A new phrase has recently marked conversations about workplace and office culture: “quiet quitting.”
The term has appeared widely this month, trending on Twitter and spawning a hashtag on TikTok that has amassed more than 30 million views.
“Quietly leaving is the concept of meeting your job expectations and not going above and beyond,” Andrea Bartlett, director of people operations at Humi, a human resources software company with based in Toronto.
Those who quietly leave still attend work daily and complete their required assignments, but will not stay extra hours or take on additional projects.
Although the term has exploded recently, the concept itself is not new, says Bartlett, and instead shows the need for reflection within our workplace cultures.
“This is not what I would consider a new thing, it’s just a different name for a concept that has always existed in the workforce,” he said.
He also emphasized that there is nothing wrong with simply meeting expectations at work and that many choose to implement this boundary.
“You have to balance your workforce with people who meet expectations,” he said. “Moving up or up the corporate ladder, if you will, may not be important to them, and that’s completely fine.”
Instead, his problem with this iteration of the concept is that it says it blames the employee instead of examining the bigger picture of workplace culture.
“Workers have become so caught up in the hustle culture that they now have to demonstrate their exhaustion by stepping back from work to get more,” he said.
According to a recent 72-page study of more than 5,500 employed Canadians, 35 per cent of workers reported experiencing some degree of burnout, and one in four said work significantly affected their mental health.
Dr. Philip Oreopoulos, a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Toronto, says the new popularity of quietly quitting reflects patterns seen in the changing labor market.
“In recent years, we’ve seen efforts by employers to extract more and more productivity from workers while paying them the same or less,” he told CTV News Toronto on Wednesday.
“As a result, I think it’s created some resentment among workers in a way that they’re refusing to try to consider whether there are other alternatives, whether it’s working in another job or just working less.”
Just as there’s recent talk of a “massive resignation” among American workers, Oreopoulos says the quiet handover stems from workers feeling undervalued, underpaid and disengaged from their jobs.
Unfortunately, he says, there could be consequences for those who choose to stick to the minimum, especially in industries where pay reflects the need to be on call at different times, work long hours or commit to additional work.
“Making less than expected can create problems for these workers because the employer can go find someone at the same wage,” he said.
To address concerns about employee morale and workplace culture, Bartlett says a first step would be for the province to make sure businesses are implementing new “Right to Disconnect” policies properly.
“A policy in itself is not enough,” he said. “You must embed this policy as behavior in your workplace.”
Ultimately, Oreopoulos says it’s important for workers to feel appreciated, and one way to deal with resentment might be to raise wages.
“I think the best thing employers can do is make sure their workers feel wanted and feel part of the process.”