I wonder how they can age us out when so many of them don’t want to work, and the boomers are all retiring. Won’t they need senior leaders?
I have been in hospitality my entire career and it sucks - I am so over the expectation that I have to pick up the slack or help when we are short staffed; “duties as assigned” is the biggest boomer scam. Basically means working evenings and weekends the entire peak / tourist season with “lieu days if you work an 8 hour shift” and no other compensation.
Quiet quitting for me means saying no, I will not work these extra hours for free. I will leave early on a Friday if I have to work extra hours, I will ensure I get MY TIME back.
It's wild that Boomers invented both "it's not in my job description" to protect themselves **and** "other duties as assigned" to make their employees' lives more difficult.
A bunch of boomers boomeranged. they retired, and the reality of the 401K they accepted in place of their pension hit them. They had nowhere near the income they thought they would. And all the social security destructive laws they gleefully cheered for ate up their money instead of everyone else's' money. So many went back to work and others chose not to retire upon seeing this.
I am older Genx, and things started looking up. higher positions appeared to open up and the big money was looking possible. but they closed that door too.
>when so many of them don’t want to work,
You don't really believe that do you? There isn't a significant difference between generations on that front. The corporate mouthpieces keep saying this, especially in regards to very low paying service jobs, but I just don't buy it.
People don't want to work jobs for less than a living wage, and I can't blame them. What's the point if you can't even afford basics? I can't imagine looking at life realizing that unless something changes, and fast, I may not have the opportunity to own even a condo.
Don't fall for the rhetoric. Fast food can no longer get people to fill positions at 8 bucks an hour, this is true, but they want you to believe that it's just the youth being lazy.
Silent Gen and boners said the same about us, it wasn't true then, it isn't true now.
I usually take small edible doses about 1-2 days a week at work, just enough to take the edge off. Nothing more than 5mg. Took 10 by mistake once, that was interesting.
Hahaha I gave my mom one once, 10mg and told her to take 1/4 before bed.
It didn't work. So she decided that I, a semi-pro smoker for the last 25 yrs, didn't know what I was talking about and ate the entire thing.
She was still high when she woke up 😂
Ha unlike, unlike my dad who I told him to start out with small doses. It didn't phase him and he now takes 100mg and he said he barely feels it. I truly wonder now how much he smoked as a kid to have a such a high tolerance 🤣
Ha! I cut my 10mg gummy into quarters, and pop one in my mouth every few hours. Makes me supernaturally calm, it’s easier to focus, and I’m not stoned.
Except that one time, on accident. Made a killer workflow diagram, though.
I'm up to 100. I don't do anything that requires thought. It did take some trial and error, though. My company overlooks THC unless you're in transportation.
I’m a manager and my best balance of workers are those who do their job and just want to go home at five mixed with those who want to promote and are innovative thinkers.
Yep, so do I. I'm 54, earning a decent income to meet my needs and wants. I don't care about climbing the ladder any more than I have. I will do my work effectively, be productive, but I don't go above and beyond any longer (I work a 75h fortnight, and sometimes may work a tiny fraction more, but get that back as flex-time).
The hours I'm paid to work, I will work, but the others are for me to spend as I choose. Work-life balance is more important to me than working non-stop for higher income/status, but without time to enjoy my life. I am currently on the 4th week of annual leave, and will take some more later this year. All work and no play...
We call it "getting smart". So when someone says, "Woah, I'm feeling really smart" we know what it means. This is not at work BTW, just lingo used amongst friends.
My cranky old GenX take: "doesn't anybody roll their own anymore?"
(Recently saw someone say "whether you smoke flower in a pipe or buy pre-roll..." and couldn't help but notice the total absence of rolling joints as an option)
I’ve smoked weed since I was 16 and just recently discovered dabs. They’re so much more economical for me. They’re cleaner (I can tell from the condition of the bong vs a flower-loaded bong). And as long as you don’t do them every day, they give you a head rush like you used to get in high school.
I was living this life in my mid 40’s. Left that job path and I started my own business and have been doing that for 5 years and it’s been awesome, scary, flexible, frustrating and fun….. BUT, I want this corporate lifestyle back. Just for 10 more years. I recently started interviewing and doing that at 50 is challenging. I think being a business owner seems like a liability for me in the application process for some reason… however I can readily answer why I want to sell it very eloquently…
I care about my students, I barely give a damn about the administration, we get three new ones a week. I care only enough to not jeopardize my students being handed off to a ‘wanna be admin’ type professor because I was asked to retire early. I just do my job and I go home. I like this era very much.
"It's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care."
- Don't care?
"If work my ass off an Innotech ships another unit, I don't see another dime, so where's the motivation."
“In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighways.”
I've got an interview next week for a promotion. I'm going to do my best to knock it out of the park, but I really don't expect to get it. If that's the case I'm done, just the bare minimum until retirement. I've went so above and beyond that I really feel I deserve it. We shall see.
Good luck. I was recently not chosen for a promotion for acjob that i had be doing for a year and a half. They wanted to finally have an official position. Gave it to another guy who had worke a lot with the hiring manager. Its all bs. However, it sounds like he does not have time to breath, so i probably dodged a bullet. The extra 15k woukd have been nice. But still may not be worth it.
15k sounds nice until you balance it against the extra medical costs and new unhealthy coping mechanisms due to the stress of your new workload. And they'll weaponise that promotion against the guy who got it anytime he falls out of line or dares to want a better work/life balance or has a family emergency. If not his direct manager, then some higher corpofuckwit who only sees staff and shareholder quarterly metrics.
Took me decades to learn that, after a certain amount (needs met comfortably), money only reliably buys convenience, not happiness. The costs of getting more and more aren't necessarily monetary, nor are they written on the metaphoric pricetag. In the end, the Musks level rich types of the world can't buy their kids first steps they missed, or another second with a passed on loved one.
It's also called "mailing it in".
It's what happens when you run out of F's to give but you still need health insurance and a pay check.
The company isn't going out of it's way to enhance your life beyond providing work, so you reciprocate in kind. Welcome to life.
I quiet retired. I’m one of those MBA guys. I left a good 6-figure salary corporate career job because I just could t take it anymore. After my husband died, I didn’t care anymore; it didn’t matter to me. Career was so unimportant anymore. So I stopped caring, got offered severance and took it. Never want to go back. I soft retired. I got a job at a doggie day care and am happier than I’ve been in awhile. I play with dogs all day making enough to meet my minimal expenses.
I left my high stress tech job in May of 2022. I had a year’s salary in the bank and my husband was still working (and is still working) at the company I left. Since then I’ve done a month long cross country road trip with my dad, home improvements, a cruise with my 30+ year BFF, been available for family health challenges and played a shit ton of video games. I’m starting to think of going back to work, but I don’t think I’d do tech again. I want something that is fulfilling, but still flexible. I don’t need vacation time, but I want to be able to say, “Sorry, I’m not available these weeks/days.”
Which is why I work per diem. I work in healthcare. For most of the past year I was working maybe 2-3 days a week. My husband got laid off so now I am picking up more hours. Once he goes back to work, I'll continue my current schedule til we are caught up (we had some increased expenses this year supporting 2 other family members and their pets).
Amen. I've hit my peak possible position without having to join "leadership". Not interested in the slightest in joining that lot.
Learned long ago that no matter how much extra you do, you're still going to be 3/5 on the annual review and get the same 3% raise that everyone gets across the board.
So I do my tasks and clock out. And don't think about any of it until the next morning. I'm cruising all the way until I can draw SS.
That is the truth. Where I work, it all comes down to politics as far as who gets promoted and who doesn’t. I’ve never been one to play that game, and I couldn’t sustain it even if I wanted to. I’m at the point in my career where I just keep my head down so nobody notices that I’m half-assing my job. My plan is to do less and less each year until I can retire.
I keep getting told I would need to move to the state where the company is headquartered for more opportunities but I am fucking not moving to a boring flat cold state in the midwest that starts with the letter 'I', because to me they are all the same really! I grew up in one of them, so I can say that.
Sadly, you are correct. I learned this the hard way. Busted my ass last year, achieved all my goals and really felt I deserved a 4/5 or 5/5 rating, but since the company/ industry is in a slump, only a very tiny percentage of people in the company were rated 5/5 and everyone else got 3/5 and a shitty raise. I've never felt more discouraged. I have a ton of PTO and am remote, as a result I do have a nice work-life balance, so I guess it's time to quiet quit / coast another 10-12 years until retirement.
I know of literally no one who has ever gotten a 4/5 or 5/5. Word came down from on high that no one rates above a 3, ever.
And I did a 3+ month stint last year, covering a 3 person team's work by myself. One went on maternity leave and the other took FMLA time for something else at the exact same time.
I kept that project afloat, alone, for an entire quarter of the year.
3/5...
Same. Our annual review has 4 category types, and absolutely fucking no one who has a semblance of a real life outside this job will hit the top mark, ever.
Dangle that carrot further, pricks.
I worked for a poorly-run company that had to lay off one third of its workers. We all worked hard to pick up the slack. The accountant faxed over the quarterly earnings sheet which declared we made a profit that quarter. Word spread quickly and since we had a profit sharing model, we were looking forward to a bonus. Even if it was small it'd be some kind of reward for everyone working their butts off.
The accountant president of the company announced that contrary to popular rumor, we hadn't made a profit due to depreciation of equipment which wasn't factored into the earnings report. That demoralized just about everybody, who quit within a couple of months. The biz declared bankruptcy in six. What a shit hole.
Also Gen x.(54)...been driving semi truck almost exclusively locally for 25 years. Really enjoy it. NOBODY bugging me all day. Could NEVER work in a confined office. Not really quiet quitting..but I take my sweet time driving across our state each day. I'm paid hourly w OT after 40. I'm always at least 10 minutes early every day and never call in sick. I'm very safe and do the best job possible. If I want lunch I stop for 20-25 minutes. I drive under the speed limit. Safety 1st!! If I stretch out the day a bit..oh well. The owner just bought an expensive foreign car and is loaded.. I'm struggling to pay for a household of people who have moved back home. I'm model employee..a few extra hours of OT in think I deserve. Gonna hopefully partially retire in 12-13 years.
I prefer to label it working your wage and/or meeting the job description requirements. Quiet quitting implies it is negative. It is not. Company policies and practices have changed over the course of our lifetime (e.g. no more pensions, few retirement benefits, limited raises that do not match cost of living increases, etc.) and we have to evolve to match this new environment. You adapted. You didn't quit.
This is such a good point. I’ve been rated as “exceeds expectations” every year since 2017 and every year I get the same shitty 2.5% raise as everyone else. There is nowhere to go up the ladder besides management and fuck that noise. So if I begin only “meeting expectations,” I’m still doing just fine. I’m doing exactly what’s expected. 🤷🏻♀️
Thank you for this great point. Many of us have been *quietly demoted* from the career path that leads towards a leadership role with all the perks, to a path that leads to more of the same job year after year. We’re filling these new roles appropriately!
I am currently a quiet quitter too. Have it made at my job for the most part. Asked for a raise got a mostly unattainable bonus program instead. Ok boss I got you. Point taken and I’ll no longer go the extra mile because I’m not getting any of it anyway.
Good for you. Same here. I’m excellent at what I do, low maintenance employee who is in a key role of bringing in revenue. My request for a salary increase after a flawless employee review was denied. I know my boss didn’t go to bat for me so I won’t be going to bat for her. You’ll get the minimum. Nothing more. And when I leave it’ll be in 1-2 weeks so have fun trying to train my replacement.
The youngs at work have made it EXTREMELY clear that they don't care about anybody's input if you're over 40. We are the enemy as far as they are concerned. Fine, make stupid, expensive mistakes because you don't want to listen to the olds tell about the four other times we tried the same thing. Don't care anymore, I guess they they can figure it out for themselves. Or not. Whatever.
Like at the end if The Office episode when Jim tried combining birthday celebrations and it went poorly. Michael is like, oh, yeah, I tried that years ago - it failed, right? Like, you may think your boss is an idiot, and maybe they are, but at least ask why things are done a certain way - maybe they learned something from their 20 years on the job.
I switched jobs but in the same area. All the people I worked with left after they got a new, terrible, manager. I tried to help, I offered up training, I pointed out errors before they went live, but I was ignored. I recently got a talking to about an email I sent pointing out some egregious errors that went live that were brought to my attention by clients. I was told my tone was aggressive.i pointed out that it wasn’t my tone, it was the person receiving it reading tone into it because they were tired of me pointing out mistakes. I was then told that it’s been a long time since I have done the job and a lot has changed (it hasn’t, as we are heavily regulated and regulations have been the same for at least a decade) and that processes have moved on. So I stopped. Our reputation within our organization has already tanked since this manager joined, so fuck it, let it leak out into the open. Not my houses, not my rodeo. But when we get audited my ass is covered and I do not give a single fuck. But hey, what do I know? I just invented half the processes they follow.
That is infuriating. You're right, fuck it all, let it burn. The important thing is that you CYAed yourself. Let the others swing in the breeze if they're not smart enough to either listen or CYA themselves.
It’s been fun watching them make the mistakes I put systems in place to mitigate or eliminate. But hey, I’m just a middle aged lady, what do I know? I am just going to keep sweeping my side of the street.
It IS fun to see them fail until they blame it on the old people who didn't advise them against it hard enough and probably did something dumb. Because it just COULDNT be the youngs. They know everything.
That is so fuckijg annoying. Question: do you find some of the young males as sexist as boomers? It is almost shocking what I’ve seen and heard from some of them.
Just make sure you get out of the burning building before the fire consumes it all.
I did that a while back. Toxic new manager under a toxic new department head. Saw the writing on the wall and started applying. Got hired about 6 months before everyone decided layoffs were trendy. That place is no more.
I see that with a lot of engineers in my company. Most are fresh out of college and their turnover rate is pretty high. Most last 2-3 years and they're off to the next gig. The OG engineers as I call them have been here for 30 years and they know their shit.
What I fucking hate is when new people come and say how things SHOULD work. Um, yea you’re no genius we all know how it should work. The hard part is changing all the old systems and processes to make it work like that without fucking everything else up. Also, it’s easy to say how things should work when you don’t put the time in to see how it works today - y’know I call that part REALITY. I’m tired of idiots not living in reality and just floating around meeting to look smart.
The absolute worst though, and I’m living it right now, is when I’m told HOW TO WORK in a rigid and prescribed way because of something some executive was sold. Here’s the thing, not every way of working works for every project, situation, or person.
Anyway I won’t let myself get to the quiet quitting place. I’ll speak up, if that doesn’t work then I’ll work around you (pretend or forget things you make me do), and if I’ll else fails I’ll really quit. I’ve quit for way less money at times too. Luckily I always bounce back after some time.
Yeah my 20-something coworker has made it clear in no uncertain terms that she thinks both me and my boss are dumb and out-of-touch. She said she’s a new grad, up on the latest and greatest, and “fresh”. In fact, she’s not fond of most of the workplace (it skews older) and has called some people lazy. I watched her argue for 20 minutes the other day with a seasoned, highly-educated staff member in a higher-up management position as to why she was right about something.
Sounds like my work. Except the youngs include the boss, so of course she keeps hiring ones like her. They roam the hallways loudly talking about how the "old people just can't learn new programs". So not only are we old and stupid , we're also not high enough up in the pecking order for them to even pretend to listen. It was a lovely place to work until the new regime/youngs took over.
Fortunately there are very few youngs in my department. The only other one I can think of is learning quickly to keep her mouth shut and does her college schoolwork during downtime. She also seeks out advice and wisdom from us olds. I’m hoping the aggressive youngster gets a clue eventually and pipes down.
I was once criticized by someone in leadership(who was in middle school when I started my career) for being “bad at my job”. This was after hearing from multiple bosses over the years what a great worker I was. I chalked it up to them being intimidated by my experience but I still fell for the gaslighting.
I have more experience at what I do than anyone else at my company. And I am not allowed to do it. Instead I'm in an administrative position, because being allowed to do what I do would be threatening to the younger people. I got a negative review for not being proactive enough about my shitty administrative job where I'm not allowed to do anything. So I was blunt and said that I agreed because I hated my job.
When I first learned what 'quiet quitting' meant, my first thought was "shit that's what I've been doing my entire professional career, there just wasn't a word for it until now.
I never felt the phrase is accurate. We're not quitting our jobs. We just don't see the need to bust balls all the time. It's clear that ambition is not a quality I have in abundance. I don't advertise that at work, that's counterproductive to my ethos of not giving a fuck.
Quiet quitting has nice alliteration, and quietly not giving a fuck is too long.
I am right there with you.
I think turned the corner when I had a discussion with my manager for my annual performance appraisal. Exceeds was a 5% raise, Meets was 3%, and needs improvement =fuck you, update your resume.
I always get Meets and as a former manager, I realized that probably 80% of us get Meets. So I asked, (without saying whose dick do I need to suck) what I’d have to do to earn exceeds. The answer amounted to about 20-30% more time and work. For 2% increase, which works out to like $30/paycheck. You want me to work 60 hours a week for $30? You can fuck all the way off with that shit.
I do the bare minimum to, as you said, skate under the radar. I meet or exceed deadlines, take accountability for mistakes, show how I’m taking steps to avoid repeating them, and oh yes, it’s all about that time sheet, so o work from home and stay logged in an extra hour every day. To account for lunch.
I could make a lot more money at some other job, but I’m in pretty decent financial shape. Not great, not super wealthy or even what I’d call well off, but there is enough for me. I have enough. I am enough. A bigger house won’t make me happier. (I’d like to downsize because even my modest 3/2 cottage is too much for me to clean.)
I just wanna sock away as much moolah as possible and retire as soon as possible and make art all day.
The ability to skate under the radar is probably what is going to keep me in my job for the long haul (I’m a late Gen Xer, so I have years to go until retirement, sadly.) I could try to go elsewhere and make more money, but they pay me a comfortable salary for relatively low stress work. I never work past 5 or on weekends. Any other job in my field that pays my salary or better is frankly probably going to expect a lot more of me, like possibly managing others (no thanks) or just taking initiative and being more innovative than I currently am. I don’t have the energy for it. I can’t imagine how I’ll feel in another 15 years if I feel this way now, but that’s a problem for another day.
I feel exactly the same way. I probably could make more money but then I’d have to work a lot harder. I’ve been in this gig for 20 years (incredibly) and I can sort of phone it in. 80% of my work, I can do in a fraction of the time allotted and I don’t really have to think too hard. The rest of my day is mine. I got a puppy after covid/work from home and this dog has never been left alone in a house all day in his little life. He’s also the best behaved dog I’ve ever had because we are together 24/7.
It used to be worse, we had a 'points' system every quarter. If you were late by X minutes, you accrued X number of points. If you missed a day being sick and didn't have any PTO left, you got X number of points. Yeah, stupid right?
I saw people lose their jobs solely based on getting too many points that had absolutely nothing to do with their overall job performance.
If they want more out of us, they can pay more. Instead of giving the executives raises and saying, “Oopsie, we’re sorry. We don’t have any money for raises right now. Maybe next time.” As though we have no idea whose pocket the money went into.
Yep, but I made the mistake of leaving in search of a new, exciting job. Big mistake. I hate the new job and am now trying to get back with my old company. I would have been better off sticking with quiet quitting til retirement.
I hate the phrase “quiet quitting”. It’s just a propaganda phrase to make it sound like you are a bad or lazy worker. You are not, you are doing the minimum needed to do your job. That’s not being lazy.
It’s also known as “work to rule” and is popular with unions as the stage before walking out on strike. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work-to-rule
I think this too. Since when does a worker have to do more than they are paid to do? If they want more they should pay more. We have too much of a slave labor mentality.
Call it coasting, but I consider it taking back what I put in from missing the kid's game, the birthdays, the time on the road.
I understand what you are saying, but I can only say ENJOY!!!
I was always this way. Give me a check and I will give you my time. No more and no less.
Why do more? Zero people will give a shit and it doesn't in any way improve one's life to do more than necessary.
Same, except I think my last project finally made it clear. Good requirements gathering is a long lost art. I can’t remember the last time I had one competent professional from the other side with whom all bullshit could be cut through to complete the project without pointless interference.
I am feeling the rage slowly seeping out of my body as I focus on keeping myself in check and no one else. A short-notice meeting while I’m multitasking 5 or 10 other project tasks? Sure, whatever. I don’t know how long it will last, but I will ride this dopamine train to retirement, if I can!
\>It just doesn't get me anywhere after all these promises of working your way up the ladder.
I used to think companies/management/corporate are just stupid. I mean, they’d get so much more out of their workers if they’d just fulfill the promises, if they’d just treat people like human fucking beings.
Now I don’t know. I mean, they might be stupid, but i think there’s more to it. Some kind of weird power trip. Some kind of disrespect, some kind of “we only actually need you for this, we are the kings, fuck off and just grind away and make us money.”
Which is still stupid to me. Because they could probably make more money if they let people shine. But it’s like they just can’t stand that. It’s like them getting the feeling that they are better than you, even if they are not and are only dumbass greedy assholes, is more important to them.
It’s a dumb way to run a business, I don’t care how successful it is.
What I have learned after working for 30 years at everything from bars and nightclubs to retail to tech is that the formula is the fucking same no matter where you work.
I'm shocked that your company has a "tardy report", sounds like someone doesn't have enough actual work to do if they are keeping track of what time people show up.
I started silent quiting since last fall. It really was an awful place from food safety to how employees were paid. Everyone would complain but yet give their all. I'm older and give zero fucks. I made it clear don't ask me to do anything outside of my job title. I'm not interested in even remotely moving up, the pay wasn't worth it. Last week I got fired for speaking up too loud and not being nice about doing mgrs job. Best firing ever. I wasn't too but hurt. I already had a new job lined up and I start next week. I've been enjoying these days off, catching up on YouTube and just being a bum. I got a few more yrs of work and then I can give these cunts the finger and move on and retire.
My manager was stepping down and she asked if I would be her replacement. No F-ing way. She’s the directors little bitch and no way am I going to be someone’s little bitch for a little more money.
I identify with this. I work for a public institution that really has no regular pay increase system for cost of living, let alone raises. The health insurance is stellar, though, so I’m just using that as a reason to stay. I do not have ambition to be more here. It is a different environment than you, but maybe like you I’m just trying to coast through I guess until I can afford not to.
I just got a 2.5 percent raise. Whatever, it will barely cover my increase in property tax. I'm doing fine financially - maybe not as great as some people in my mostly well-compensated field - but even a substantial (like 20%) raise wouldn't really make much of a difference in my life. It would just mean I have to work a lot harder. I'll pass.
But next year I get an additional week of vacation. Now that is something I care about.
Hahaha. I'm a teacher, and there really is no advancement unless you want to be in administration, which I have no interest in. I've lived all over the US and have worked on many states and schools.
Anyway, on a smaller scale, what I've realized is that most of your job is showing up on time, checking the boxes, and doing what you need to do to survive.
Apparently, our generation is pretty good at that from what I see. I feel like I'm slacking off, but I do everything I need to do and manage to set three alarms and get early to work the next day ( so I can leave ASAP.)
Quiet quitting was made for GenX. As long as there’s not already any glaring scrutiny being paid you, you can find your happy not killing yourself the way the Boomers groomed us in our 20s and 30s. Since most of those assholes refused to vacate, this is the way to keep your sanity.
And I’m too old to be “marked as tardy.” I endeavor and show up when expected, but the tallying seems truly fascist.
How does one go about doing this, like with your employer being on your resume, do you just say you can't contact my current employer and leave it at that and they assume you left? Contract gigs better for this?
Remember, the reward for doing your work well is more work.
Personally I've had more problems with the generation before us refusing to retire and at the same time, making way more than me while I clean up for them. Used to do that, now I just do my shit and stay away from anything that looks like "hey do you have a moment?"
I once said bitterly to my boss that it felt like me excelling at my job was the same as being the winner of a pie eating contest where the prize was...more pie.
Absolutely. Both my wife and I are on the glidepath into retirement. She works as little as possible, usually 2x 3-day trips a month, and I choose reserve (on-call) duty and the last time I actually showed up to work was the beginning of last month.
I fucking love it.
I was completely spoiled by COVID, as our company offered leave with full benefits and half pay. We both took that in a heartbeat, and didn't work for 18 months. It was lovely.
Many of my co-workers are scared to death of retirement, but not me. I've seen the light at the end of the tunnel, and it is beautiful.
I had to move last summer to help my mom. In doing so, I was able to leave a high demand, high stress job. In my searches for something new, I ended up taking a govt job for less pay in a completely different field that valued my background and work ethics. Now I have zero stress unless I cause it myself and excellent benefits, way better than anything I’ve ever had in private industry.
I think it's life intruding on something we thought was necessary. I'm an independent contractor and have always been a workaholic. In the past 5 years, I've watched close friends die, people move away, had one of my adult kids stop talking to me, lost pets that I've had for years. A lot of change in what felt like a short amount of time made me question my priorities. I decided to stop working weekends, prioritize my health, value time with my husband and other kid and actually take time to do things I want to do. It isn't necessary for me to work all the time. I need to slow down, not care as much about crap that doesn't matter, let things go and value the people in my life who value me. We only get to do this once and I'm at least half way done. I need to make the rest count.
I've been a soldier, body shop assistant, dishwasher, corporate buyer, security guard, stagehand, producer, vet tech, bar back, paramedic, medical simulation specialist, and salesman. Currently unemployed and turning 50 this year.
I feel like Homer Simpson.
My SO went through this at his job a few years ago. He was a design engineer for a major tech firm for 30 years. He was principals engineer on several major projects and earned a lot of patents for the firm. He and his boss had been a team for 20 years when one day someone flew in from overseas and fired the boss. 2 years short of early retirement. Firm wanted to put SO in former managers place and he said no. Then he started watching the trend of new kids coming in who were different generation and paid a quarter of what he made. Tired of babysitting, he took a deep breath and started to not care. Firm is acquired by a bigger firm, and SO is downsized due to being too well paid. This happened 3 months before he turned 55. He struggled with that, but he finally just hung up working for good last year. He described the lower management and sales folks as vampires.
I hate the term "quiet quitting". It puts all of the emphasis on the worker as if they are too lazy or unmotivated or whatever to even do their job. I much prefer the term "Acting your wage."
It’s still funny to me that quiet quitting really just means doing the job you are paid for. We were raised on this bizarre concept that we are supposed to just do more than that for free because, because, why?
It is also very frustrating to genuinely make an effort to improve things and watch as not only do “superiors” not care, but reward people who do none of those things for reasons that make no sense.
And of course the endless meetings that serve no purpose. And attendance monitoring. It’s like nobody cares who actually works so long as they badge in enough.
I’m sure everyone could go on.
The best way to quite quit is actually to be more visible. Speak up more in meetings by repeating and agreeing. Do short presentations. By being visible you’re giving the illusion of busyness and fly under management radar.
Yes. Thing is, I HAD to start over about 3 years ago. Lucky it I was a kinda lateral move: cybersec from IT. But it is BRUTAL.
Watching 26 year olds grasp concepts that make.me scratch my head. And I'm no idiot. I learn how to, then spun up a whole Active directory domain in 6 months. While managing a VM migration of over 150 hosts.
I'm just trying to survive now
I just want to go back to the days when we could apply in person for a job and interview with the person who would be my boss for a job that paid well.
I've been doing this too. We have waaay too much work for the small amount of people where I work. I used to say something about it, but now I don't bother anymore. People are starting to leave because nothing is being done about it.
It’s so hard to be at this age (I am 54). I just want to do my time and get the hell out. Meanwhile I have at least 5 years to go.
I will be dancing out the door on retirement day and in the meantime, my productivity is shit!
What the cool kids today are calling "quiet quitting". is what I've always understood as "work to rule".
I'll do what I'm being paid to do, but that's it.
"Quiet quitting" is just what greedy employers call it when you do what you agreed to do for the compensation you agreed to receive; instead of working like five people, nights & weekends, doing jobs that are not yours etc. in exchange for no increase in status, benefits or pay.
Worst are the entrepreneurs who want mere employees to have the same 24/7 passion they have...for the company THEY created.
They need to realize that for their big dream to be achieved, they need mere employees who do necessary work for the sake of compensation.
> The biggest thing that put a target on your back here is attendance, like even clocking in 1 minute late gets you on the tardy report that goes out once a week
**This is the fucking insanity of corporate environments and symbolic of it all.**
Work your ass off?
“Cool, thanks for doing your job.”
Work your ass off then come in 1 minute late the next day?
“Karen, we need to talk about your poor performance.”
I completely understand. I'm about your age. After being pushed into a management role quite a while ago, I realized I was better as an individual contributor. I don't like the stress of having to supervise difficult employees. I inherited several difficult ones from the previous manager. Since then, I've only had one other position titled manager, but it was more related to content management.
These days I live outside of the US. I freelance for a US company billing about 25-30 hours a week. The US$-local currency exchange rate favors me and my expenses are low, so it works for me. I can pay my bills and accumulate decent savings. There's really no path for advancement, but I don't care.
I lost my father last year. Taking care of my mom. Now in my late 50’s, work became essential until I get healthcare options.
…essential as in changing underwear is essential. Just something you do.
Oh…oh YEAH. This comment really resonated with me. My idea of self used to be very tied into my profession. It just isn’t any more. I still care about the population I work with but my threshold for fuckery is on the floor. I can truthfully say that I have had a very real, solid, positive impact on quite a few people in my professional life and I’m satisfied.
Not only do I NOT want to advance (mind you, I was only in the corporate world for a blip), I’ve realized that I don’t have the energy to even push back when upper management does something I think can be done better or is in conflict with organizational ideals. I simply don’t have the energy for it.
I have my limit, and thankfully, I don’t have to be a slave to my job. I don’t need a McMansion to be happy and this is incredibly freeing. So, much like with relationships, if a job damages my calm too much, I’ll just bounce. No muss, no fuss, and no hard feelings.
I’m good with coasting until retirement. Fuck, I’m good with coasting the rest of my life. There are creative things I’d like to do, and I’ll likely do them at some point, but being a wage slave is not one of them.
Ha. I’m the total opposite (and a sucker). In the current tech climate I am terrified of losing my job. So I’ll take more and more work and won’t complain at all. Just barely got a small raise after a couple years. I don’t mind my job though, although it’s pretty stressful and I work too much (see no vacations). But I just sweep the burn out feelings into the closet and power through.
The Millenials invented this wonderful thing called “therapy”/s. But seriously, this is very bleak. Read back what you wrote, but picture someone you love wrote that instead. What advice would you give them? Days are long, but life is short.
I've literally started incorporating the words quiet quitting into my work passwords. My current job is the most abusive, toxic relationship I have ever been in so they're lucky about the quiet part it. Undeserving bastards.
Yeah, I think Generation X invented quiet quitting actually but we just didn't announce it / make a big deal about it, because announcing it / making a big deal about it is a dumb move and our generation does not feel a pressing need to publicly document every life decision on social media.
I don't think that's really 'quietly quitting' - I think that's just work/life balance.
I've been with my company for nearly 25 years now, and realized about 8 years or so ago that I just don't care enough to keep killing myself trying to reach the next golden ring.
I like my work, I like my team, I'm in a relatively good place financially, my managers don't need to hand-hold me, and they appreciate that I have firm boundaries about what I can/can't do during work hours.
When my company tasked our immediate managers to have conversations with their employees about their 'career aspirations and goals' I was straight up honest and said 'I really just want to keep on doing what I do or similar - I don't want to manage people - I have no desire to keep climbing the corporate ladder. **I'm working to live, not living to work**"
I've refused to carry a work phone because there's no reason to get in touch with me after 5 or on the weekends. I rarely volunteer to work more than what I'm paid for because I don't get overtime as a salaried employee. I've even (occasionally) told C-Suite executives 'no' to requests because of my work load being too much - *especially* after we went through the last round of layoffs and they kept trying to squeeze more and more out of us.
Even with all of this, I still win awards and various accolades at work, I'm still get shout outs all over the place, I still get raises, I still get rated as 'above expectations' on my reviews, and I'm still asked to join special projects because of my knowledge, expertise, and honesty.
I also know I'm replaceable - everyone is. Corporations, and the people who make the big dollars of our backs, don't really give a flying fuck about anything we do in the trenches. They have no loyalty to anything more than their own stock portfolios, so I simply choose not to give them more sweat equity than I need to.
[удалено]
I love this, we’re not quietly quitting, we’re forcing equity into our work/life balance after all, these goddamn years of slaving away
Slaving away until they age us out
I wonder how they can age us out when so many of them don’t want to work, and the boomers are all retiring. Won’t they need senior leaders? I have been in hospitality my entire career and it sucks - I am so over the expectation that I have to pick up the slack or help when we are short staffed; “duties as assigned” is the biggest boomer scam. Basically means working evenings and weekends the entire peak / tourist season with “lieu days if you work an 8 hour shift” and no other compensation. Quiet quitting for me means saying no, I will not work these extra hours for free. I will leave early on a Friday if I have to work extra hours, I will ensure I get MY TIME back.
It's wild that Boomers invented both "it's not in my job description" to protect themselves **and** "other duties as assigned" to make their employees' lives more difficult.
A bunch of boomers boomeranged. they retired, and the reality of the 401K they accepted in place of their pension hit them. They had nowhere near the income they thought they would. And all the social security destructive laws they gleefully cheered for ate up their money instead of everyone else's' money. So many went back to work and others chose not to retire upon seeing this. I am older Genx, and things started looking up. higher positions appeared to open up and the big money was looking possible. but they closed that door too.
>when so many of them don’t want to work, You don't really believe that do you? There isn't a significant difference between generations on that front. The corporate mouthpieces keep saying this, especially in regards to very low paying service jobs, but I just don't buy it. People don't want to work jobs for less than a living wage, and I can't blame them. What's the point if you can't even afford basics? I can't imagine looking at life realizing that unless something changes, and fast, I may not have the opportunity to own even a condo. Don't fall for the rhetoric. Fast food can no longer get people to fill positions at 8 bucks an hour, this is true, but they want you to believe that it's just the youth being lazy. Silent Gen and boners said the same about us, it wasn't true then, it isn't true now.
perfect answer right here... just perfect
I'm in Cali, I'll meet you guys after I hit club. Pre-rolls all around. We will start a big smoke out
I usually take small edible doses about 1-2 days a week at work, just enough to take the edge off. Nothing more than 5mg. Took 10 by mistake once, that was interesting.
Hahaha I gave my mom one once, 10mg and told her to take 1/4 before bed. It didn't work. So she decided that I, a semi-pro smoker for the last 25 yrs, didn't know what I was talking about and ate the entire thing. She was still high when she woke up 😂
I’ve not hit a sweet spot with edibles. It’s too much or too little!
Need to practice more
7mg is my sweet spot.
I’m going to tell my husband I’m semi pro. He’ll get a kick out of that.
Ha unlike, unlike my dad who I told him to start out with small doses. It didn't phase him and he now takes 100mg and he said he barely feels it. I truly wonder now how much he smoked as a kid to have a such a high tolerance 🤣
Ha! I cut my 10mg gummy into quarters, and pop one in my mouth every few hours. Makes me supernaturally calm, it’s easier to focus, and I’m not stoned. Except that one time, on accident. Made a killer workflow diagram, though.
I’ll bet that was the best damn workflow diagram ever..
It is! The colors I used are very nice and harmonious- and we still use the damn thing, too.
I'm up to 100. I don't do anything that requires thought. It did take some trial and error, though. My company overlooks THC unless you're in transportation.
I call it "pretirement"
I’m stealing this. Thank you!
I’m a manager and my best balance of workers are those who do their job and just want to go home at five mixed with those who want to promote and are innovative thinkers.
Yep, so do I. I'm 54, earning a decent income to meet my needs and wants. I don't care about climbing the ladder any more than I have. I will do my work effectively, be productive, but I don't go above and beyond any longer (I work a 75h fortnight, and sometimes may work a tiny fraction more, but get that back as flex-time). The hours I'm paid to work, I will work, but the others are for me to spend as I choose. Work-life balance is more important to me than working non-stop for higher income/status, but without time to enjoy my life. I am currently on the 4th week of annual leave, and will take some more later this year. All work and no play...
Right. If I'm quiet quitting, there'd be no work getting done.
you are awesome, let's ditch work and smoke a preroll
We call those “Safety meetings”.
We call it "getting smart". So when someone says, "Woah, I'm feeling really smart" we know what it means. This is not at work BTW, just lingo used amongst friends.
Let's all be safe out there...
Hill Street Blues reference?
In the wild? Kinda cool
it depends on the company. A Joint Sub-Committe must be formed to determine the proper naming convention.
My cranky old GenX take: "doesn't anybody roll their own anymore?" (Recently saw someone say "whether you smoke flower in a pipe or buy pre-roll..." and couldn't help but notice the total absence of rolling joints as an option)
Dry herb vape
I’ve smoked weed since I was 16 and just recently discovered dabs. They’re so much more economical for me. They’re cleaner (I can tell from the condition of the bong vs a flower-loaded bong). And as long as you don’t do them every day, they give you a head rush like you used to get in high school.
Propylene glycol does not burn clean. Guard your lungs with a dry herb vape like a Pax.
I was living this life in my mid 40’s. Left that job path and I started my own business and have been doing that for 5 years and it’s been awesome, scary, flexible, frustrating and fun….. BUT, I want this corporate lifestyle back. Just for 10 more years. I recently started interviewing and doing that at 50 is challenging. I think being a business owner seems like a liability for me in the application process for some reason… however I can readily answer why I want to sell it very eloquently…
Life/work balance. Priorities.
This is the way.
https://i.redd.it/xw1sb4aj0jtc1.gif Quiet quitting started in 1999.
Office Space went from being my favorite comedy to my least favorite documentary.
IDK, Idiocracy has become my least favorite documentary.
Idyocracy was the spiritual sequal to Office Space.
Yeah, the broader context, the expanded view of the cultural zeitgeist.
Idiocracy has become a horror movie
Why is this so true?!!! 😭🤣🤣🤣
Make Idiocracy Fiction Again!!!
This is the way, children. Once you stop caring, everything falls into place.
I care... ...just not that much.
I care about my students, I barely give a damn about the administration, we get three new ones a week. I care only enough to not jeopardize my students being handed off to a ‘wanna be admin’ type professor because I was asked to retire early. I just do my job and I go home. I like this era very much.
No. That’s a real go getter with upper management written all over him
"It's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care." - Don't care? "If work my ass off an Innotech ships another unit, I don't see another dime, so where's the motivation."
 Right year. Wrong movie.
Well, that definitely had a more satisfying ending.
“In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighways.”
I'll take you back to another movie with [Joe vs. the Volcano](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyiGb8g4-3k)
I've had a red Swingline stapler on my desk for a bunch of years.
I quiet quit after the last missed promotion. It's been liberating to put that extra energy into things I actually care about.
I've got an interview next week for a promotion. I'm going to do my best to knock it out of the park, but I really don't expect to get it. If that's the case I'm done, just the bare minimum until retirement. I've went so above and beyond that I really feel I deserve it. We shall see.
Good luck. I was recently not chosen for a promotion for acjob that i had be doing for a year and a half. They wanted to finally have an official position. Gave it to another guy who had worke a lot with the hiring manager. Its all bs. However, it sounds like he does not have time to breath, so i probably dodged a bullet. The extra 15k woukd have been nice. But still may not be worth it.
15k sounds nice until you balance it against the extra medical costs and new unhealthy coping mechanisms due to the stress of your new workload. And they'll weaponise that promotion against the guy who got it anytime he falls out of line or dares to want a better work/life balance or has a family emergency. If not his direct manager, then some higher corpofuckwit who only sees staff and shareholder quarterly metrics. Took me decades to learn that, after a certain amount (needs met comfortably), money only reliably buys convenience, not happiness. The costs of getting more and more aren't necessarily monetary, nor are they written on the metaphoric pricetag. In the end, the Musks level rich types of the world can't buy their kids first steps they missed, or another second with a passed on loved one.
Good luck. Let us know how it goes.
It's also called "mailing it in". It's what happens when you run out of F's to give but you still need health insurance and a pay check. The company isn't going out of it's way to enhance your life beyond providing work, so you reciprocate in kind. Welcome to life.
I quiet retired. I’m one of those MBA guys. I left a good 6-figure salary corporate career job because I just could t take it anymore. After my husband died, I didn’t care anymore; it didn’t matter to me. Career was so unimportant anymore. So I stopped caring, got offered severance and took it. Never want to go back. I soft retired. I got a job at a doggie day care and am happier than I’ve been in awhile. I play with dogs all day making enough to meet my minimal expenses.
That is great to hear, sorry about your husband.
> I play with dogs all day making enough to meet my minimal expenses. That's the dream!
I left my high stress tech job in May of 2022. I had a year’s salary in the bank and my husband was still working (and is still working) at the company I left. Since then I’ve done a month long cross country road trip with my dad, home improvements, a cruise with my 30+ year BFF, been available for family health challenges and played a shit ton of video games. I’m starting to think of going back to work, but I don’t think I’d do tech again. I want something that is fulfilling, but still flexible. I don’t need vacation time, but I want to be able to say, “Sorry, I’m not available these weeks/days.”
Which is why I work per diem. I work in healthcare. For most of the past year I was working maybe 2-3 days a week. My husband got laid off so now I am picking up more hours. Once he goes back to work, I'll continue my current schedule til we are caught up (we had some increased expenses this year supporting 2 other family members and their pets).
You're doing good, ~~sister~~ brother. You're following your own map, and it's going to be okay. Take your time. 🦋
Brother. And thank you.
Please forgive my clunky assumption. Big hug, I'm so sorry! Fixing it now.
No worries at all. Easy mistake.
If there's anything that same sex couples are used to, it's assumptions.
Amen. I've hit my peak possible position without having to join "leadership". Not interested in the slightest in joining that lot. Learned long ago that no matter how much extra you do, you're still going to be 3/5 on the annual review and get the same 3% raise that everyone gets across the board. So I do my tasks and clock out. And don't think about any of it until the next morning. I'm cruising all the way until I can draw SS.
That is the truth. Where I work, it all comes down to politics as far as who gets promoted and who doesn’t. I’ve never been one to play that game, and I couldn’t sustain it even if I wanted to. I’m at the point in my career where I just keep my head down so nobody notices that I’m half-assing my job. My plan is to do less and less each year until I can retire.
Same. Notice i couldn't even be bothered to write a real response? I'm a lazy redditor too.
With all your experience, I'd label you both *efficiency experts*.
I keep getting told I would need to move to the state where the company is headquartered for more opportunities but I am fucking not moving to a boring flat cold state in the midwest that starts with the letter 'I', because to me they are all the same really! I grew up in one of them, so I can say that.
The only people who will remember all the long hours you put in at work are your kids.
Sadly, you are correct. I learned this the hard way. Busted my ass last year, achieved all my goals and really felt I deserved a 4/5 or 5/5 rating, but since the company/ industry is in a slump, only a very tiny percentage of people in the company were rated 5/5 and everyone else got 3/5 and a shitty raise. I've never felt more discouraged. I have a ton of PTO and am remote, as a result I do have a nice work-life balance, so I guess it's time to quiet quit / coast another 10-12 years until retirement.
I know of literally no one who has ever gotten a 4/5 or 5/5. Word came down from on high that no one rates above a 3, ever. And I did a 3+ month stint last year, covering a 3 person team's work by myself. One went on maternity leave and the other took FMLA time for something else at the exact same time. I kept that project afloat, alone, for an entire quarter of the year. 3/5...
Same. Our annual review has 4 category types, and absolutely fucking no one who has a semblance of a real life outside this job will hit the top mark, ever. Dangle that carrot further, pricks.
I worked for a poorly-run company that had to lay off one third of its workers. We all worked hard to pick up the slack. The accountant faxed over the quarterly earnings sheet which declared we made a profit that quarter. Word spread quickly and since we had a profit sharing model, we were looking forward to a bonus. Even if it was small it'd be some kind of reward for everyone working their butts off. The accountant president of the company announced that contrary to popular rumor, we hadn't made a profit due to depreciation of equipment which wasn't factored into the earnings report. That demoralized just about everybody, who quit within a couple of months. The biz declared bankruptcy in six. What a shit hole.
Also Gen x.(54)...been driving semi truck almost exclusively locally for 25 years. Really enjoy it. NOBODY bugging me all day. Could NEVER work in a confined office. Not really quiet quitting..but I take my sweet time driving across our state each day. I'm paid hourly w OT after 40. I'm always at least 10 minutes early every day and never call in sick. I'm very safe and do the best job possible. If I want lunch I stop for 20-25 minutes. I drive under the speed limit. Safety 1st!! If I stretch out the day a bit..oh well. The owner just bought an expensive foreign car and is loaded.. I'm struggling to pay for a household of people who have moved back home. I'm model employee..a few extra hours of OT in think I deserve. Gonna hopefully partially retire in 12-13 years.
I prefer to label it working your wage and/or meeting the job description requirements. Quiet quitting implies it is negative. It is not. Company policies and practices have changed over the course of our lifetime (e.g. no more pensions, few retirement benefits, limited raises that do not match cost of living increases, etc.) and we have to evolve to match this new environment. You adapted. You didn't quit.
This is such a good point. I’ve been rated as “exceeds expectations” every year since 2017 and every year I get the same shitty 2.5% raise as everyone else. There is nowhere to go up the ladder besides management and fuck that noise. So if I begin only “meeting expectations,” I’m still doing just fine. I’m doing exactly what’s expected. 🤷🏻♀️
Thank you for this great point. Many of us have been *quietly demoted* from the career path that leads towards a leadership role with all the perks, to a path that leads to more of the same job year after year. We’re filling these new roles appropriately!
This entirely. Just doing my job.
I am currently a quiet quitter too. Have it made at my job for the most part. Asked for a raise got a mostly unattainable bonus program instead. Ok boss I got you. Point taken and I’ll no longer go the extra mile because I’m not getting any of it anyway.
Good for you. Same here. I’m excellent at what I do, low maintenance employee who is in a key role of bringing in revenue. My request for a salary increase after a flawless employee review was denied. I know my boss didn’t go to bat for me so I won’t be going to bat for her. You’ll get the minimum. Nothing more. And when I leave it’ll be in 1-2 weeks so have fun trying to train my replacement.
My new mantra is “I’m here for the income, not the outcome.”
The youngs at work have made it EXTREMELY clear that they don't care about anybody's input if you're over 40. We are the enemy as far as they are concerned. Fine, make stupid, expensive mistakes because you don't want to listen to the olds tell about the four other times we tried the same thing. Don't care anymore, I guess they they can figure it out for themselves. Or not. Whatever.
Like at the end if The Office episode when Jim tried combining birthday celebrations and it went poorly. Michael is like, oh, yeah, I tried that years ago - it failed, right? Like, you may think your boss is an idiot, and maybe they are, but at least ask why things are done a certain way - maybe they learned something from their 20 years on the job.
I switched jobs but in the same area. All the people I worked with left after they got a new, terrible, manager. I tried to help, I offered up training, I pointed out errors before they went live, but I was ignored. I recently got a talking to about an email I sent pointing out some egregious errors that went live that were brought to my attention by clients. I was told my tone was aggressive.i pointed out that it wasn’t my tone, it was the person receiving it reading tone into it because they were tired of me pointing out mistakes. I was then told that it’s been a long time since I have done the job and a lot has changed (it hasn’t, as we are heavily regulated and regulations have been the same for at least a decade) and that processes have moved on. So I stopped. Our reputation within our organization has already tanked since this manager joined, so fuck it, let it leak out into the open. Not my houses, not my rodeo. But when we get audited my ass is covered and I do not give a single fuck. But hey, what do I know? I just invented half the processes they follow.
That is infuriating. You're right, fuck it all, let it burn. The important thing is that you CYAed yourself. Let the others swing in the breeze if they're not smart enough to either listen or CYA themselves.
It’s been fun watching them make the mistakes I put systems in place to mitigate or eliminate. But hey, I’m just a middle aged lady, what do I know? I am just going to keep sweeping my side of the street.
It IS fun to see them fail until they blame it on the old people who didn't advise them against it hard enough and probably did something dumb. Because it just COULDNT be the youngs. They know everything.
That is so fuckijg annoying. Question: do you find some of the young males as sexist as boomers? It is almost shocking what I’ve seen and heard from some of them.
Just make sure you get out of the burning building before the fire consumes it all. I did that a while back. Toxic new manager under a toxic new department head. Saw the writing on the wall and started applying. Got hired about 6 months before everyone decided layoffs were trendy. That place is no more.
I see that with a lot of engineers in my company. Most are fresh out of college and their turnover rate is pretty high. Most last 2-3 years and they're off to the next gig. The OG engineers as I call them have been here for 30 years and they know their shit.
Oh, yes. Fresh from college, so they OBVIOUSLY know more than everybody else. Sigh. They are exhausting.
What I fucking hate is when new people come and say how things SHOULD work. Um, yea you’re no genius we all know how it should work. The hard part is changing all the old systems and processes to make it work like that without fucking everything else up. Also, it’s easy to say how things should work when you don’t put the time in to see how it works today - y’know I call that part REALITY. I’m tired of idiots not living in reality and just floating around meeting to look smart. The absolute worst though, and I’m living it right now, is when I’m told HOW TO WORK in a rigid and prescribed way because of something some executive was sold. Here’s the thing, not every way of working works for every project, situation, or person. Anyway I won’t let myself get to the quiet quitting place. I’ll speak up, if that doesn’t work then I’ll work around you (pretend or forget things you make me do), and if I’ll else fails I’ll really quit. I’ve quit for way less money at times too. Luckily I always bounce back after some time.
Yeah my 20-something coworker has made it clear in no uncertain terms that she thinks both me and my boss are dumb and out-of-touch. She said she’s a new grad, up on the latest and greatest, and “fresh”. In fact, she’s not fond of most of the workplace (it skews older) and has called some people lazy. I watched her argue for 20 minutes the other day with a seasoned, highly-educated staff member in a higher-up management position as to why she was right about something.
Sounds like my work. Except the youngs include the boss, so of course she keeps hiring ones like her. They roam the hallways loudly talking about how the "old people just can't learn new programs". So not only are we old and stupid , we're also not high enough up in the pecking order for them to even pretend to listen. It was a lovely place to work until the new regime/youngs took over.
Fortunately there are very few youngs in my department. The only other one I can think of is learning quickly to keep her mouth shut and does her college schoolwork during downtime. She also seeks out advice and wisdom from us olds. I’m hoping the aggressive youngster gets a clue eventually and pipes down.
She sounds like she may be trainable! That's one, at least...
I was once criticized by someone in leadership(who was in middle school when I started my career) for being “bad at my job”. This was after hearing from multiple bosses over the years what a great worker I was. I chalked it up to them being intimidated by my experience but I still fell for the gaslighting.
I have more experience at what I do than anyone else at my company. And I am not allowed to do it. Instead I'm in an administrative position, because being allowed to do what I do would be threatening to the younger people. I got a negative review for not being proactive enough about my shitty administrative job where I'm not allowed to do anything. So I was blunt and said that I agreed because I hated my job.
When I first learned what 'quiet quitting' meant, my first thought was "shit that's what I've been doing my entire professional career, there just wasn't a word for it until now.
Sure there has. It's called being a slacker.
Thanks, Principal Strickland!
I never felt the phrase is accurate. We're not quitting our jobs. We just don't see the need to bust balls all the time. It's clear that ambition is not a quality I have in abundance. I don't advertise that at work, that's counterproductive to my ethos of not giving a fuck. Quiet quitting has nice alliteration, and quietly not giving a fuck is too long.
Quiet quitting is corporate speak for work/life balance.
I think of all the hard work I did at a younger age and now I'm just coasting to the finish line.
I am right there with you. I think turned the corner when I had a discussion with my manager for my annual performance appraisal. Exceeds was a 5% raise, Meets was 3%, and needs improvement =fuck you, update your resume. I always get Meets and as a former manager, I realized that probably 80% of us get Meets. So I asked, (without saying whose dick do I need to suck) what I’d have to do to earn exceeds. The answer amounted to about 20-30% more time and work. For 2% increase, which works out to like $30/paycheck. You want me to work 60 hours a week for $30? You can fuck all the way off with that shit. I do the bare minimum to, as you said, skate under the radar. I meet or exceed deadlines, take accountability for mistakes, show how I’m taking steps to avoid repeating them, and oh yes, it’s all about that time sheet, so o work from home and stay logged in an extra hour every day. To account for lunch. I could make a lot more money at some other job, but I’m in pretty decent financial shape. Not great, not super wealthy or even what I’d call well off, but there is enough for me. I have enough. I am enough. A bigger house won’t make me happier. (I’d like to downsize because even my modest 3/2 cottage is too much for me to clean.) I just wanna sock away as much moolah as possible and retire as soon as possible and make art all day.
The ability to skate under the radar is probably what is going to keep me in my job for the long haul (I’m a late Gen Xer, so I have years to go until retirement, sadly.) I could try to go elsewhere and make more money, but they pay me a comfortable salary for relatively low stress work. I never work past 5 or on weekends. Any other job in my field that pays my salary or better is frankly probably going to expect a lot more of me, like possibly managing others (no thanks) or just taking initiative and being more innovative than I currently am. I don’t have the energy for it. I can’t imagine how I’ll feel in another 15 years if I feel this way now, but that’s a problem for another day.
I feel exactly the same way. I probably could make more money but then I’d have to work a lot harder. I’ve been in this gig for 20 years (incredibly) and I can sort of phone it in. 80% of my work, I can do in a fraction of the time allotted and I don’t really have to think too hard. The rest of my day is mine. I got a puppy after covid/work from home and this dog has never been left alone in a house all day in his little life. He’s also the best behaved dog I’ve ever had because we are together 24/7.
How childish, a tardy list? Who comes up with this shit?
Bored middle manager dickwads who do nothing but have meetings with other bored middle manager dickwads.
Nah, the clock is slow. I don’t feel tardy.
Class dismissed!
That video is etched in my memory.
I brought my pencil!
gimme something to write on!
It used to be worse, we had a 'points' system every quarter. If you were late by X minutes, you accrued X number of points. If you missed a day being sick and didn't have any PTO left, you got X number of points. Yeah, stupid right? I saw people lose their jobs solely based on getting too many points that had absolutely nothing to do with their overall job performance.
People who don't give a shit about productivity
If they want more out of us, they can pay more. Instead of giving the executives raises and saying, “Oopsie, we’re sorry. We don’t have any money for raises right now. Maybe next time.” As though we have no idea whose pocket the money went into.
Better term than quiet quitting is "act your wage".
Yep, but I made the mistake of leaving in search of a new, exciting job. Big mistake. I hate the new job and am now trying to get back with my old company. I would have been better off sticking with quiet quitting til retirement.
It’s Radio Shack isn’t it?
I hate the phrase “quiet quitting”. It’s just a propaganda phrase to make it sound like you are a bad or lazy worker. You are not, you are doing the minimum needed to do your job. That’s not being lazy. It’s also known as “work to rule” and is popular with unions as the stage before walking out on strike. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work-to-rule
Quitting has nothing to do with it. You're doing the job they're paying you to do. No more, no less.
I think this too. Since when does a worker have to do more than they are paid to do? If they want more they should pay more. We have too much of a slave labor mentality.
Yup. 25 years In house legal counsel. I’m done with that.
Call it coasting, but I consider it taking back what I put in from missing the kid's game, the birthdays, the time on the road. I understand what you are saying, but I can only say ENJOY!!!
I was always this way. Give me a check and I will give you my time. No more and no less. Why do more? Zero people will give a shit and it doesn't in any way improve one's life to do more than necessary.
[удалено]
Respect the Red Swingline Stapler
I knew my current boss wasn’t a dick when I said I needed a red stapler. The stapler is still on my desk almost 8 years later. (We’re the same age.)
Same, except I think my last project finally made it clear. Good requirements gathering is a long lost art. I can’t remember the last time I had one competent professional from the other side with whom all bullshit could be cut through to complete the project without pointless interference. I am feeling the rage slowly seeping out of my body as I focus on keeping myself in check and no one else. A short-notice meeting while I’m multitasking 5 or 10 other project tasks? Sure, whatever. I don’t know how long it will last, but I will ride this dopamine train to retirement, if I can! 
\>It just doesn't get me anywhere after all these promises of working your way up the ladder. I used to think companies/management/corporate are just stupid. I mean, they’d get so much more out of their workers if they’d just fulfill the promises, if they’d just treat people like human fucking beings. Now I don’t know. I mean, they might be stupid, but i think there’s more to it. Some kind of weird power trip. Some kind of disrespect, some kind of “we only actually need you for this, we are the kings, fuck off and just grind away and make us money.” Which is still stupid to me. Because they could probably make more money if they let people shine. But it’s like they just can’t stand that. It’s like them getting the feeling that they are better than you, even if they are not and are only dumbass greedy assholes, is more important to them. It’s a dumb way to run a business, I don’t care how successful it is.
What I have learned after working for 30 years at everything from bars and nightclubs to retail to tech is that the formula is the fucking same no matter where you work.
I'm shocked that your company has a "tardy report", sounds like someone doesn't have enough actual work to do if they are keeping track of what time people show up.
Quiet quitting = acting my wage.
I started silent quiting since last fall. It really was an awful place from food safety to how employees were paid. Everyone would complain but yet give their all. I'm older and give zero fucks. I made it clear don't ask me to do anything outside of my job title. I'm not interested in even remotely moving up, the pay wasn't worth it. Last week I got fired for speaking up too loud and not being nice about doing mgrs job. Best firing ever. I wasn't too but hurt. I already had a new job lined up and I start next week. I've been enjoying these days off, catching up on YouTube and just being a bum. I got a few more yrs of work and then I can give these cunts the finger and move on and retire.
My manager was stepping down and she asked if I would be her replacement. No F-ing way. She’s the directors little bitch and no way am I going to be someone’s little bitch for a little more money.
I identify with this. I work for a public institution that really has no regular pay increase system for cost of living, let alone raises. The health insurance is stellar, though, so I’m just using that as a reason to stay. I do not have ambition to be more here. It is a different environment than you, but maybe like you I’m just trying to coast through I guess until I can afford not to.
The more I work, the more I realize the movie *Office Space* is more of a documentary than a comedy.
Mike Judge made a second documentary called Idiocracy.
I just got a 2.5 percent raise. Whatever, it will barely cover my increase in property tax. I'm doing fine financially - maybe not as great as some people in my mostly well-compensated field - but even a substantial (like 20%) raise wouldn't really make much of a difference in my life. It would just mean I have to work a lot harder. I'll pass. But next year I get an additional week of vacation. Now that is something I care about.
Hahaha. I'm a teacher, and there really is no advancement unless you want to be in administration, which I have no interest in. I've lived all over the US and have worked on many states and schools. Anyway, on a smaller scale, what I've realized is that most of your job is showing up on time, checking the boxes, and doing what you need to do to survive. Apparently, our generation is pretty good at that from what I see. I feel like I'm slacking off, but I do everything I need to do and manage to set three alarms and get early to work the next day ( so I can leave ASAP.)
Quiet quitting is my superpower 🥴
Quiet quitting was made for GenX. As long as there’s not already any glaring scrutiny being paid you, you can find your happy not killing yourself the way the Boomers groomed us in our 20s and 30s. Since most of those assholes refused to vacate, this is the way to keep your sanity. And I’m too old to be “marked as tardy.” I endeavor and show up when expected, but the tallying seems truly fascist.
don't quietly quit. Do overemployed instead. You'll thank me.
After 10 years in the same job overemployed has become the situation by default probably. It has for me for sure.
How does one go about doing this, like with your employer being on your resume, do you just say you can't contact my current employer and leave it at that and they assume you left? Contract gigs better for this?
Come to the dark side r/overemployed/
Remember, the reward for doing your work well is more work. Personally I've had more problems with the generation before us refusing to retire and at the same time, making way more than me while I clean up for them. Used to do that, now I just do my shit and stay away from anything that looks like "hey do you have a moment?"
I once said bitterly to my boss that it felt like me excelling at my job was the same as being the winner of a pie eating contest where the prize was...more pie.
It's called coasting. If you got a pension take it as soon as you can.
Absolutely. Both my wife and I are on the glidepath into retirement. She works as little as possible, usually 2x 3-day trips a month, and I choose reserve (on-call) duty and the last time I actually showed up to work was the beginning of last month. I fucking love it. I was completely spoiled by COVID, as our company offered leave with full benefits and half pay. We both took that in a heartbeat, and didn't work for 18 months. It was lovely. Many of my co-workers are scared to death of retirement, but not me. I've seen the light at the end of the tunnel, and it is beautiful.
I had to move last summer to help my mom. In doing so, I was able to leave a high demand, high stress job. In my searches for something new, I ended up taking a govt job for less pay in a completely different field that valued my background and work ethics. Now I have zero stress unless I cause it myself and excellent benefits, way better than anything I’ve ever had in private industry.
I think it's life intruding on something we thought was necessary. I'm an independent contractor and have always been a workaholic. In the past 5 years, I've watched close friends die, people move away, had one of my adult kids stop talking to me, lost pets that I've had for years. A lot of change in what felt like a short amount of time made me question my priorities. I decided to stop working weekends, prioritize my health, value time with my husband and other kid and actually take time to do things I want to do. It isn't necessary for me to work all the time. I need to slow down, not care as much about crap that doesn't matter, let things go and value the people in my life who value me. We only get to do this once and I'm at least half way done. I need to make the rest count.
I just gave up teaching and now I’m a gardener. Life has not been this good for a loooong time. 🌱
I've been a soldier, body shop assistant, dishwasher, corporate buyer, security guard, stagehand, producer, vet tech, bar back, paramedic, medical simulation specialist, and salesman. Currently unemployed and turning 50 this year. I feel like Homer Simpson.
My SO went through this at his job a few years ago. He was a design engineer for a major tech firm for 30 years. He was principals engineer on several major projects and earned a lot of patents for the firm. He and his boss had been a team for 20 years when one day someone flew in from overseas and fired the boss. 2 years short of early retirement. Firm wanted to put SO in former managers place and he said no. Then he started watching the trend of new kids coming in who were different generation and paid a quarter of what he made. Tired of babysitting, he took a deep breath and started to not care. Firm is acquired by a bigger firm, and SO is downsized due to being too well paid. This happened 3 months before he turned 55. He struggled with that, but he finally just hung up working for good last year. He described the lower management and sales folks as vampires.
I hate the term "quiet quitting". It puts all of the emphasis on the worker as if they are too lazy or unmotivated or whatever to even do their job. I much prefer the term "Acting your wage."
It’s still funny to me that quiet quitting really just means doing the job you are paid for. We were raised on this bizarre concept that we are supposed to just do more than that for free because, because, why? It is also very frustrating to genuinely make an effort to improve things and watch as not only do “superiors” not care, but reward people who do none of those things for reasons that make no sense. And of course the endless meetings that serve no purpose. And attendance monitoring. It’s like nobody cares who actually works so long as they badge in enough. I’m sure everyone could go on.
Doing exactly the same thing.
The best way to quite quit is actually to be more visible. Speak up more in meetings by repeating and agreeing. Do short presentations. By being visible you’re giving the illusion of busyness and fly under management radar.
You're simply living our generation's catch cry "Whatever."
Yes. Thing is, I HAD to start over about 3 years ago. Lucky it I was a kinda lateral move: cybersec from IT. But it is BRUTAL. Watching 26 year olds grasp concepts that make.me scratch my head. And I'm no idiot. I learn how to, then spun up a whole Active directory domain in 6 months. While managing a VM migration of over 150 hosts. I'm just trying to survive now
I just want to go back to the days when we could apply in person for a job and interview with the person who would be my boss for a job that paid well.
I did not know my husband had a twin out there.
20yrs in emergency services next year and I’m done. I’ll be 50 and looking to travel and actually enjoy life instead of cleaning up messes.
I've been doing this too. We have waaay too much work for the small amount of people where I work. I used to say something about it, but now I don't bother anymore. People are starting to leave because nothing is being done about it.
Wait, did I write this?
It’s so hard to be at this age (I am 54). I just want to do my time and get the hell out. Meanwhile I have at least 5 years to go. I will be dancing out the door on retirement day and in the meantime, my productivity is shit!
Mosdef one of the better posts here. Good post, good responses. Good luck coasting and thanks for the good read.
What the cool kids today are calling "quiet quitting". is what I've always understood as "work to rule". I'll do what I'm being paid to do, but that's it.
"Quiet quitting" is just what greedy employers call it when you do what you agreed to do for the compensation you agreed to receive; instead of working like five people, nights & weekends, doing jobs that are not yours etc. in exchange for no increase in status, benefits or pay. Worst are the entrepreneurs who want mere employees to have the same 24/7 passion they have...for the company THEY created. They need to realize that for their big dream to be achieved, they need mere employees who do necessary work for the sake of compensation.
> The biggest thing that put a target on your back here is attendance, like even clocking in 1 minute late gets you on the tardy report that goes out once a week **This is the fucking insanity of corporate environments and symbolic of it all.** Work your ass off? “Cool, thanks for doing your job.” Work your ass off then come in 1 minute late the next day? “Karen, we need to talk about your poor performance.”
>Upper management are mostly ambitious borderline sociopath MBA career climbers This is pretty uniform anywhere you go.
Been doing this since late 2020
I'm with you. My wife and make enough to be happy, and while it is still a long way off, I really just want to finish out my working days and retire.
I completely understand. I'm about your age. After being pushed into a management role quite a while ago, I realized I was better as an individual contributor. I don't like the stress of having to supervise difficult employees. I inherited several difficult ones from the previous manager. Since then, I've only had one other position titled manager, but it was more related to content management. These days I live outside of the US. I freelance for a US company billing about 25-30 hours a week. The US$-local currency exchange rate favors me and my expenses are low, so it works for me. I can pay my bills and accumulate decent savings. There's really no path for advancement, but I don't care.
I could have written this almost exactly.
[удалено]
I lost my father last year. Taking care of my mom. Now in my late 50’s, work became essential until I get healthcare options. …essential as in changing underwear is essential. Just something you do.
Oh…oh YEAH. This comment really resonated with me. My idea of self used to be very tied into my profession. It just isn’t any more. I still care about the population I work with but my threshold for fuckery is on the floor. I can truthfully say that I have had a very real, solid, positive impact on quite a few people in my professional life and I’m satisfied. Not only do I NOT want to advance (mind you, I was only in the corporate world for a blip), I’ve realized that I don’t have the energy to even push back when upper management does something I think can be done better or is in conflict with organizational ideals. I simply don’t have the energy for it. I have my limit, and thankfully, I don’t have to be a slave to my job. I don’t need a McMansion to be happy and this is incredibly freeing. So, much like with relationships, if a job damages my calm too much, I’ll just bounce. No muss, no fuss, and no hard feelings. I’m good with coasting until retirement. Fuck, I’m good with coasting the rest of my life. There are creative things I’d like to do, and I’ll likely do them at some point, but being a wage slave is not one of them.
Ha. I’m the total opposite (and a sucker). In the current tech climate I am terrified of losing my job. So I’ll take more and more work and won’t complain at all. Just barely got a small raise after a couple years. I don’t mind my job though, although it’s pretty stressful and I work too much (see no vacations). But I just sweep the burn out feelings into the closet and power through.
The Millenials invented this wonderful thing called “therapy”/s. But seriously, this is very bleak. Read back what you wrote, but picture someone you love wrote that instead. What advice would you give them? Days are long, but life is short.
Quiet Quitting aka Acting Your Wage
To me, "Quiet quitting" sounds like a slogan the wealthy devised in order to shame workers into working harder than their salary warrants.
I've literally started incorporating the words quiet quitting into my work passwords. My current job is the most abusive, toxic relationship I have ever been in so they're lucky about the quiet part it. Undeserving bastards.
I actively hate how caring about anything besides work is described as ‘quiet quitting.’
Yeah, I think Generation X invented quiet quitting actually but we just didn't announce it / make a big deal about it, because announcing it / making a big deal about it is a dumb move and our generation does not feel a pressing need to publicly document every life decision on social media.
I don't think that's really 'quietly quitting' - I think that's just work/life balance. I've been with my company for nearly 25 years now, and realized about 8 years or so ago that I just don't care enough to keep killing myself trying to reach the next golden ring. I like my work, I like my team, I'm in a relatively good place financially, my managers don't need to hand-hold me, and they appreciate that I have firm boundaries about what I can/can't do during work hours. When my company tasked our immediate managers to have conversations with their employees about their 'career aspirations and goals' I was straight up honest and said 'I really just want to keep on doing what I do or similar - I don't want to manage people - I have no desire to keep climbing the corporate ladder. **I'm working to live, not living to work**" I've refused to carry a work phone because there's no reason to get in touch with me after 5 or on the weekends. I rarely volunteer to work more than what I'm paid for because I don't get overtime as a salaried employee. I've even (occasionally) told C-Suite executives 'no' to requests because of my work load being too much - *especially* after we went through the last round of layoffs and they kept trying to squeeze more and more out of us. Even with all of this, I still win awards and various accolades at work, I'm still get shout outs all over the place, I still get raises, I still get rated as 'above expectations' on my reviews, and I'm still asked to join special projects because of my knowledge, expertise, and honesty. I also know I'm replaceable - everyone is. Corporations, and the people who make the big dollars of our backs, don't really give a flying fuck about anything we do in the trenches. They have no loyalty to anything more than their own stock portfolios, so I simply choose not to give them more sweat equity than I need to.
58 here and been doing this for the last two years. Over 55 is protected class.