“It means that the expectation is for you to do more than the company actually compensates you for, and that will work out well for you,” she said. “That doesn’t make sense to me. You do the work you are compensated for, and if you want to go above and beyond, good for you, but that shouldn’t be a requirement.”
“This is the most worthless term,” she added.
Matt Spielman, a career coach in New York City and author of the book “Inflection Points: How to Work and Live With Purpose,” understands why some people may want to scale back at work. “If somebody really is burnt out or at the end of his or her rope or having personal issues, I think dialing the knob back from 10 to 7 or 6 or 5 makes sense,” he said.
He believes the urge is stronger with remote work. “With remote work it is far easier to feel less involved, less part of a team, and it’s easier for managers to break up with employees and vice versa,” he said. “There are fewer boundaries of when work starts and when work stops.”
But he worries about people engaging in quiet quitting as a means of getting revenge on a company. “Quiet quitting seems very passive aggressive,” he said. “If somebody is burnt out, there should be a candid conversation about that, and it should be both ways. Just saying, ‘I am going to do the absolute minimum because I am entitled to it or I have issues’ — it doesn’t really help anybody.”
Above all, Mr. Spielman believes that quiet quitting prevents people from finding jobs they love, which provide them with a sense of meaning and belonging.
“You work four, five, six, sometimes seven days a week,” he said. “There is no sadder thing to waste all this time in your life trying not to enjoy and be engaged and being excited in the work you are doing.”
