Tuesday, September 13, 2022

Quiet Quitting—the Secret to Unhappiness

“Paring down your participation at work to the bare bones of your outlined duties means you don’t take on more than you should, but it also means you lose many of the things that can make a workplace enriching in the first place.”

By André van Heerden, Communications Director

Quiet quitting is a term that is currently heard in many circles, and some believe captures the public zeitgeist. What is it?

An article in Harvard Business Review puts it this way: “Every employee, every workday, makes a decision: Are they only willing to do the minimum work necessary to keep their job? Or are they willing to put more of their energy and effort into their work? In the last few weeks, many of those who choose the former have self-identified as ‘quiet quitters.’”

My first thought when I heard about this was that if you want to make yourself unhappy, practice quiet quitting.

The title of the Harvard Business Review article is “Quiet Quitting Is About Bad Bosses, Not Bad Employees.” While that may sometimes be the case, I’d argue that quiet quitting is both a bad approach to face a problem, as well—and more importantly—is going to negatively impact the employee more than any boss or business.

When I talk to my kids about how to approach their school work, their sports, or even their relationships, I encourage them to do their best. Is that because I want to see them do well and succeed? Sure. But’s it’s also because I know that feeling good about your effort is a great way to learn, build character, and form good habits.

Even if they fail at something, if they’ve done their best, there’s success in the effort.

One of my first jobs was working as a summer student for a parks department. My daily responsibilities included cleaning and maintaining a public wading pool, cutting and caring for a lawn bowling green, and often cleaning the public washrooms and kitchenettes.

I was making minimum wage and working with a number of full-time, long-time parks employees. Some of them approached their job with a smile and tackled whatever was in front of them. When one job was done, they would look for the next.

Another group complained about everything, took as long as they could on any particular task, and when that job was done, would actively avoid their manager so that they’d only get a new task at the start of the next day.

The first group was happy to be working. The second group routinely complained about how long the days were and about the jobs that they had to do.

The first group would sometimes offer me help with cleaning the washrooms or kitchenettes. The second group would just laugh at how gross it was.

Cleaning the washrooms wasn’t fun, but if they were particularly foul, I was especially proud of how clean they were after I had cleaned them. I remember that parks job fondly and learned a lot while there.

One of the biggest lessons was that work days are more fun if you’re busy and productive.

But what if I was unhappy with how my boss was asking me to do more than what my job required? First, I may see it as a way to impress the boss, but if I felt that I was getting used or abused, I’d hope that I would have the courage to say something and confront the problem, rather than just passive aggressively doing a bare minimum of work.

The ability to confront bad bosses is why unions like CLAC exist—to help employees work fairly and be treated with respect. Quiet quitting is a bad way to avoid a problem and probably make the problem worse.

A column in the Guardian argues that quiet quitting shouldn’t be seen as anything other than people getting paid for the job they’re supposed to do, but it still acknowledges that “there is something to be lost in just punching in and out of work. Many people actually enjoy contributing to their work culture outside of the deliverables. Paring down your participation at work to the bare bones of your outlined duties means you don’t take on more than you should, but it also means you lose many of the things that can make a workplace enriching in the first place.”

And that’s the point I firmly believe in. Author and spiritualist Don Miguel Ruiz writes, “Always Do Your Best. Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.”

And author and professor Charles Kingsley notes, “Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance and self-control, diligence and strength of will, cheerfulness and content, and a hundred virtues which the idle will never know.”

So, if your idea of enjoying work and life is to quietly stew about how bad things are, maybe quiet quitting is for you. But I’m going to continue to push my kids to do their best because in doing their best, they’ll ultimately find fulfilment and happiness.

Quiet Quitting—the Secret to Unhappiness

You might be interested in