“You don’t resign as such, but you give up the idea of doing more than you are asked”: here’s how the TikTokeur @zkchillin describes the quiet quitting in a video that went viral, before the keyword is cited no less than 8 million times on the platform. Everything indicates that this concept − popularized by Ys and Zs – acts as a shield against the evil of the century, the burn out.
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the quiet quitting – or “silent resignation” in a loose translation – boils down to meeting the minimum requirements of one’s job without doing more. The goal? Take your foot off the accelerator to guard against burnout and establish healthier boundaries between work and personal life.
“This new movement reflects the great desire for work-life balance associated with millennials,” says Joëlle Carpentier, professor in the organization and human resources department at ESG UQAM. During the pandemic, cases of burnout have increased and there has been some loss of meaning associated with work.”
A large study by the organization Mental Health Research had also shown that no less than 41% of young Canadians aged 18 to 34 said they suffered from professional burnout at the end of 2021.
protection against oneself
Unlike the “work-to-rule”, a model of demand often taken up by groups of workers to denounce overwork, the quiet quitting rather wants to be “a mode of protection towards oneself”, even a reflection around the relation which one maintains with work.
“What it says is that the solution is not always to look elsewhere. The solution may lie in our way of approaching work,” says Joëlle Carpentier.
One in five American workers would have regretted having changed jobs in recent months, according to a survey conducted by USA Today. In 2021 alone, no less than 48 million Americans quit their jobs. This phenomenon, called the “Great Resignation”, shows no signs of slowing down in 2022. However, experts note that a good proportion of these workers would today be experiencing the “Great Regret”.
Adopt the quiet quitting for the right reasons
If you join the movement, you still have to ask yourself the right questions. Do we do it to preserve a healthy relationship with work, or is it a slow descent towards demotivation? Because if, for some, the quiet quitting can represent a healthy border between professional life and personal life, it can also be a form of disengagement for others, warns Joëlle Carpentier.
“If you want to disengage from your job to realign with your values because you feel like you’ve drifted away from what’s important to you, like balance with work and family life, I see that. as a reconciliation tool,” she argues.
Conversely, if we provide minimal effort due to a lack of recognition from our employer and our job has little meaning in our eyes, it may be a sign that it is time to reassess their desires and professional choices.
The phenomenon of quiet quitting is reminiscent of the Tang Ping (meaning to lie flat), a counterculture phenomenon born in China in 2021 to denounce the 996 working model, which is 9am to 6pm, six days a week. The term Tang Pingperceived as a symbol of resistance, has also been censored from social media by the Chinese authorities.