Quiet quitting.

Derek S-H

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A very interesting video:



And I know we have a dedicated YouTube videos Thread, but I thought this was worthy of actual discussion.

My background: I've been working part time since 1997 in the same job, and I am completely burnt out and disillusioned with working and have been for some time.

I would say I quiet quit at least 10 years' ago, but I keep going as I'll be 58 soon and I can easily live on the state retirement pension as I'm mortgage-free, no debts, single and no car or kids.

He makes some very pertinent points about the pandemic and re-evaluating your priorities in life, but doesn't mention the older worker like me, maybe because they have a different system in his country?

I suppose this Thread doesn't exactly reflect the zeitgeist as maybe people are looking for extra work to cover their increased living costs, but I am kind of intrigued to see if there are other people like me who are just going through the motions too.
 
I’m in a similar position. TUPE’d three times since I started work in 1993. Last time 12 years ago. I’m earning 1% more now than I was when I last transferred. Why stay? Comfort I guess. I’ve been with the same customer now for 20 years. I know my job inside out. It offers me great flexibility. I have decent benefits, but I have 3 years of my mortgage left. I have a decent pension pot but just working until I can draw that down. The other thing is, even though I feel I am doing the minimum so many seem to achieve even less by putting in maximum effort! So I’m doing a job at a tick over and still getting applauded for it. I wonder sometimes just how bad you need to be!!
 
Work life balance has been out of kilter for far too long, I don't have any issues with anybody who chooses to work and to not do much else, but it has become almost impossible for many to work and do the things that makes their life enjoyable...That old saying, work to live has become work to survive for many....Even a type of slavery for certain workers, Amazon ;)

When I was at school in the 60's & 70's, teachers used to talk about how my generation would be working a 3 day week due to automation, the opposite has happened as a lot of people are now working more hours than I ever used to, and if you factor in that most mothers also do a full time job which again is the reverse of when I was young, then things have really gone backwards for many.

So when I now look at how work has changed for many, I can very easily see why many with massive lifetime mortgages or massive rents and a retirement date that I would be happy to just make, I think I too would quietly quit.
 
It’s happened again. This is supposed to give me a warm and fuzzy feeling isn’t it?

Hi Gareth,
I keep hearing good things about your work, ways of working and coordination. Thank you very much for staying committed with xxx and being so active and supporting our colleagues and internal customers.
Much appreciated and recognized by others.
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the recognition, but I’m still operating at tick over, but people think I’m doing a great job, how bad must others be?

6 years until I can draw down my pension. What to do 🤷🏻‍♂️
 
I was very much like this at my last proper job, and as soon as I stopped caring I felt so much better. I think it was that feeling which made me realise it wasn’t worth getting stressed for people who were taking advantage of you.

The final straw was an appraisal, where my incredibly out-of-date company gave scores for attributes and competencies. Even though I was told I was the best in the company in one particular area, I scored 4/5 because “No-one’s perfect, eh?”. That was the moment. Went home early that day, claimed every single minute of accrued lieu time and overtime while searching for a new job, then left shortly after.

I now get paid far less but happily do far in excess of what I need to, because I’m in the same boat as my co-workers.
 
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Sounds familiar.
I'd firstly work out what tasks need doing with 100% effort and make sure they went to colleagues, then selected the stuff that didn't need doing/could be done without effort for myself.
I did have a period where I had a good team and we worked together to achieve excellent results, but then the public sector pay freeze came in and I decided my effort should match my renumeration.
In the end just having to tolerate my boss became too much and I took redundancy/early retirement at 52.
 
Sounds familiar.
I'd firstly work out what tasks need doing with 100% effort and make sure they went to colleagues, then selected the stuff that didn't need doing/could be done without effort for myself.
I did have a period where I had a good team and we worked together to achieve excellent results, but then the public sector pay freeze came in and I decided my effort should match my renumeration.
In the end just having to tolerate my boss became too much and I took redundancy/early retirement at 52.
Redundancy would be a perfect outcome currently. 29 years continuous service!!
 
I’m only 1:58 into the video and it is exactly me. I quietly quit years ago.

Edit - my background is that I’ve worked for the same company for 13yrs. Started at the bottom, worked my way up, spent time in 3 different departments. Company made huge cuts in 2015, I had the option of redundancy or take a new lower paid role - I chose to remain. This meant I was still in the same department, but whilst before I was in charge of a small team, it now meant the rest of the team took redundancy and it became a team consisting of just myself. Pressure was ridiculous as the workload remained the same. Other departments also suffered as a wealth of knowledge and experience walked out the door. There was another round of redundancies in 2018 - again I remained. I chose to stay because the workload diminished, I liked the benefits and I suppose I felt safe and comfortable in my role as I’m “Mr Dependable”.

Here I am in 2022. The workplace culture has completely changed compared to when I joined. High performance, skill and knowledge is not rewarded. The company has stripped out almost all layers of management and displaced so many people that progression is almost non existent and
highly improbable.

The workload has steadily increased to the levels it was when we had 5x as many staff as we do now - yet the company refuses to offer overtime and/or employ new starters. Any new starters that do join are now on flexi part-time contracts without the benefits that are afforded to longer serving colleagues. This means new positions are filled by college kids who are unreliable and don’t stick around.

Anyway, I quietly quit years ago. My hard work, blood and sweat over the years is not valued. I did re-train for a new profession 18months ago, then covid hit and most jobs in that sector then went into furlough so that put the brakes on that move. Currently in the process of buying a first home with my partner so that too has put the brakes on a job move, until we are settled in at least.
 
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I'd forgotten about this Thread and I created it!:blush:

The cost-of-living crisis is now a real thing, it's not just horror headlines anymore. But I still clock in, clock out and take the money and run.

I also agonised for two years over a financial decision: should I keep the money I diligently saved over that period of time (£12,000) or blow it all on a new pair of speakers and 2 x Subwoofers? What do you think?

Both speakers and Subs are due next month!:D Was it a wise decision? Probably not. Was it an emotional decision? Definitely.

I'm a cyclist and life is short and unpredictable. I could get wiped out by a drunk/drugged driver next week and all that money in the bank would mean nothing. Okay, so I'd miss out on my new speakers and Subs as well, but at least I made the decision and took the risk instead of just playing safe. I do that enough staying in a job I hate.
 
Quiet quitting AKA cruising at work? Lets be honest, most people do what they need to do at work and not a lot more.
 
Not just that, but about reevaluation. Live to work vs work to live, etc. the pandemic and lockdowns has been a great eye opener for me in that regard. I like being busy, but I find it’s less and less with work and more and more with personal stuff, which is actually much easier now I’m WFH full time! Recouping the meagre pay rises with something that is actually more valuable to me, time… but still getting applauded at work for my output levels!
 
I've been quietly quitting since I started work way back when.
 
It works in big companies where people aren't paying attention, just trying to get their own tasks complete, but in a smaller organization or one with good managers, those slackers would get fired fast.
Case in point, we had a H&S Manager at our refinery that skated by on pure bull. I'm not sure how he fooled the management, but quite of a few of us who had to work with him knew he was a fool & knew next to nothing.
Cue his move to BMW Thailand, he lasted about 3 weeks, Ha!
The more efficient General Manager fired him personally.
 
It works in big companies where people aren't paying attention, just trying to get their own tasks complete, but in a smaller organization or one with good managers, those slackers would get fired fast.
Case in point, we had a H&S Manager at our refinery that skated by on pure bull. I'm not sure how he fooled the management, but quite of a few of us who had to work with him knew he was a fool & knew next to nothing.
Cue his move to BMW Thailand, he lasted about 3 weeks, Ha!
The more efficient General Manager fired him personally.
I don't think that's the same thing. Being bad at your job isn't the same as doing just enough of a job not to get sacked. And it doesn't matter if it's a small or big company.
 
I always viewed it as a deal between the company and me, they paid me a wage I did what I thought that wage warranted relative to others. Of course they paid me for a set number of hours so that was fixed as well, occasionally over my 'career ' I did go above and beyond but it never did me any good. The year I retired I got one of the best pdr I'd ever had.
Some used to moan/boast about doing loads of extra hours and not getting credit for the effort. Glad I'm out tbh in hindsight terrible and needlessly bad atmosphere in the office, mainly driven by arbitrary targets and milestones combined with managers wanting to make a point rather than get the job done.
 
isn't the same as doing just enough of a job not to get sacked. And it doesn't matter if it's a small or big company.
Of course the size of the company matters. It's much easier to just get by doing the least if the company is large enough to lose focus of everyone.
The guy obviously had been doing just enough to get by at the refinery, but that didn't fly at BMW.
 
Of course the size of the company matters. It's much easier to just get by doing the least if the company is large enough to lose focus of everyone.
The guy obviously had been doing just enough to get by at the refinery, but that didn't fly at BMW.
I'm confused. I thought you said the guy was a fool and didn't know anything? That you weren't sure how he managed to fool the managers at the refinary you worked in? People who don't know how to do their job, often, have an over inflated opinion of their abilities and as a result eventually come unstuck; from what you say that is what happened in the example you gave. That isn't the same as someone who spends their entire working life doing enough at work to get by.
 
Yep, sure sounds like the local council...
I spent a considerable portion of my working life in local government where one of my responsibilities was to improve worker productivity. At one council I was tasked to introduce a bonus scheme. Normal rate of working is assumed to be 80% and that's where you set the bonus i.e anyone who works at 80% or above gets the bonus. At this particular council the unions said 80% was too high and I suggested 75%, senior management eventually agreed 65%. That level I said was a license for employeees to print money. I needn't have been concerned, even with the bar set that low, only 1 in 5 employees worked hard enough to achieve a bonus.
 
I spent a considerable portion of my working life in local government where one of my responsibilities was to improve worker productivity. At one council I was tasked to introduce a bonus scheme. Normal rate of working is assumed to be 80% and that's where you set the bonus i.e anyone who works at 80% or above gets the bonus. At this particular council the unions said 80% was too high and I suggested 75%, senior management eventually agreed 65%. That level I said was a license for employeees to print money. I needn't have been concerned, even with the bar set that low, only 1 in 5 employees worked hard enough to achieve a bonus.
I fear you've inadvertently shot yourself in the foot several times over there...
 
I must emphasise that quietly quitting is not the same thing as doing your job badly - we're not talking about Boris Johnson here who's made it into an art form doing both!

No, for me, quietly quitting is still doing your job to the best of your ability, but no more. Don't take work home with you, don't let it dominate your life. Engage with it as much as is necessary, but be disconnected at the same time.

It's a bit hard to describe in language, it's more of a state of mind and being.
 
quietly quitting is still doing your job to the best of your ability
Alright topic police, that's not even what he describes in the video.
The first time I couldn't get past the "don't tell nobody", because that entails telling someone.

Anyway, Khun Chookiat from the refinery was doing the bare minimum by the skin of his teeth, but the General Manager of BWW decided that wasn't good enough & on the 3rd strike, he was out!

It was a new company then & they wanted Progress, not stalemate.

He tried to redeem himself a few times & fell flat. I know, because my Dutch friend (& former refinery co-worker) was there every time.
 

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