🇺🇸 Shh, I’m Quitting

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ECONOMY

Shh, I’m Quitting

A phenomenon some refer to as quiet quitting is being discussed on social media and elsewhere. It refers to employees who feel the need to achieve work-life balance by doing “the bare minimum” at their job. Others say it’s a modern catchphrase for being lazy or otherwise unproductive.

Reporting From the Left: Forget quiet quitting: Workers say they're acting their wage (Business Insider)

Reporting from the Right: ‘Quiet quitting’ raising a din in stressful US workplaces (Breitbart)

From The Flag: The concept of quiet quitting has largely proliferated on TikTok since the pandemic. Here’s commentary from both sides.

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Quiet Quitting Recipe: Bad Jobs, a Worse President, and Plenty of Welfare

• Many young Americans feel like they’re working dead-end jobs with little purpose, which fuels the “quiet quitting” trend.

• President Biden’s malaise and embrace of “woke” culture in the workplace has inspired the American public to do the bare minimum.

• Young people don’t fear the consequences associated with being fired or losing your job because the welfare state is so expansive.

“A Non-Essential Economy” Michael Warren Davis, The American Conservative: “As one TikToker explained, ‘you’re not outright quitting your job, but you’re quitting the idea of going above and beyond… you are no longer subscribing to the hustle-culture mentally that work has to be our life.’ … for many young people, there’s little prospect of ever finding a decent job. About 20 percent of American workers are engaged in retail and hospitality. That doesn’t include other dead-end jobs like walking dogs or driving for Uber. Many of the young people who dominate these industries are saddled with debt from a useless degree they didn’t really want in the first place. … quiet-quitters refuse to get excited about jobs they know are completely pointless. And here we come to the crux of all this madness. It doesn’t matter if they slack off or stay home, because their ‘work’ doesn’t actually need to be done.”

“​​The Quiet Quitting President” A.J. Rice, American Greatness: “In fact, in Joe Biden, we have the presidential level of quiet quitting. His advisors, including chief of staff Ron Klain and Susan Rice, are as woke as can be. While Biden checks out for yet another vacation, essentially quiet quitting because he’s not up to the task, Klain and his drones have turned the White House into the nexus of the woke web. They’re forcing it down our throats from every angle. Every government agency and department is enforcing wokeness across the entire federal workforce. Companies of all sizes are doing it, too. As older non-woke workers leave, they are being replaced by younger workers who’ve come through America’s woke college campuses and are now fully on board with hateful, divisive, anti-Americanism. The quiet quitting president is on board with all of it, despite running for the office promising normalcy and unity he never intended to deliver.”

One more opinion piece from the Right: Quiet quitting: Why Gen Z’s latest trend is setting it up for failure Brad Polumbo, New York Post Opinion

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

A Healthy Work-Life Balance Should Not Be Controversial

• Whether you want to call it “quiet quitting” or “work-life balance,” employees insist on being paid for any extra jobs.

• The concept of “quiet quitting” is one reserved for privileged people, as women and minorities are held to a higher standard.

• As part of the nation’s patriarchy, men have been doing the bare minimum for years, leveraging women’s hard work instead.

“Call it what you want, but 'quiet quitting' is not slacking off” Kuan-lin F. Liu, NBC News Opinion: “Despite what the misleading name may suggest, quiet quitting, as many have pointed out, has nothing to do with quitting, doing the bare minimum or slacking off at work. It is more a way to set boundaries at work and not do extra work outside one’s scope without fair compensation. Shutting down one’s laptop at 5 p.m. or saying ‘no’ to doing someone else’s job may be how one chooses to quit quietly, but these examples are by no means prescriptive. … I am committed to my job and strive to do well and contribute value in my role. But I will not go above and beyond the scope of these goals to do something that is not my job and that no one else wants to do — or, worse, something that is someone else’s responsibility — without compensation.​”

“Women and People of Color Can’t Afford to ‘Quiet Quit’” Kami Rieck, Bloomberg Opinion: “​​Gen Z has a new solution for workplace burnout: ‘quiet quitting.’ The idea is simple: Forget going above and beyond your job description and pay grade. The trend, which took off on TikTok, sounds ideal. Log off at 5 p.m.? Check. Spend more time with family instead of volunteering for extra tasks? Count me in. … The problem is, women and minorities may face greater risks when it comes to advancing in their careers and keeping their jobs by doing so. … ​​Any time a person of color or a woman tries to establish healthy boundaries for themselves, they are much more likely to be seen as troublemakers… Never mind doing the bare minimum at work. Some research shows that women and minorities face harsher punishments than others for making the same mistakes. So it is not just career growth and workplace relationships that might suffer.”

One more opinion piece from the Left: ‘Quiet quitting’ isn’t new. Some men have been doing the bare minimum for decades Katie Edwards, The Independent

FLAG THIS

Half of America’s Workers Are “Quiet Quitters”

A poll released yesterday shows at least 50% of the American workforce is currently “quiet quitting.” Per the survey’s terminology, this refers to employees who are "not engaged" while on the job.

The rest of the nation’s workers are either engaged (32%) or actively disengaged (18%), with the latter number at its highest level in 10 years (Gallup).

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