Quite Quitting?
Any thoughts here?
Is it just our generation? Do most corporations really suck? I can see both sides, and there seems to be good people on both sides.
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Comments (22)
It's nothing new, it was called coasting before. Just a bunch of Gen Z children thinking they started a new trend.
B-b-b-based.
B-b-b-beta.
No one can even agree on what the term means. But to me, it means doing the bare minimum at worst and at best, it's setting boundaries for work and prioritizing your personal life.
For definition one, if you just want to coast as an older employee, then you should be able to do that and find a role and company that allows for that. People naturally settle into doing the bare minimum if they hit a career ceiling and it's acceptable. However, if you are in an entry level role, you are expected to grow and are SOL and probably will get fired for pulling this maneuver. Your managers expectations are evolving and won't settle at the tasks you are originally given. New grads and people with less than 5 years of experience are in for a rude awakening if they pull a quiet quitting maneuver.
The second definition is much more acceptable for people in any stage of their careers. You are essentially prioritizing happiness and deriving it from your personal life instead of work, which is reasonable. Most managers in corporate America would probably be fine with this work style. There are times in any role where you have to work extra hours and if you have inflexible boundaries, that's ok but there will be people who will outwork you and be rewarded for it. If you are fine with that, then great.
It should be obvious that quiet quitting will not be tolerated in professional services and many investment seats. I'd also argue you can't quiet quit in most roles in some select industries like manufacturing, energy, shipping, or any space where there are continuous operations. I'm not just talking about hourly workers here either.
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Learn moreWhat does Quite Quitting mean?
"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
Just doing your job to meet the minimum expectations and not going above and beyond
Oh ok so "Not Quite Quitting" literally.
"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
I don't think I'd just blame it on Gen Z being lazy. I think it's more likely that it's just a lot harder to care enough to go the extra mile in remote or hybrid environments. People aren't willing to put up with 14 hour days on their laptop in their bedroom as much as they are 14 hour days in person with other young people around them + travel + happy hours and events
I started consulting pre-COVID and have noticed significant cultural changes around work vs even the start class first year into remote work -- too much of a difference to be due to such a small age gap. Far fewer people are making strong connections with their coworkers
Maybe this is just one thing I have noticed to is, Non-work but Work events like happy hours, team building, etc. got baked into peoples schedules and counted as pseudo working hours for a lot of people. However now, with remote - it was just expected that efficiency increased so we just turned into cogs in a wheel instead.
Building strong connections with coworkers. Def important especially for learning. One certainly has to go out of their way these days. But flip side: imagine being the fella that does... Could learn so much.
Coasting or "checking out"
seriously this shit is nothing new. Fucking Zoomers
Zoomers are so coddled that their autistic brains think they're special & have all these great ideas...only to find out they are reinventing a misshapen wheel
Too much anti-hard-work media out there
What exactly do you mean by that. Why don't you man the fuck up and not get triggered by people choosing to do what they get paid to do, and nothing else?
Had a friend who works at Fang as a product manager - he literally works 15 hours a week but bosses around the engineers and asks for deliverables periodically to seem busy. Point is he has been coasting since day one and knows how to play the system.
I hope the engineers perform a mutiny against your friend
Not sure how this is any different than any other time in history. Some people work hard and go the extra mile, some people don't. The people who don't are the ones who complain 20 years down the road about how unfair it is that they aren't getting promoted and their job sucks and their bosses suck and everyone in the world is out to get them.
I think it is perfectly reasonable to do only the job you're hired for, in only the hours for which you're being paid, and not an inch beyond that. But that's a choice, and if you want to do the job of an entry level person and no more than that, you don't get the right to complain when you don't receive promotions or raises.
Would 100% agree if promotions were based on competency and work ethic but it's unfortunately not the case. People who get promoted and climb the ladder need to be at least somewhat competent but it's far more important to know how to get your seniors to like you and sell your achievements/skill set.
Also as people age, get married, have kids etc. their priorities change and not everyone is as obsessed with getting to the top as they may have been in their 20s. Some people are more than happy to work 9-5 and then sign off and enjoy their personal lives.
It sounds like you are agreeing with me!
If my priorities change and I want to be home with my kids instead of in the office, that is reasonable as long as I am aware that it will stunt my career growth. That's a conscious choice, and I don't think there is a right or wrong answer there.
Promotions don't always have to be based on competency. Being a good manager, for example, has little to do with your ability to do the job that the people you manage are doing. Being able to manage people is a skill, and the best way you can gauge that is in person. This goes back to a larger point I make, which is that being an analyst who creates the fastest, most accurate DCF model on Wall Street is great if you want to be in the top bucket for bonuses your first few years, but climbing the ladder requires people skills.
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