Quiet quitting or setting boundaries
Quiet quitting isn’t a sign of individual laziness. It’s a symptom of organizational dysfunction.~Adam Grant, author of Think Again.
I wonder if “setting boundaries” is a better term than “quiet quitting” for the pushback employees are giving employers lately. I’ve lost track of the number of people who’ve recently said to me, “Do you know the term ‘quiet quitting’? That’s what I want to do now, the absolute bare minimum to keep my job. Especially with the winter holidays coming up.” They want more of their personal life back, time to enjoy their families or other activities. Without any discernable reward or even a sense that they are being punished for extra work, they don’t want to stay late to finish a project giving up their own time to meet someone else’s priorities. It’s not a new phenomenon. In academia, it is sometimes referred to as “the tenure disease.” When people push themselves to the limits in order to get tenure and are too exhausted or lost the will to do more once tenure is granted.
Not literally quitting
Quiet quitting is obviously not about literally quitting…it’s about no longer feeling the ability to go above and beyond the absolute requirements of the job. It’s about burnout. It’s about frustration and resignation. Right now, a surprising number of people say they are quietly quitting: ResumeBuilder.com released a survey of 1,000 working Americans in August 2022 and found that 26% of the respondents say they do the bare minimum or less at work. Interestingly, it is mid-career people ages 35-44 who are most likely to disconnect primarily to spend more time with family.
It’s not that employees do nothing, they, in fact, do their job, and sometimes quite well. Some report promotions after “doing less” because they are instead “doing better.”
Says Ed Zitron, publisher of Where’s Your Ed At, “The term ‘quiet quitting’ is so offensive because it suggests that people that do their work have somehow quit their job, framing workers as some sort of villain.” Such a frame insinuates the worker is robbing a blameless employer, an employer who consistently expects unpaid overtime work, is somehow being robbed. If that much work is consistently required, then more workers may be needed, not more work from those already there.
Origin of the phrase “quiet quitting”
Kelly Love Johnson may have coined the term in her 2008 book, “skirt! Rules for the Workplace: An Irreverent Guide to Advancing Your Career,” when she called her own experience of mentally quitting and reducing her work activities by 50% “quitting in place.” After working five years at a tech company to the point of exhaustion, she simply could not keep up the pace and let go.
Another version of “quiet quitting” seems to have come from China via an anonymous post in April 2021, when a worker discussed his detachment strategy as “lying flat” (tang ping). The phrase is described as a small way to rebel against the Chinese expectation of exceptional long hours and nothing in life to do except work. Apparently, enough young workers began the practice that it got the attention of the Chinese Communist Party, which ran commentary in the newspaper Nanfang Daily calling lying flat “shameful” and “unjust” and harmful to the Chinese place in the world economy.
In the West, the phrase “quiet quitting” went viral with a 17-second post on July 25, 2022, on TikTok by Zaid Khan with 42.5k reposts, over 4500 comments, and over 8.5 million views to date. The video notes, “you are still performing your duties, but you are not subscribing to the hustle culture mentality that work has to be your life. The reality is it’s not, and your worth as a person is not defined by your labor.” Hmnn. That last sentence sounds like something coaches and counselors have been saying to clients for years.
Something serious is afoot when such a phrase resonates with large numbers of people.
Quiet quitting is not about being lazy
As the Adam Grant quote above suggests, it is not some form of individual laziness, quiet quitting is a symptom of organizational dysfunction. It’s about burnout, which is at an all-time high given all the extra demands due to the pandemic and the constant emphasis on doing more with less. This is particularly true in academia, where the culture wars and lack of funding are taking a huge toll on faculty, staff, and administrators.
Quiet quitting can be seen as a new term for an old idea, employee disengagement. Managers note issues with participation in teamwork, unwillingness to volunteer for new assignments, cynical comments, or remaining silent at meetings.
Albert O. Hirschman argues in his book, Exit, Voice, and Loyalty (1970) that when consumers [or employees] are faced with deteriorating products [or conditions], there are two options, to exit the market [or quit] or to give voice [complain to producer or management]. For employees who could not afford to either quit or give voice to dissatisfaction, the third way was neglect. Like quiet quitting, the idea was to simply neglect any aspects of the work that required going above and beyond their paid duties. For Hirschman, it came down to whether or not the consumer or employee felt any loyalty to the institution. When an institution continuously insists on loyalty but fails to reward behavior going above and beyond the minimum, it is not surprising to see pulling back from duties as a reaction.
The opposite of quiet quitting: Setting boundaries
To my way of thinking, quiet quitting needs to be addressed by setting boundaries and addressing burnout in proactive ways. If managers or administrators want their workers to be energized and engaged, they need to encourage time off, allow true disconnection from the workplace (wherever it happens to be these days), give people a greater sense of ownership and control for daily tasks and long-term projects, and provide opportunities to gain new skills and knowledge. Set the example by not answering emails after the end of the workday and not sending message requests for information after hours so that it can be available at the start of the following workday. As the old saying goes, “When everything is urgent, nothing is urgent.” If you want to stop quiet quitting, look to boundaries.
Boundaries allow people to have a life outside of work and can help people stay energized while working for pay. Brené Brown, author of The gifts of imperfection (2010) says, “When we fail to set boundaries and hold people accountable, we feel used and mistreated.” Setting boundaries reduces resentment and increases resiliency for new challenges. Like my dance teacher always tells me during practice sessions about keeping my own boundaries: “Push back, keep your arms strong, create a frame rather than flopping around, and you will protect yourself from tripping over your own or your partner’s feet.”
Conclusion
When people are pushed to their limits, something is going to give. Instead of asking people to continuously do more with less, find ways to reward them for going above and beyond. Workloads must more sustainable. Grant some time off if they worked overtime to meet a deadline; demonstrate that extra work will be rewarded by greater chances for promotion or some other form of recognition; give course releases for taking on service tasks that require a large time commitment. Asking someone to chair a department for a couple of thousand a year with greater responsibilities is not a reward….it’s a punishment. The time has come to respect boundaries between work and the rest of life. Doing so will make everyone happier. And no doubt surprising to some, whether inside or outside of academia, happy workers are more productive workers.
If you still need help setting boundaries, contact Hillary for a free 20-minute session.
Tags: academia, academic, attitude, change, get organized, Getting Organized, happiness, happiness at work
