What Is It That People Want When They Participate in Quiet Quitting?

Quiet quitting has become a trending keyword as of late, with some in favour of it, some against it, and some bemused by it. So, what is it and why has it become a hot topic of discussion lately?

The most basic definition of quiet quitting is to work within your work hours and engage solely in work-related activities during that time. When you start quiet quitting, you start becoming disengaged in and nonchalant about your work, and you do not go above and beyond what your job tells you to do. Practitioners of quiet quitting strive to ensure that work is not their life and that once the workday is done, they focus on other aspects of their life.

Although the term “quiet quitting” is relatively new, the phenomenon itself is not a new one. Terms such as work-to-rule and acting your wage, where employees do no more than the minimum required by the rules of their contract and strictly clock out on time, have long existed before quiet quitting.

In China, there is alsotang ping, meaning “lie flat”, which is a movement that rejects the pressures of overworking and the 996 working system, a work schedule practiced by some companies in China that requires employees to work from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm, 6 days per week i.e. 72 hours per week. In recent times,tang pinghas gradually developed intobai lan, meaning “let it rot”, a more extreme version oftang pingwhere employees actively embrace a deteriorating situation, rather than trying to turn it around.

These movements are mostly attributed to the latest generation to enter the workface, the Gen Z. However, these are all movements that are a reaction to something, rather than springing up spontaneously on their own. What caused it?

Everybody Wants Work-Life Balance

The average Singaporean works 45 hours per week, according to statistics from the Ministry of Manpower. In a 2022 study by tech company Kisi, Singapore ranks 45 out of 100 in terms of work-life balance and is the fourth most overworked city, after Dubai, Hong Kong, and Kuala Lumpur.

When we discuss quiet quitting, we have to look at the conditions that caused it to sprout. The emphasis on clocking out on time and ensuring that employees have time outside of work to themselves is a response to a culture of overworking that has become entrenched and glorified in society. There is even a term for this: hustle culture. People believe that the longer hours you put into work, and the more time and energy you spend on work will drastically increase your chances of success.

However, then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and we entered the Great Resignation, where people started to take a step back and re-evaluate their priorities and their boundaries regarding work. In the priority list, employees decided that other factors like work-life balance, family, or how passionate you felt about your work had more importance over the work itself.

In the JobStreet’s Decoding Global Digital Talent report, respondents have always ranked “good work-life balance” as their number one priority in a job from 2018 to 2020. In comparison, “career development possibilities” has fallen from third to ninth place. In other words, work-life balance will always be a priority but getting far in a career has become less of a priority for people.

How do we define work-life balance? It is a term often thrown around and is what employees often seek out. To put it simply, it means finding the balance between work and time for family or leisure activities. Everyone has a different way of defining it depending on their priorities, but work-life balance is something that employees are encouraged to maintain.

So, if people who practise quiet quitting do it in the name of work-life balance and if work-life balance is good, why is there controversy over quiet quitting?

The Split Opinions on Quiet Quitting

A comic by The Woke Salaryman has been making the rounds on social media, titled “But my generation had it worse!” In the comic, the older and younger generations represented by a father and son duo argue about who had it worse. The conclusion? Each generation has its fair share of struggles experienced in different times and neither can be said to be worse than the other. Rather, the different generations should seek to understand each other.

Quiet quitting is said to be a “Gen Z thing” but the philosophy behind quiet quitting, existing in movements like work-to-rule and acting your wage, has been around long before the Gen Z entered the workforce. Rather than being a product of the newer generation, it seems to be a new term given to a phenomenon that has always been happening through the ages. The older generations did their share of quiet quitting and so are the younger generations now as the join the workforce.

As discussions on quiet quitting pop up all over the internet, different stands have been taken on this subject. Even the definitions of quiet quitting differ subtly from source to source, with some framing it as a reasonable setting of boundaries by employees and some seeing it as an excuse for employees to slack off.

All in all, the general consensus is that setting boundaries is good, as long as the employee still fulfils their job scope and remains engaged in work during work hours. However, discussions about quiet quitting have become fired up as employees and employers are on different pages about work expectations. Employees want to secure their rights to switch off when work is demanding too much of them and employers fear that employees are no longer performing the duties they should.

What Does This Mean for Jobseekers and Employers?

Rather than look at the quiet quitting phenomenon as it is, we should look at the factors surrounding it. What is it that people want when they engage in quiet quitting? If it is work-life balance, that is not an unreasonable goal to strive towards. When people participate in quiet quitting, they want to seek better conditions for themselves according to what they prioritise and when what the company provides for them does not align with this, they resort to quiet quitting.

As the talk on quiet quitting spreads across the internet and more people review their life goals, quiet quitting manifests differently from person to person. What quiet quitting looks like in one person might look different in another. Where someone might only switch off during non-work hours and perform their duties during work hours, someone else might take it as a reason to stop engaging in work entirely even during work hours.

If you wonder if you are a quiet quitter yourself, you might want to sit down and assess your situation. Do you participate in quiet quitting because overworking is the norm in your company, and you find yourself at the risk of burnout so you need to start setting reasonable boundaries between work and yourself? Or has work become unfulfilling to the point that you no longer feel engaged in the work that you do?

While quiet quitting is the option for some, the alternative is to quit upfront. Rather than quiet quitting, perhaps what is needed is a change in your work environment. You might want to consider seeking out a new job with work that interests and engages you, with a company culture better suited to your priorities.

At the end of the day, quiet quitting is not something that sprang up on its own arbitrarily. Rather, it is a response to a history of overworking and the shifting priorities of employees in society. As employees begin to sort out what they want from work and life, their attitude at work changes according to what they value most. While some still care about the hustle and go above and beyond to perform at work, perhaps others are beginning to find that running at that pace puts them at risk of burnout and that it is preferable to slow down but not stop entirely.

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