Quiet Quitting. I’ve seen this mentioned in several outlets and so dug in further. It’s the idea of doing just enough work to avoid getting fired and having a moment. It’s not actually quitting – it’s just not taking your job too seriously. Stay on the payroll, but focus your time on the things you do outside the office. I noted it in the Wall Street Journal, Axios, and the Hustle.
Some data: In Gallup’s latest polling on worker engagement, just 31% of workers born after 1989 — Gen Z and younger millennials — say they’re “engaged” at work.
And they’re far less likely than their older counterparts to feel their work has a purpose.
Why do we care?
Or, told another way, a bunch of workers is celebrating not overworking. I could easily interpret this as a very healthy outlook on life – you don’t have to overwork yourself or ensure you do have a healthy life outside the office.
The recurring theme of “young workers don’t want to work” has cropped up throughout history. This sounds a lot like those.
My take – focus instead on building roles that employees want to have, with compensation that reflects their talents, and build a sustainable org. A little less “blame workers” goes a long way.