Stop Quiet Quitting for your own good

Work-to-rule instead

Quiet quitting means nothing more than living. It means having a life outside of work. It means establishing healthy boundaries in your workspace & having balance.

What it doesn’t mean is sacrificing it all and burning out for your job. It also doesn't mean mindlessly buying into ‘hustle culture’, or actually leaving your profession.

Then what is so bad about it?

The phrase itself has a negative connotation. It is imprecise and misleading. It leads to The New York Times writing:

There should be nothing quiet about the movement. No 'softer approach'. You are far away from quitting, you are simply doing your job.

Since there isn’t anything wrong with its demands, why should we call it quiet quitting?

You have signed a contract for your job. In that contract, there are particular terms and policies both sides should agree with and follow up. If one side doesn't cooperate, the other one takes action.

That means an open and honest conversation with your managers. If you are beginning to draw better boundaries between your work and home life, don’t be quiet about it. This is exactly the conversation we need to be having right now.

Your demands should be heard, your complaints too. By doing this quietly you are only contributing to your bad situation, if not making it worse.

Quiet quitting is balancing the scales, it's contract compliance, it's normal work.

Employers call it quiet quitting to make it seem as if the employees are doing something wrong.

The phrase may be a new invention, but the mentality behind it is not.

It comes from working-to-rule action which originated in countries and industries where engaging in traditional strike action in certain sectors is illegal, but employees wanted to show dissatisfaction with a policy implemented by their employer.

Instead of striking, workers with demands that the bosses are unwilling to meet collectively decided to start a “work-to-rule”.

Notable examples have included nurses refusing to answer telephones, and teachers refusing to work for free at night and during weekends and holidays.

Quiet quitting is a sneaky way of expressing unhappiness & lack of fulfillment, which isn’t the way to create any positive change on an individual or collective basis.

Do it the right way, name it the right way.

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