quiet quitting

To quiet quit is to decide where the boundaries are in your work/life balance and adjust your working habits accordingly to do what is required of you but no more.  You gradually change your behaviour so that you cut down the load.  If the work is not complete by the time the day is finished, then you do not take it home with you.  You are not the person who stays late to get the job done. You are not the person who is a slave to your phone, taking work calls at any hour.  Quietly you change your work life so that it is in better proportion to your home life.

Quiet quitting is rather like the trade union tactic of work-to-rule but it is not done to get at the company or the boss.  You like your job and want to keep it.  It’s just that you don’t want the job to consume your life.  It has been suggested that the Chinese movement of lying flat (covered under New Words in June) has been an influence.

Quiet quitting is not an altogether happy coinage.  Some argue that it is not quitting at all. Just adjusting your work engagement.  And others say that it should not be quiet because there are so many people in situations where they are overloaded with work and suffer burnout that we should be shouting to the skies to fix this.

As is shown above, not everyone understands the term. A journalist recently wrote about it in relation to a number of Australians leaving their jobs. This is just straightforward quitting, not quiet quitting.