Employee Sits Back And Watches Their Boss Struggle As They Attempt To Use “Quiet Quitting” Accusation To Make Them Volunteer For More Shifts
Interview With Author
Unfortunately, some managers think that just because someone isn’t volunteering for extra shifts, they must be quiet quitting. But instead of hiring more people to deal with a heavier workload, the top brass do something that’s called quiet hiring where they dump the extra tasks on the people already working at the company.
Redditor u/Sol-Blackguy shared how his boss pulled him aside for a chat about the hours he’s pulling. Apparently, working full-time and being a model employee wasn’t enough! Scroll down for the full story.
Bored Panda reached out to the author of the post, u/Sol-Blackguy, and we had a friendly chat about healthy boundaries at work. We also got in touch with workplace expert Lynn Taylor, the author of ‘Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant’ and the head of the fashion brand ‘Behind the Buckle.’ She shared her insights on quiet quitting and quiet hiring. You’ll find both of our interviews below.
For some employees, quiet quitting is all about setting healthy boundaries. However, some managers frown upon people who don’t work overtime
Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio (not the actual photo)
One employee, who works 40 hours per week, recently went viral after sharing how he pushed back against his boss’ accusations
Image credits: fauxels (not the actual photo)
It turns out that the boss had a very strange understanding of what quiet quitting meant
It’s not really volunteering if someone tries to pressure you into doing it
Image credits: RODNAE Productions (not the actual photo)
“Learn to say ‘no.’ Be blunt, and stick to sending the message that your employer needs you, and not the other way around”
Image credits: Sora Shimazaki (not the actual photo)
The author of the post, u/Sol-Blackguy, opened up to Bored Panda that he didn’t expect his story to be so popular on Reddit. ” I was half venting and figured it’d make a decent story to share for anyone else who might be in the same situation to identify with,” he told us.
We were interested to get the OP’s take on quiet quitting, extra work, and how establishing a healthy work-life balance. “Quiet quitting is just propaganda to pressure workers to be further exploited. I do my 40 hours every week and my manager was basically trying to tell me (without saying) that it wasn’t enough,” he said.
“Back when I used to think working harder and picking up more slack meant looking good to management, I would overextend myself regularly. Then I used to see people around me doing the bare minimum ‘failing upwards’ while my only reward was more work. Then when I stopped and focused on just doing the bare minimum, my (former) employer had the nerve to say I was unreliable,” the redditor shared what the situation was like at a former workplace. Unfortunately, additional effort isn’t always rewarded.
“It’s really easy to have a healthy work-life balance. Learn to say ‘no.’ Be blunt, and stick to sending the message that your employer needs you, and not the other way around. You don’t owe them anything except the time that you’re scheduled and the task that you’re paid to do. Just make sure that you’re reliable within the boundaries of your duties. Don’t give them a reason to find someone dumb enough to go that extra mile. Be on time, do your work, and go home,” u/Sol-Blackguy said.
“Don’t be afraid to discuss wages with your co-workers. Work together in solidarity because there’s strength in numbers. Make sure to review your previous jobs so the next person doesn’t get suckered in. Last, but not least, join your union!” the redditor shared some more advice to help workers flourish.
There have been lots of discussions about quiet quitting recently
Image credits: fauxels (not the actual photo)
Workplace expert Taylor, the author of ‘Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant,’ explained to Bored Panda why there are so many different perspectives and nuances about quiet quitting.
“Like many workplace trends, it often depends if you are the employee or employer. There will always be some level of natural conflict between management and team members. And quiet quitting is no exception,” she said.
“On the one hand, quiet quitting can be viewed as an employee setting boundaries to being overworked. From the employee’s perspective, a lot more work should mean a lot more pay. Management may see it differently. If an employee is given additional responsibilities and they push back—or they don’t volunteer when others are doing so, managers can interpret that as a lack of commitment,” she said.
“There is a lot of gray area depending on your perspective. When companies experience economic pressures, they feel they must do more with less. But in recent years, a backlash has emerged. Companies can’t manage the way they did 10 years ago, especially in a low unemployment period,” the workplace expert noted, adding that a lot comes down to supply and demand.
“When there is a talent shortage, employees have more leverage and know if they quit, there are other opportunities. In that environment, employers can’t push too hard unless they compensate the employee accordingly and there is mutual understanding. The term quiet quitting just puts a name to a dynamic that has been around for a long time, where employees hold most or more of the cards. But in a high unemployment situation, it’s unlikely that quiet quitting will exist.”
We also wanted to get the expert’s take on quiet hiring and why some managers don’t expand the workforce to deal with the massive workload. According to Taylor, the author of ‘Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant,’ quiet hiring can also be seen from different perspectives.
“The word ‘quiet,’ intimates something a bit underhanded. But much depends on exactly how management taps its resources. In the worst-case scenario, for example, quiet hiring means that employers are trying to do more with less staff; not compensating them fairly; and overworking them,” she told Bored Panda.
“It may mean having the unreasonable expectation that employees want to assume additional responsibility. The reality may be that team members are happy where they are—adeptly handling the tasks for which they were hired.”
However, the management perspective is different. “During a challenging economic environment, companies are not typically hiring more people. Employers have always tried to work with existing staff to see what can be achieved in lean times. Hiring freezes are seen as a preferred approach over the risk of potential layoffs,” Taylor explained.
“Quiet hiring can mean reshuffling your resources, offering employees the opportunity to up-skill, or incentivizing them to work harder. It may also mean rewarding those who are putting in the extra time and effort with raises and promotions. Whatever the practice, quiet hiring is a not-so-new approach to the most efficient and cost-effective way to manage a company’s resources.”
According to the workplace expert, difficulties arise when management isn’t in touch with the needs or goals of the team. “The only way ‘quiet hiring’ will ever work is if there is: a) Nothing surreptitious about it, meaning any new staffing strategies would be discussed one-on-one, and/or as a group; and b) There’s mutual understanding and respect on the challenges and opportunities for both sides.”
Everyone has to learn to prioritize what they value the most
Image credits: fauxels (not the actual photo)
The redditor’s post got a lot of attention on the r/antiwork online community. The OP shared how his boss tried to tell him to volunteer for extra work without actually saying it aloud. You see, these extra shifts were volunteer-only. They pay well, however, you couldn’t actually force someone to pick them up.
“I show up during my scheduled shift, on time and unless it’s an actual emergency or death in the family, I always show up. I’m more reliable than death and taxes. On the other side of the coin, I don’t usually take extra shifts. I do my 40 hours reliably so I don’t have to,” the redditor wrote on r/antiwork. However, his boss saw his quality work and stable performance as something that was akin to quiet quitting, a rather unfair observation.
Over the past year, many of us have heard more and more about quiet quitting (having a healthy work-life balance), quiet hiring (giving workers more things to do without hiring new employees), and even quiet firing (sidelining employees so that they quit). Though the terms are pretty new, the concepts themselves are anything but. They all explain the behaviors, processes, and trends going on at companies and the job industry at large which might not seem immediately apparent to outsiders.
Quiet quitting has been on many employees’ and employers’ minds in recent months. But there still isn’t a consensus about what it actually means. For some, it’s about doing your job well and drawing healthy work-life boundaries. For others, it might mean aggressively doing the least amount of work possible. It really depends on what each person thinks that entails. It can either be a way to step back and carve out more time for your other priorities in life, or it can be the equivalent of showing your company the middle finger.
Naturally, your boss wants you to work as efficiently and as much as possible because it’s profitable for the company. On the flip side, employees want to work for a fair wage while also having enough time and energy left in the day for all the other things that matter in life, aside from their careers: family, friends, travel, hobbies, petting cats, cooking delicious food, reading good books with a big mug of tea, and taking long walks on the beach.
What matters to us most will depend on our priorities and who we are as people. For some, their absolute priority will be their family. So they’ll spend as much time with them as they can. For others, it might be painting or writing the Next Great Novel. Or volunteering for a cause they deeply care about. These are all things that are difficult to do if you’re burning the midnight oil at the office, day in, day out, all week long.
Whatever the case might be, if you want to live a life worth living that goes beyond just your job, you have to enforce your boundaries in a diplomatic but firm way. Some employees, like redditor u/Sol-Blackguy, might decide that working 40 hours per week is enough for them and they won’t volunteer to pick up any extra shifts.
Others might clock out exactly when their jobs officially end and ignore work-related calls and emails until they clock back in the next morning. For some employees, working regular hours might be difficult due to their responsibilities, so they might talk to their boss about focusing on producing specific results instead of spending X number of mandatory hours at the office.
Your approach will vary depending on your particular situation. So long as you’re pulling your weight and doing quality work, there shouldn’t be any problems. Meanwhile, going the extra mile is a great way to be noticed by upper management, however, extra work isn’t something that’s mandatory. Trying to ‘subtly’ force someone to volunteer for extra shifts instead of hiring more workers speaks volumes about the quality of management at a company.
The employee shared some more of his thoughts in the comments
Am I the only one that skips all the boring editorial added by bored panda? Seems to me there is much better perspective in the comments than in the redundant copy
You are not. I have been doing that for awhile now, after I realized the bored panda commentary was merely a regurgitation of the original post adding little to nothing to the subject content.
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I worked at a place that reconditioned car parts and is very successful. The boss had a desk in the corner of the factory floor with a 3-foot wall around it and a big open gap on one side. He was never at his desk. He was always on the floor working with the rest of us, taking up the slack and checking staff morale. Last time I heard from them, he had retired, and his son took over as he had been working there for quite some time, and he takes after his dad. Brilliant place to work for
As a manager, my view has always been that I should be, and be prepared to be, extra resource. That's why I've never been keen on managers who start life as managers and have never worked as an employee.
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Some people fuss about the term 'Quiet Quitting' thinking that it is just one step away from actual quitting. So, for those folks, the OP here is just 'acting his wage' (which is a perfectly fine and rational thing to do!).
I actually had to look the term up because I thought it meant LITERALLY quitting without saying anything, NOT 2 weeks, NO ONE should do that unless contractually required, but just that they quit showing up, answering messages, etc. 🙈🤣
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Bored Panda you should be ashamed to sing the song of capitalism. What OP does is not 'quiet quitting ' that's what companies want to call it. It's work to rule, give them what they pay for. OP does everything that they agreed to do to the best of their ability. They give the company their money's worth. That's not quiet quitting and never was, since they're fully fulfilling their duties. Quiet quitting is when a worker does the absolute bare minimum they can get away with while secretly looking for the next opportunity elsewhere. But companies love to pretend not 'going the extra mile' is the same as quiet quitting because they want to exploit their workers and don't like it when those workers remind them that an employment is a business situation and in business you get what you pay for. Yes sometimes you'll get a short time promotion where you buy one and get two, but you can't demand that. And there is no such thing like 'quiet hiring'. It's just exploitation of employees.
Right? I can't tell you how many times I've been "promoted" into a new job title with no extra pay. Bullsh*t is bullsh*t. You want me to take on extra tasks and now suddenly SUPERVISE a department, you will be giving me a raise, right?. NO. Okay - I quit. But wait we need you. Huh, really? How badly? I was offered a 75cent per hour raise, which with my duties increased is now a salaried position. Yeah, they literally offered me $1560 instead of the $4,500 other managers at my level were receiving. And were SHOCKED when I quit. (I worked for one person, but was actually the assistant to another. He let her fire me, then hired me back at the "new" rate".)
Getting people to work overtime is easy. You just have to incentivize it. If you can’t get volunteers at time and a half, try double time. If you push the rate high enough, you will get volunteers. Still cheaper than hiring extra people but it only works for a short period of time.
I was taken aside by my manager at a large university hospitals and clinics system, and was told that all employees in our division put in 60 hours per week. I said, well good for them! My signed contract states 40 hour work weeks, and no comp or overtime. Plus, taking calls at home every 3rd weekend. So, I am working my contract. Period, unless there is an infectious disease outbreak emergency (I was an Infection Control Professional). I stuck to my guns for 6 years, until they added and built a new 14 story hospital, and a 14 story outpatient clinic tower, and did not add any staff to our program. That's when I called it quits.
Learning to say "no" is the most important you'll learn in life. No. Just like that. "No" is a complete sentence. You don't need to explain or find excuses. Let your boss, family, partner, friends, children, everybody, know where the boundaries are as soon as possible. From trivial stuff, like going out for a drink, to big commitments, like a relationship, always remember you don't owe anything to anybody.
From my experience, I'd argue learning to say "no" without adding excuses or explanations is far harder than learning to say no in the first place. I still struggle with not adding to the "no." It's very hard to shake the need to justify your decisions.
Load More Replies... I take the idea of America being the "land of the free" very seriously. You have overtime and ask me if I want it, maybe I'll take it, maybe I won't. You TELL me I have overtime, I'm telling you to kiss my a*s.
I worked part time in a hospital, but would frequently pick up a double shift on my third day (evening shift). One woman never worked OT, but she worked her butt off and almost never called in sick. Once, "C" was sick, we thought of calling an ambulance, but she was recovering from a root canal. Her manager gave her less than she deserved on her annual evaluation, because she wouldn't work OT. "C" went to the union, and they made her manager give her the correct eval. Many of us sent emails to her manager about what a great employee she was. She also got back pay for the raise she should have received.
“ Under the union rules, overtime is strictly voluntary. They can't tell me to work overtime, let alone ask me “ - I saw this response by OP to the comment that it was weird they didn’t just ask and I found it hilarious - I hadn’t realized the big “F**K YOU” OP was actually stating when his boss was trying to get him to work overtime
'Quitting' by definition is ceasing activity. Like when a horse quits pulling a wagon it stops on the spot and nothing moves. It DOESN'T mean the horse pulls for a full 8 hour day up hill and down like a MF. THAT is working what you're hired for. 'Work to rule' is another STUPID phrase. WTF is a contract for, if not to lay out the specific requirements of a job and its expectations? Why should there be 'goodwill' or expectation by an employer of getting any further value from an employee than what is being paid for? You don't go to a grocery store to buy a quart of milk and think, 'gee, I hope they'll give me an extra pint EVERY TIME I do". No f*****g logic!
The only reason this person wasn't forced to work overtime is because he is under a Union contract. Some union contracts will even state that any workers performing the same job must also be union. Obviously not the case here, since temps were "hired". Temps would have to accept overtime or risk being replaced. It really highlights how an American worker is treated without representation.
How to say you work in the US without actually saying you work in the US.
Funny ... I think I've been "acting my wage" (aka: "Quiet Quitting") in every single one of my job(s) that were 'career-type' jobs (not the on-call part time things you take on when going to school)... and in *every instance* the manager/boss/team lead/disconnected higher up would be 'perturbed' with me... mostly because those who would make a massive show of working extra hours/extra hard weren't actually doing any work, BUT they were also besties/bffs/pets of the upper management - so they HAD to blame SOMEONE - and heavens forbid they take responsibility for their own poor choices (shortstaffing, giving their pets all the perks, making demands that screwed up the work, etc.)
I feel this post in the deepest of my heart. I suffer from severe burnout because I tried to fix the massive fails of the upper management by improving. I didn't do it for the company anymore but for my disabled clients- everyone in a welfare workspace knows how f***d up this system is- being stucked between unaware management and dependent clients. I try hard to keep my health a priority and work 8-4 but it tears my heart thinking of all the problems it causes for my clients.
I get paid for 40 hours a week I work 40 hours a week. I have a life outside of work and don't need to work more.
Calling it quiet quiting is just emotional black mail. It's like calling you a quitter because you didn't comply. Actually it's probably more negging.
I'm glad the OP spoke up. All these companies want to do is work you to the ground instead of hiring the right amount of people. I don't work jobs with long hours or weekends. It's just not worth it
This term quiet quitting is funny. There is another term that has been around for a long time that means the same. "Work to rule" essentially you fulfill your contract requirements and nothing above that. As a teacher this is something we keep in our mind when contract talks come around. Before striking we start with work to rule. No staying to provide extra help, no coaching, no clubs, etc... Because those are thongs we volunteer to do beyond our contract.
This is one of the countless examples of many things in life being a pendulum. A lot of employers have for a long while now been pushing the pendulum one way. In the direction of abusing employees, cutting back, over extending, making monster profits. The pendulum will swing back and it will bite them in the rear... I very much would prefer a mutually loyal approach , where both sides treat eachother decently.
Yeah, told more than one manager that loyalty has to be mutual and earned, not demanded. If you are firing good performing people while having record profits you lose any loyalty you earned so far.
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Had never heard of quiet quitting before this article, and frankly I'm appalled. Is this nonsense something corporate bigwigs came up with to gaslight people into working more hours for less pay? Thankfully, in the civilised first world, government has made "arbo wetten" (Arbeids Onstandigheden Wet - work circumstances legislation) an absolute ironclad system to protect workers from abuse. Exceeding the 40h mark is flatout illegal in many professions, and working conditions like you hear of Amazon, are seen as exploitative nonsense from the third world. I bloody love the Netherlands, and stuff like this is a big part of why.
I'm horrified to learn "quiet quitting" means "just" doing your job. I had assumed it was a sensible phrase, about phasing out work or something. It never occurred to me "quiet quitting" meant "normal volume workload" and I'm kind of disgusted now.
HR Here: leaders should ask, not demand. But there are times - hopefully extreme circumstances - when extra hours are not voluntary. Of course employees should be paid according to their work and FLSA status. If not, and the workload becomes unacceptable, leave. But don't speak empty threats...if you say "I'm gonna quit!" in anger or flippancy, don't be surprised if the boss accepts your resignation on the spot.
I was once told that a dr office could not take a partial payment of a bill I owed. They said you need to pay it all right now or go to collections. I said "no problem" I just need it in writing that you will not accept this money that I am trying to pay you right now. The guy kept saying no, you have to pay it all now. I said "no problem, I just need it in writing that you will not accept this money as it is not enough." He knew as well as I did he could not turn down my partial payment or I could simply go to court and say I tried to pay and the Judge would throw out their case. I paid off that bill as slowly as I could without going to collections or receiving a late notice.
Quiet quitting, or as I feel it is like, doing the job you're paid to do rather than doing more than you're paid to do. What a weird start to trying to ask someone to do more for you, lol.
My age giving me away here. When we went to work we got paid for the work we did. Working overtime was voluntary, no pressure, but if we did work overtime, we got paid for it and our bosses were grateful. As a former business owner, you did not expect anyone to do what you wouldn’t do. If the business was going through tough times, and they do, you pitch in with your employees. You become a true team. Welcoming suggestions were also taken willingly. What it comes down to is treating others as you would like to be treated. Respect and Gratitude.
I am so confused. What does refusing to volunteer for overtime have to do with quiet quitting? The TL;DR I got from this article is: "Boss wants me to work overtime but I want him to ask me to do that, I will not volunteer" and that's it, am I correct?
Something in OP's Union contact says that the boss cannot ask anyone to work overtime so the boss is using words that don't actually ask, and leave it up to OP to figure out what boss means, so boss doesn't get in trouble with the union, or something like that. And it has nothing to do with quiet quitting, OP is just acting their wage
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'quiet quitting' is a BS term managers use to cover up the fact that they can't bully employees into doing extra work.
It's (as usual) a declaration of failure that the US as the only nation in the world has to resort to this kind of action. In Europe, if the boss wants you to do overtime, he must give at least 24 hours of advanced heads up. But if he does so, you are either on double the hourly wages or every hour you work overtime is to be handed out as paid time off work within a year. And if he fails to comply to this, he will be crucified in public by both the working legal system and especially the unions. And the latter can legally tell all it's members not to seek employment in that company and tell the members currently there that they would do wisely in seeking new employment elsewhere. If the unions decide to play hardball, they can litterally shut down a company, and the company can't even sue them or go to the legal system in other ways to stop it. The union will just send out the message as a recommendation, but it is for damned sure that any union member will follow the recommendation.
I guess I (62m) have been quiet quitting all of my life. Unless it was someone mandatory, I never worked OT. I put in my full 40 hours, but the end of the shift is the end of the shift.
I was always that employee who was in charge of the phone system, the copier toner, supplies, etc. even though we had an office manager. When I was asked to add yet another task to my duties I simply said no, I believe that's why "Karen" gets paid so much more than I do. Our deal was that I perform XY&Z and you pay me for it. If you want to keep adding to my already overloaded work load, you're going to have to offer me a decent raise. Suddenly I wasn't a team player. Then I mentioned that I work a full 8 hour day, 5 days a week when SHE worked 7 hours each of the FOUR days a week she was in the office (this was long before WFH). I wouldn't quit because then you can't get unemployment. I basically quit speaking to her. I would acknowledge her requests and that was it. I did end up getting fired, but when it came to light that she didn't know the first thing about how to do MY job, she was also let go. I sent her a Congrats card. F*cking b*tch.
I had one of those "I'm not a micro manager" bosses recently who would micromanage employees into the ground. Everyone complained about her. She is no longer there ;)
Only time I "work hard" is when it irks me. However, there are times where it gets past that point that I just slow down the machine because its annoying to put things into tubs and bring them back out when I am still paid the same. If they pay by production, or we receive some bonuses by exceeding expectations, then yeah, I can see people, even myself, working harder.
God managers everywhere are terrible. I'd always ASK if someone could do overtime. My staff new it was genuine. Never an expectation they had to. Or they'd get punished as a result of saying no. Only thing I'd do.. those that said yes, would be my first stop next time. In an attempt to not get a complex from all the rejection. Jokes. Just to save time.
Biggest point of post: People's definition of quiet quitting varies, but the overall point is that the worker performs to min. acceptable standard, never going above, which makes QQ difficult to discuss with an employee (or on BP). It also relates to a healthy work- life balance and lack of long term rewards. It's not no call/ no show. It's also not clocking in to do nothing. OP was working to rule, which is normal for Union/ contract workers who could actually be disciplined by the Union for performing work outside of the contract. I asked a Union electric company if they'd be able to work on a Federal holiday. They said no, but the Superintendent came in on his own time to restore power. Union rep calls accusing me of breaking contracts and forcing him to work causing him to be written up. Long story short, no write up for the Superintendent. I would have also loved to see the rep's face when he was told that boss man has offered me his job for a decade. Networking at it's finest.
Is it when you do the bare minimum or purposely mess up to get fired? If so people have been doing that forever as a way to get unemployment that they can't get when actually quitting. Now we just have a name for it. Please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm legitimately asking
Load More Replies... One of the greatest things about my job is the difference between part time and full time. There are only two differences at the end of the day. First PT people get same benefits as FT people except for days off (Holiday/sick/vacation) where FT 8 hours of pay per day vs PT getting 4 hourse per day and the second is that FT people can't say no to mandatory overtime while PT people have to be asked and must agree to overtime and extra days. PT = FREEDOM since we can volunteer for extra work as neded. I spent the better part of 10 years as a PT employee logging 40+ hours a week on my own terms.
Remember: saying "No" is a two-way street. It is indeed your prerrogative as an employee to say "No" to extra shifts when the company is in a pinch and short staffed. But it is also the company's prerrogative to say "No" to you when it is time to appoint a promotion and they pick instead someone who did step up and overachieved in times of crises. Actions have consequences, and you gotta be congruent with your decisions. If you just stick to what it is merely required by your standard contract agreement, dont be surprised if your carreer options dry up in favor of others who didnt mind going the extra mile.
The problem with this theory is that companies stopped rewarding hard work a long time ago. I've worked 30 years and I literally don't know anyone who got a promotion with a satisfactory pay bump or even just a good raise without changing jobs unless it was a union job. That's where 'quiet quitting' came from. Employees stopped falling for the "extra mile" lie. It's just free labor they're happy to exploit.
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Tell your boss you will take 1 extra shift per month or what ever if he raise your base pay x amount.
My job tried this exact same thing and I reminded them that according to my union contract over time is voluntary not mandatory once I work my allotted hours anything else is my choice you can't bully me into nothing it's my choice
Did I miss something? Where was the gotcha moment? Employee said if you want me to work extra shifts just lmk but then the boss didnt ask or what just happened? Boss wanted extra shifts employee offered extra shifts - why is that even a story?
The story is that boss tried to twist the idea of "quiet quitting" into a guilt trip for OP to offer to work overtime. In his contract boss isn't allowed to ask any specific individual to work overtime, only to offer to allow anyone to sign up for it. In response to boss attempting to guilt him into offering, OP said all they had to do was ask. That's the gotcha. A pretty lame article.
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I can't get over the part where this person says that they decided to let their boss continue. How very nice kind of you to do so! Otherwise a very nice and %100 not a fabricated story.
I decided to read beyond where you said "how very nice of you"... I guess that means that I'm a nice person. Also that your comment is completely pointless and BS.
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Tell everyone that you're middle management without a clue how economics works without telling everyone that you're middle management without a clue how economics works.
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Their is gender nutural singular. We don't know if op is male or female, so we use their/they/them.
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Am I the only one that skips all the boring editorial added by bored panda? Seems to me there is much better perspective in the comments than in the redundant copy
You are not. I have been doing that for awhile now, after I realized the bored panda commentary was merely a regurgitation of the original post adding little to nothing to the subject content.
Load More Replies... I worked at a place that reconditioned car parts and is very successful. The boss had a desk in the corner of the factory floor with a 3-foot wall around it and a big open gap on one side. He was never at his desk. He was always on the floor working with the rest of us, taking up the slack and checking staff morale. Last time I heard from them, he had retired, and his son took over as he had been working there for quite some time, and he takes after his dad. Brilliant place to work for
As a manager, my view has always been that I should be, and be prepared to be, extra resource. That's why I've never been keen on managers who start life as managers and have never worked as an employee.
Load More Replies... Some people fuss about the term 'Quiet Quitting' thinking that it is just one step away from actual quitting. So, for those folks, the OP here is just 'acting his wage' (which is a perfectly fine and rational thing to do!).
I actually had to look the term up because I thought it meant LITERALLY quitting without saying anything, NOT 2 weeks, NO ONE should do that unless contractually required, but just that they quit showing up, answering messages, etc. 🙈🤣
Load More Replies... Bored Panda you should be ashamed to sing the song of capitalism. What OP does is not 'quiet quitting ' that's what companies want to call it. It's work to rule, give them what they pay for. OP does everything that they agreed to do to the best of their ability. They give the company their money's worth. That's not quiet quitting and never was, since they're fully fulfilling their duties. Quiet quitting is when a worker does the absolute bare minimum they can get away with while secretly looking for the next opportunity elsewhere. But companies love to pretend not 'going the extra mile' is the same as quiet quitting because they want to exploit their workers and don't like it when those workers remind them that an employment is a business situation and in business you get what you pay for. Yes sometimes you'll get a short time promotion where you buy one and get two, but you can't demand that. And there is no such thing like 'quiet hiring'. It's just exploitation of employees.
Right? I can't tell you how many times I've been "promoted" into a new job title with no extra pay. Bullsh*t is bullsh*t. You want me to take on extra tasks and now suddenly SUPERVISE a department, you will be giving me a raise, right?. NO. Okay - I quit. But wait we need you. Huh, really? How badly? I was offered a 75cent per hour raise, which with my duties increased is now a salaried position. Yeah, they literally offered me $1560 instead of the $4,500 other managers at my level were receiving. And were SHOCKED when I quit. (I worked for one person, but was actually the assistant to another. He let her fire me, then hired me back at the "new" rate".)
Getting people to work overtime is easy. You just have to incentivize it. If you can’t get volunteers at time and a half, try double time. If you push the rate high enough, you will get volunteers. Still cheaper than hiring extra people but it only works for a short period of time.
I was taken aside by my manager at a large university hospitals and clinics system, and was told that all employees in our division put in 60 hours per week. I said, well good for them! My signed contract states 40 hour work weeks, and no comp or overtime. Plus, taking calls at home every 3rd weekend. So, I am working my contract. Period, unless there is an infectious disease outbreak emergency (I was an Infection Control Professional). I stuck to my guns for 6 years, until they added and built a new 14 story hospital, and a 14 story outpatient clinic tower, and did not add any staff to our program. That's when I called it quits.
Learning to say "no" is the most important you'll learn in life. No. Just like that. "No" is a complete sentence. You don't need to explain or find excuses. Let your boss, family, partner, friends, children, everybody, know where the boundaries are as soon as possible. From trivial stuff, like going out for a drink, to big commitments, like a relationship, always remember you don't owe anything to anybody.
From my experience, I'd argue learning to say "no" without adding excuses or explanations is far harder than learning to say no in the first place. I still struggle with not adding to the "no." It's very hard to shake the need to justify your decisions.
Load More Replies... I take the idea of America being the "land of the free" very seriously. You have overtime and ask me if I want it, maybe I'll take it, maybe I won't. You TELL me I have overtime, I'm telling you to kiss my a*s.
I worked part time in a hospital, but would frequently pick up a double shift on my third day (evening shift). One woman never worked OT, but she worked her butt off and almost never called in sick. Once, "C" was sick, we thought of calling an ambulance, but she was recovering from a root canal. Her manager gave her less than she deserved on her annual evaluation, because she wouldn't work OT. "C" went to the union, and they made her manager give her the correct eval. Many of us sent emails to her manager about what a great employee she was. She also got back pay for the raise she should have received.
“ Under the union rules, overtime is strictly voluntary. They can't tell me to work overtime, let alone ask me “ - I saw this response by OP to the comment that it was weird they didn’t just ask and I found it hilarious - I hadn’t realized the big “F**K YOU” OP was actually stating when his boss was trying to get him to work overtime
'Quitting' by definition is ceasing activity. Like when a horse quits pulling a wagon it stops on the spot and nothing moves. It DOESN'T mean the horse pulls for a full 8 hour day up hill and down like a MF. THAT is working what you're hired for. 'Work to rule' is another STUPID phrase. WTF is a contract for, if not to lay out the specific requirements of a job and its expectations? Why should there be 'goodwill' or expectation by an employer of getting any further value from an employee than what is being paid for? You don't go to a grocery store to buy a quart of milk and think, 'gee, I hope they'll give me an extra pint EVERY TIME I do". No f*****g logic!
The only reason this person wasn't forced to work overtime is because he is under a Union contract. Some union contracts will even state that any workers performing the same job must also be union. Obviously not the case here, since temps were "hired". Temps would have to accept overtime or risk being replaced. It really highlights how an American worker is treated without representation.
How to say you work in the US without actually saying you work in the US.
Funny ... I think I've been "acting my wage" (aka: "Quiet Quitting") in every single one of my job(s) that were 'career-type' jobs (not the on-call part time things you take on when going to school)... and in *every instance* the manager/boss/team lead/disconnected higher up would be 'perturbed' with me... mostly because those who would make a massive show of working extra hours/extra hard weren't actually doing any work, BUT they were also besties/bffs/pets of the upper management - so they HAD to blame SOMEONE - and heavens forbid they take responsibility for their own poor choices (shortstaffing, giving their pets all the perks, making demands that screwed up the work, etc.)
I feel this post in the deepest of my heart. I suffer from severe burnout because I tried to fix the massive fails of the upper management by improving. I didn't do it for the company anymore but for my disabled clients- everyone in a welfare workspace knows how f***d up this system is- being stucked between unaware management and dependent clients. I try hard to keep my health a priority and work 8-4 but it tears my heart thinking of all the problems it causes for my clients.
I get paid for 40 hours a week I work 40 hours a week. I have a life outside of work and don't need to work more.
Calling it quiet quiting is just emotional black mail. It's like calling you a quitter because you didn't comply. Actually it's probably more negging.
I'm glad the OP spoke up. All these companies want to do is work you to the ground instead of hiring the right amount of people. I don't work jobs with long hours or weekends. It's just not worth it
This term quiet quitting is funny. There is another term that has been around for a long time that means the same. "Work to rule" essentially you fulfill your contract requirements and nothing above that. As a teacher this is something we keep in our mind when contract talks come around. Before striking we start with work to rule. No staying to provide extra help, no coaching, no clubs, etc... Because those are thongs we volunteer to do beyond our contract.
This is one of the countless examples of many things in life being a pendulum. A lot of employers have for a long while now been pushing the pendulum one way. In the direction of abusing employees, cutting back, over extending, making monster profits. The pendulum will swing back and it will bite them in the rear... I very much would prefer a mutually loyal approach , where both sides treat eachother decently.
Yeah, told more than one manager that loyalty has to be mutual and earned, not demanded. If you are firing good performing people while having record profits you lose any loyalty you earned so far.
Load More Replies... Had never heard of quiet quitting before this article, and frankly I'm appalled. Is this nonsense something corporate bigwigs came up with to gaslight people into working more hours for less pay? Thankfully, in the civilised first world, government has made "arbo wetten" (Arbeids Onstandigheden Wet - work circumstances legislation) an absolute ironclad system to protect workers from abuse. Exceeding the 40h mark is flatout illegal in many professions, and working conditions like you hear of Amazon, are seen as exploitative nonsense from the third world. I bloody love the Netherlands, and stuff like this is a big part of why.
I'm horrified to learn "quiet quitting" means "just" doing your job. I had assumed it was a sensible phrase, about phasing out work or something. It never occurred to me "quiet quitting" meant "normal volume workload" and I'm kind of disgusted now.
HR Here: leaders should ask, not demand. But there are times - hopefully extreme circumstances - when extra hours are not voluntary. Of course employees should be paid according to their work and FLSA status. If not, and the workload becomes unacceptable, leave. But don't speak empty threats...if you say "I'm gonna quit!" in anger or flippancy, don't be surprised if the boss accepts your resignation on the spot.
I was once told that a dr office could not take a partial payment of a bill I owed. They said you need to pay it all right now or go to collections. I said "no problem" I just need it in writing that you will not accept this money that I am trying to pay you right now. The guy kept saying no, you have to pay it all now. I said "no problem, I just need it in writing that you will not accept this money as it is not enough." He knew as well as I did he could not turn down my partial payment or I could simply go to court and say I tried to pay and the Judge would throw out their case. I paid off that bill as slowly as I could without going to collections or receiving a late notice.
Quiet quitting, or as I feel it is like, doing the job you're paid to do rather than doing more than you're paid to do. What a weird start to trying to ask someone to do more for you, lol.
My age giving me away here. When we went to work we got paid for the work we did. Working overtime was voluntary, no pressure, but if we did work overtime, we got paid for it and our bosses were grateful. As a former business owner, you did not expect anyone to do what you wouldn’t do. If the business was going through tough times, and they do, you pitch in with your employees. You become a true team. Welcoming suggestions were also taken willingly. What it comes down to is treating others as you would like to be treated. Respect and Gratitude.
I am so confused. What does refusing to volunteer for overtime have to do with quiet quitting? The TL;DR I got from this article is: "Boss wants me to work overtime but I want him to ask me to do that, I will not volunteer" and that's it, am I correct?
Something in OP's Union contact says that the boss cannot ask anyone to work overtime so the boss is using words that don't actually ask, and leave it up to OP to figure out what boss means, so boss doesn't get in trouble with the union, or something like that. And it has nothing to do with quiet quitting, OP is just acting their wage
Load More Replies... 'quiet quitting' is a BS term managers use to cover up the fact that they can't bully employees into doing extra work.
It's (as usual) a declaration of failure that the US as the only nation in the world has to resort to this kind of action. In Europe, if the boss wants you to do overtime, he must give at least 24 hours of advanced heads up. But if he does so, you are either on double the hourly wages or every hour you work overtime is to be handed out as paid time off work within a year. And if he fails to comply to this, he will be crucified in public by both the working legal system and especially the unions. And the latter can legally tell all it's members not to seek employment in that company and tell the members currently there that they would do wisely in seeking new employment elsewhere. If the unions decide to play hardball, they can litterally shut down a company, and the company can't even sue them or go to the legal system in other ways to stop it. The union will just send out the message as a recommendation, but it is for damned sure that any union member will follow the recommendation.
I guess I (62m) have been quiet quitting all of my life. Unless it was someone mandatory, I never worked OT. I put in my full 40 hours, but the end of the shift is the end of the shift.
I was always that employee who was in charge of the phone system, the copier toner, supplies, etc. even though we had an office manager. When I was asked to add yet another task to my duties I simply said no, I believe that's why "Karen" gets paid so much more than I do. Our deal was that I perform XY&Z and you pay me for it. If you want to keep adding to my already overloaded work load, you're going to have to offer me a decent raise. Suddenly I wasn't a team player. Then I mentioned that I work a full 8 hour day, 5 days a week when SHE worked 7 hours each of the FOUR days a week she was in the office (this was long before WFH). I wouldn't quit because then you can't get unemployment. I basically quit speaking to her. I would acknowledge her requests and that was it. I did end up getting fired, but when it came to light that she didn't know the first thing about how to do MY job, she was also let go. I sent her a Congrats card. F*cking b*tch.
I had one of those "I'm not a micro manager" bosses recently who would micromanage employees into the ground. Everyone complained about her. She is no longer there ;)
Only time I "work hard" is when it irks me. However, there are times where it gets past that point that I just slow down the machine because its annoying to put things into tubs and bring them back out when I am still paid the same. If they pay by production, or we receive some bonuses by exceeding expectations, then yeah, I can see people, even myself, working harder.
God managers everywhere are terrible. I'd always ASK if someone could do overtime. My staff new it was genuine. Never an expectation they had to. Or they'd get punished as a result of saying no. Only thing I'd do.. those that said yes, would be my first stop next time. In an attempt to not get a complex from all the rejection. Jokes. Just to save time.
Biggest point of post: People's definition of quiet quitting varies, but the overall point is that the worker performs to min. acceptable standard, never going above, which makes QQ difficult to discuss with an employee (or on BP). It also relates to a healthy work- life balance and lack of long term rewards. It's not no call/ no show. It's also not clocking in to do nothing. OP was working to rule, which is normal for Union/ contract workers who could actually be disciplined by the Union for performing work outside of the contract. I asked a Union electric company if they'd be able to work on a Federal holiday. They said no, but the Superintendent came in on his own time to restore power. Union rep calls accusing me of breaking contracts and forcing him to work causing him to be written up. Long story short, no write up for the Superintendent. I would have also loved to see the rep's face when he was told that boss man has offered me his job for a decade. Networking at it's finest.
Is it when you do the bare minimum or purposely mess up to get fired? If so people have been doing that forever as a way to get unemployment that they can't get when actually quitting. Now we just have a name for it. Please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm legitimately asking
Load More Replies... One of the greatest things about my job is the difference between part time and full time. There are only two differences at the end of the day. First PT people get same benefits as FT people except for days off (Holiday/sick/vacation) where FT 8 hours of pay per day vs PT getting 4 hourse per day and the second is that FT people can't say no to mandatory overtime while PT people have to be asked and must agree to overtime and extra days. PT = FREEDOM since we can volunteer for extra work as neded. I spent the better part of 10 years as a PT employee logging 40+ hours a week on my own terms.
Remember: saying "No" is a two-way street. It is indeed your prerrogative as an employee to say "No" to extra shifts when the company is in a pinch and short staffed. But it is also the company's prerrogative to say "No" to you when it is time to appoint a promotion and they pick instead someone who did step up and overachieved in times of crises. Actions have consequences, and you gotta be congruent with your decisions. If you just stick to what it is merely required by your standard contract agreement, dont be surprised if your carreer options dry up in favor of others who didnt mind going the extra mile.
The problem with this theory is that companies stopped rewarding hard work a long time ago. I've worked 30 years and I literally don't know anyone who got a promotion with a satisfactory pay bump or even just a good raise without changing jobs unless it was a union job. That's where 'quiet quitting' came from. Employees stopped falling for the "extra mile" lie. It's just free labor they're happy to exploit.
Load More Replies... Tell your boss you will take 1 extra shift per month or what ever if he raise your base pay x amount.
My job tried this exact same thing and I reminded them that according to my union contract over time is voluntary not mandatory once I work my allotted hours anything else is my choice you can't bully me into nothing it's my choice
Did I miss something? Where was the gotcha moment? Employee said if you want me to work extra shifts just lmk but then the boss didnt ask or what just happened? Boss wanted extra shifts employee offered extra shifts - why is that even a story?
The story is that boss tried to twist the idea of "quiet quitting" into a guilt trip for OP to offer to work overtime. In his contract boss isn't allowed to ask any specific individual to work overtime, only to offer to allow anyone to sign up for it. In response to boss attempting to guilt him into offering, OP said all they had to do was ask. That's the gotcha. A pretty lame article.
Load More Replies... I can't get over the part where this person says that they decided to let their boss continue. How very nice kind of you to do so! Otherwise a very nice and %100 not a fabricated story.
I decided to read beyond where you said "how very nice of you"... I guess that means that I'm a nice person. Also that your comment is completely pointless and BS.
Load More Replies... Tell everyone that you're middle management without a clue how economics works without telling everyone that you're middle management without a clue how economics works.
Load More Replies... Their is gender nutural singular. We don't know if op is male or female, so we use their/they/them.
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