Silent Quitting? What is This?
Ok, so I keep hearing about this “new term,” that is “silent/quiet quitting.” Before I get deep in to this blog post, let me define this “new term” for you.
Silent/Quiet Quitting: When you keep your job but you opt to only do the bare minimum to keep your job.
Yes, there is actually a term for what has been going on since the dawn of time. Now, I’m not going to tell you exactly how long I worked in Corporate America before I became an entrepreneur, but I will tell you it was longer than 10 years and I have silently quit various jobs my entire career. Let me be honest, for some people, especially women, this behavior is sometimes used as a protection mechanism.
What do I mean? Basically, if we continue to give all that we have and more with zero appreciation, we will tinker all the way out.
I will get to what that means later, stay with me!
I really want to tackle this “new term” because I am kinda wondering why do we need a term to describe the output (or lack thereof) of an employee. Why are we not using a term to describe what the employer is doing to cause the employee to “silently quit?” You know, there is this thing called, “accountability” and if the employees continue to hold themselves accountable, what will cause the employer to adjust their behavior? What will cause the employer to want to DO BETTER by their workforce? I am not sure about you BUT, I would rather not have an accountability word used for the employee’s behavior when there is a culture of not appreciating employees since before the pandemic (the pandemic just exposed the weaknesses within Corporate America).
Whew, I needed to get that all the way out, because when I saw the first article talking about “quiet/silent quitting, I knew this was going to present the same mess as the term BIPOC (click here to learn more). When I say mess, I mean the terms were created to compartmentalize or dare I say we are developing another social construction to segregate a group of people that are more than likely being under appreciated and/or under valued.
I know that might have been a lot and you might need to sit on that and process it for a minute (please do, but come back and finish the article).
Now, let’s go back to tinkering out and how we manage the workplace by “silently/quietly quitting” or actually by surviving a toxic workplace, that sounds better to me.
- We opt not to engage in drama at work. Sometimes that is done by going to our car for lunch or even excusing ourselves from situations that are of zero benefit to us.
- Doing the job we were hired for and not feeding in to the “take one for the team” approach. Employees take one for the team when the organization values them not just fiscally but what they bring to the team holistically.
I could go on and on with how people survive toxic work places or silently/quietly quit, but I will stop there.
My main point is, we need to stop putting titles on individuals that are in survival mode and place the title on those in power. Next time you hear someone is quietly quitting, whisper to yourself, “they’re surviving a toxic workplace.”
Alicia Coulter, MPH, MSW is the CEO & Co-Founder of Advantage Health Now. Alicia is highly sought-after equity and inclusion consultant and speaker with a passion for equity and inclusion and a heart for education. Alicia’s style of delivery as a keynote or panelist when delivering challenging topics brings a level of charisma and tenacity that encourages the audience to let down their guard. Her experience includes being a corporate consultant, keynote speaker, workshop developer and corporate sessions, health education seminars for individuals, businesses, and more. Click here to learn more.
