If you're thinking of joining the many people posting on social media about ‘quiet quitting’ their jobs – think first: will just doing just the essentials for a paycheck make you happier? — dpa
HAMBURG: Why am I giving more to my boss than what I am being paid for? You may have noticed a debate over this question doing the rounds on social media, in recent weeks, notably on TikTok and Instagram.
Particularly in the US, younger workers have been opening up about "quiet quitting" – a process by which you don't hand in your notice, but you do stop going above and beyond for your employer.
The process is a response to the high expectations of dedication at many places work, whereby employees are expected to answer emails on weekends, work late and take on additional assignments, for example.
Fed up with these expectations, Gen Z workers have taken to social media to share that they are resisting by quiet quitting.
"You're still performing your duties, but you're no longer subscribing to the 'hustle culture' mentality that work has to be your life," in the words of one of the first TikTok posts on the subject.
However career coach Jochen Mai does not believe quiet quitting is a universally productive solution in the long-term. In a column on networking platform Xing, the career advice author based in Germany said he understood that many people don't want to put up with daily exploitation.
And yet doing nothing but your core duties also creates new problems, he argues.
On the one hand, people begin to accept themselves as being stuck a job that they only do for the money. Then, by "quietly saying goodbye and sitting it out" nothing changes, the dissatisfaction remains.
"In doing so, they are not only degrading themselves to mercenaries – they are also only trying to treat the symptoms."
Mai warns that by quiet quitting, you are also taking a step closer to crossing the line of basic expected duties and limiting your core performance.
As such, your reputation in your career, and even your job itself, could be in jeopardy.
So what's the alternative to quiet quitting? In the career coach's point of view, you are better off actively trying to reorientate your work.
Mai suggests, for example, the method of job crafting, in which you proactively try to change the tasks and characteristics of your job to give your work new meaning again.
Talking to your supervisor is also an important step – even if it is uncomfortable and may cause a temporary conflict.
This is the only way to find out whether there can be a satisfactory solution within the company or whether an external job change is the best thing to do in the current situation. – dpa
