time to an employer. It’s common sense, that somehow became very uncommon. If an employer sees you have a bit of sense and won’t work for free they’re far more likely to respect you.

Drog79

Also have heard it referred to as acting your wage.

Hence minimum wage roles= no extras.

Reasonable salary= some non standard flex and responsibilities.

Overheal

People are copping on and fighting back against a system/culture that expects you to put in work "above and beyond" your current payscale in order to angle yourself in for promotions.

Which of course, is complete bullshit, because of course it is. And everyone working from home for the last couple years and "doing their own research" has yielded some unexpected results: like more people being aware of how drastic the rip-off of this scheme is. And what's worse for businesses, is there is ONE CHART that shows it to anyone.

This one:

https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/

The other problem was politicians keep saying the quiet parts out loud. The most recent was this week, when they openly complained that student loan forgiveness undermines military recruitment (which relies upon incentivising payment for college, to force the poor boys (and girls) to go to war while Daddy Congressman's kids get an impeccably peculiar number of scholarships from Exxon). Other examples have been, blaming a mere $1200 of relief for tens of millions of workers having the mobility to leave their **** jobs and reapply for better ones and negotiate better pay, simply because they had the 2-3 weeks worth of expenses in their bank account to tell their abusive bosses to **** off without it being a matter of accepting abuse or the kids rationing their insulin. This crisis of infinite earths, this endgame, was called the Great Resignation. And now unemployment is at a 50-year low in the US, go figure...

Calling it "silent quitting" is the new CEO thinktank jargon so they can justify laying you off for doing exactly the job descriptions they hire and pay you for. It means you quit staying late on saturdays while the execs **** off on friday after a corporate breakfast to go golf for the weekend. How dare you, honestly, be so ungrateful for the opportunity to shine those shoes?

Bigmac1euro

Seen this earlier and thought it was interesting.

Some places have been doing this to people for years.

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119531257#Comment_119531257

Which of course, is complete bullshit, because of course it is.

Calling it bullshìt though, isn’t any sort of an argument against the idea that promotions and rewards are given to people who are deemed to have gone above and beyond to earn those rewards from their employers, while the employee who is “silent q…”

Oh for goodness sakes they’re doing the bare minimum is expected of them by their employer and looking to celebrate the idea on social media by portraying themselves as standing up to the corporate and capitalist culture and policies which they shall continue to promote in other ways (my LinkedIn is full of this stuff right now 🙄).

They’re not actually adding anything of any value to society, they’re looking to be congratulated and celebrated for doing exactly what is expected of them by their employers. It’s a perverse means of social validation 😂

seenitall

In Eastern Europe there is a saying re. employers, goes something like this: The amount of money that you are willing to pay me will never be as small as the smallest amount of work I am able to put in for you. (I may have mangled the translation a bit because it’s difficult to translate, but hopefully people get the general meaning.)

There’s another one: One donut in the shade is better than two in the midday sun. (Let me know if you need this explained, I think it’s a funny one :D)

What happened to the idea of the 4 day working week

Andrea B.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119531557#Comment_119531557

Literally speaking, I would disagree with the donut one.

Could you explain?

cuttingtimber22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119531653#Comment_119531653

I think there are some pilots but I expect it will never become mainstream.

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119531653#Comment_119531653

Bosses freaked: who attends to their needs at the golf club on Friday’s?!

Former Former Former

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119531653#Comment_119531653

It was as real and widespread as quiet quitting.

That is to say, not at all.

SnuggyBear

I've been doing the bare minimum the last year. I just call it hating work.

I've been trying to see how much of a lazy bastard I can get away with. If anything I seem to be valued more by saying no and telling my boss what I will and won't do.

is_that_so

Only have casual interest in the whole alleged great resignation event but where exactly are all of these people quitting to, quietly or otherwise?

Tonesjones

Don't mind the latest tik tok fad.

The old saying "A fair days work for a fair days pay" is the only worthwhile motto.

Do your job to the best of your ability during your set hours and get a fair days pay for your efforts. If you don't get it then go somewhere else.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119531877#Comment_119531877

You see thus is the nonsense: Quiet quitters aren't quitting at all, they're just doing the job they were paid to do.

Tonesjones

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119531880#Comment_119531880

It says they are doing the bare minimum throughout the day.

Sunny Disposition

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119531877#Comment_119531877

This might be a better description if f what’s happening In Ireland than quiet quitting. People are looking for improved conditions, and if they’re not getting them they’re far more likely to move on than previously.

Also stringing them along with a hope that at some unspecified date in the future they’ll be looked after is far less likely to work than it was a few years ago.

I took a look at some out our old recruitment ads recently, no way you’d get an applicant now. We were looking for people who could work well under pressure, were flexible, could work on multiple tasks over the course of a week. It was all bs of course, but it seems mad now that you could recruit people by telling them the job was tough. Especially for what we were paying.

Cushtie

Plenty of lads in my place do the bare minimum and you could set your watch by them. In at 8.30 gone at 5 on the dot. A couple of us fools coming in at 7 and 7.30 to get a head start and hanging on till 6 to finish up. I know in my heart and soul that when I look back I will see how stupid it was, but for the moment, its the way it is.

EOQRTL

I guess iv'e always been a "quiet quitter" so. I work my contracted hours to the exact minute and then i'm done. People are fools for putting their job before their family and health.

SnuggyBear

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119531948#Comment_119531948

Ye now ads need to say what the company will do for you not the other way around.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119531883#Comment_119531883

I don't know why it quoted your post as it wasn't even there when I began to reply. It was in reply to the post above yours asking where all these 'quitters' are going and the point was they aren't quitting or going anywhere.

is_that_so

That so-called quiet thing has always been the way of things in any companies I worked in. One MNC line manager told us expressly not to be there after 5:30, rightly noting that if you couldn't do your work in that time you weren't working hard enough.

Tonesjones

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119531949#Comment_119531949

Only winner there is the boss.

Time in lieu is given in my place. But most lads and ladies don't bother putting it in. They work the extra hour here and there etc

One chap told me a few weeks ago that he has 70 something hours built up! No intention to take them, more a badge of honour.

Also hasn't had a pay rise in 4 years. Current salary wouldn't even have him reaching higher tax bracket

zg3409

Firstly many employers take the pi$$.

I deal with east coast USA a lot and weekly meeting were set up for 7:30pm on a Friday.

Daily 9am meetings. Twice a week 5pm meetings that go on to 6pm+. Employees complain the times are crazy, nothing is done. In theory we have flexi time, but with fixed meetings we cannot work the flexi time.

After 4+ years with more work than time to do it, people get burnt out. They can decide to quit, or can can decide to prioritise themselves and at least try to get the balance better.

No or barely no pay rises with inflation running at say 15% and those looking to buy houses facing even higher rises. That's equivalent to a pay cut for the same work.

At least in companies that pay overtime then it costs the company and it rewards the staff and it's typically somewhat limited due to cost.

Often if you work smart, plan tasks and priorities you can get the important work done. Ideally you would work with your boss to manage workload and hand over tasks you can't do, but in reality there is near infinite work and employers try to keep you too busy than quiet.

Employees are quitting when they cant work from home multiple days per week or even work 100% from home when there is no need for them to be in the office. Employees hate open plan noisy offices with constant interruptions and canteens with dodgy unhealthy low cost food.

The opposite is true too where people like to be seen to be working extra hours, sending emails late at night, setting up early and late meetings and sitting at the desk after hours when in reality they don't need to do it. They want to be seen to be hard working rather than actually perform best in the paid hours.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058260644/quiet-quitting-the-new-great-resignation

Got nothing to do with Zoom. That just some bias about WFT in your head.

People were flexible in the pandemic to get the job done keep the lights but that hasn't (for many) resulted in any recognition of those efforts, instead we are seeing a slow return to old non flexible ways of working and even a clawback of hard gained better terms and conditions. That employees then become inflexible as in working to the clock and job description is a reflection of that and hardly surprising.

This makes the employee realise their true worth to the organisation, (a number on a spreadsheet) so they mirror this new reality, by taking an equally pragmatic approach and/or attitude about work.

_Kaiser_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119532012#Comment_119532012

Personally I wouldn't attend meetings set up for times after I finish for the day, and I used to work with America and Asia in a previous role. Equally I block out time on my calendar for lunch or first thing so I can catch up on any emails sent overnight or check in with my team.

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I am flexible with my time to a point when it comes to an extra half hour or so here and there or supporting an emergency after hours etc but overtime seems to have become a thing of the past in many places with time in lieu offered but as you say, many employees feel they can't take that time anyway or don't track it (myself included). This also highlights a potential issue of not enough headcount in a team, so it's important people take the time owed to them to help highlight that to management.

My biggest problem at the moment is the lack of full time remote working options available. One of the very few benefits of Covid was that it showed how many roles do not require someone to be in an office to be effective - think people like project managers, developers, and upper management or non-customer facing IT staff. As such I changed roles in the last 2 years and literally just swapped one laptop for another and joined new calls with new people. I do go into the office occasionally (maybe 2/3 times a month) but only if I actually want/need to be there.

Unfortunately the rest of the conditions aren't so great - limited benefits, overworked teams, poor salary increases etc - so I'm keeping an eye on the market but unless I want to trek maybe 90 minutes each way to unnecessarily sit at a desk (especially with the cost of diesel nowadays) I'm kinda stuck because there's very few fully WFH roles out there for my job type.

Dohnjoe

Uuh, this is called just doing the bare minimum. It's not something new, it's been around for a long time. However attempting to validate it and stick some fancy label on it is new (and pretty stupid)

Acting like this will seriously piss off your co-workers. Don't like your job? Try to find another one like any normal human being.