Over the past few weeks, the term “quiet quitting” has been taking the nation by storm.
Quiet quitting, also known as “working your wage” is a term used to describe employees choosing to complete their set work duties within their set work hours without going above or beyond what is expected of them.
While “quiet quitters,” are not actually leaving their jobs or failing to fulfill their job responsibilities, they are quitting the hustle culture mindset by only doing what they need to do for their job. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Since the idea of quiet quitting first was introduced, CEOs, employers, economists, and politicians have all voiced strong opinions about whether or not quiet quitting is acceptable in the workplace.
If you’ve been following this growing trend (or participating in it yourself!) you may be wondering whether or not quiet quitting is a positive or negative action.
As it turns out, it can be a bit of both.
Here are a few of the positive and negative factors of quiet quitting:
Positive: Quiet quitting helps prevent burnout
For the past decade, hustle culture has been prevalent in the United States.
This mindset encourages people to prioritize their professional goals over everything else and rewards those who are willing to go above and beyond to chase success. In a time when staying late at the office is commendable and answering phone calls and emails on any day at any time is celebrated, it can be easy for people to start feeling overwhelmed and experience burnout.
People were not meant to have 70+ hour work weeks or to spend all of their time working without resting or taking a break. When individuals overextend themselves and succumb to hustle culture at work, they will eventually reach a breaking point.
Quiet quitting helps prevent employees from feeling burnout or allowing work to take a toll on their mental health.
By creating a healthy work-life balance and taking time to rest and do restorative activities in the afternoons and on weekends, people will find that they are better able to do their jobs because they won’t be feeling burned out.
Negative: Quiet quitting limits career advancement opportunities
Unfortunately, many employers don’t want to offer promotions and other career advancement opportunities to employees who don’t seem willing to go the extra mile at work.
If they have to decide between someone who only works their set hours and someone who is always picking up slack, putting in extra time and effort, and providing value for the company outside of work hours, they are going to pick the latter.
Quiet quitters may feel underappreciated, left out, or unimportant at work when they are passed up for promotions or employee recognition events.
Individuals who are trying to move up in their career may find that quiet quitting is not conducive to that goal.
Positive: Quiet quitting helps encourage boundary setting
Quiet quitters have to learn to become comfortable saying, “no.”
They have to say no to big projects that will require extra time outside of work to complete. They have to say no to supervisors when asked if they are willing to stay late, come in early, or complete tasks outside of their scheduled shift or contract hours. They have to say no to colleagues and bosses who try to reach them by phone or email outside of work hours.
Learning how to set boundaries and stick to them is a useful skill that people need to have, even when they aren’t in a work setting.
By quiet quitting, individuals will be able to practice healthy boundary setting, which is a skill they can use for maintaining relationships with friends and family members.
Negative: Quiet quitting can negatively affect workplace relationships
Sometimes there are projects, assignments, reports, and other tasks that individuals cannot complete during the course of their work day. While it might not be fair for employers to ask employees to work on tasks that cannot be completed within a work day, it still happens.
If someone who is quiet quitting does not put in the extra time necessary to complete these tasks, it is often left to their colleagues or other members of their team to pick up the slack.
This can cause bitterness and resentment among colleagues, which creates a negative work environment.
If you’re considering how quiet quitting might affect you and your mental health, you should weigh these positive and negative aspects of this workplace trend before you make a decision.
