Calling it ‘quiet quitting’ undermines the value of simply doing one’s job

ANOTHER day, another work-life buzzword. The phrase du jour is “quiet quitting”, which apparently means such radical moves as not working on weekends, refusing to take on duties outside one’s job scope, and staying switched off when on holiday.

In other words: doing the job that one is paid for. Not, in fact, “quitting” in any meaningful sense of the word.

Let’s be clear. The TikTokers advocating this approach and the bright young things quoted in news articles about it are not engaging in presenteeism, which is the destructive practice of showing up at work but not being productive. These self-labelled quiet quitters aren’t even unengaged.