QUIET QUITTING

 When there is no reward for success and no punishment for failure there is no motivation.

Hard work reaps its rewards, so you have been told your entire life by parents, teachers, the media and society in general.

You enter the workplace as an adult with this in mind and do your best to make a good impression. You meet production targets, rarely make mistakes and have an outstanding attendance and timekeeping record. Despite not being desperate for the money, you sometimes volunteer to do a bit of overtime on Saturday mornings or cover sickness absence.

You have a work colleague (let's call him Kevin) who doesn't share your work ethic. Kevin is often distracted from his job as a result of being constantly attached to his mobile phone. He had low productivity and frequently breaks workplace rules such as sneaking outside the rear fire exit for extra smoking breaks. Kevin is often late or absent from work, for some strange reason, always on Mondays when working the early shift or Fridays when working the late shift.

You resent having to work with Kevin and often having to do some of his work. It puts you in a difficult situation because if you start complaining to management, Kevin could in turn make life even more difficult for you, since you have to work with him every day. 

The contrast between yourself and Kevin couldn't be greater, so you reason that the management should be able to see this as well. At some point, one of two things must happen. The management will discipline him and motivate him to change his ways or they will get rid of him.  

One morning, the manager turns up unexpectedly early and catches Kevin having one of his many extra smoking breaks outside the fire exit. He is summoned to the office where he is shouted at for 10 minutes and warned about his future behaviour. Kevin did not receive any official disciplinary action. For the next few weeks, he avoids his smoking breaks and works harder only to quickly revert back to his former ways. For every occasion that Kevin gets caught and given a slap on the wrist by management, there will be dozens if not hundreds of occasions that he gets away with it.

Sometimes, the management do get it right, like when work colleague Steve is instantly dismissed after getting caught using a machine without the safety guard in place, a blatant violation of health and safety rules. 

Another employee, Pete, a hard worker with an excellent work record, gets into a heated argument with someone else. During this time, he used sexist / racist / homophobic language completely out of character, but was witnessed by several of the workforce. Following an unsuccessful appeal he is dismissed from his job. It's absolutely baffling how people like Kevin can cost the company thousands of pounds a year in lost productivity and overtime payments yet still remain in employment. While people like Pete can be dismissed for a poor choice of words.

PERFORMANCE PUNISHMENT 

One week the management were concerned because they were behind with several orders and desperately needed people to do overtime on Saturday morning. You can't make it this week because you have a big night out planned for Friday night. The manager uses guilt-tripping tactics to try and make you change your mind. You can't help but notice that Kevin doesn't even get asked.

Sometimes employees are taken off their regular jobs to do other duties. Examples include painting the walls, spreading salt on the carpark in winter or cutting the bushes outside in summer. You never get asked to do these jobs and have a break from the usual routine, they are nearly always given to Kevin. He still gets paid the same money to do an easier job while being free of the responsibilities.

KEVIN IS EFFECTIVELY REWARDED FOR BEING LAZY WHILE YOU ARE PUNISHED FOR WORKING HARD

This is a common scenario in the modern day workplace. You are constantly stressed by Kevin, doing his share of the work and the management doing nothing or rewarding him. But you don't want to leave your job. Maybe the money is good or it's close to where you live. Or it's highly likely the next workplace won't be any better. Something somewhere has got to change.

QUIET QUITTING

One day, the management asks you to work on Saturday but this time you firmly tell him "no not interested" and do not offer an explanation. You stop doing the little extras that you previously did. The management asks you to stop over to cover sickness and you refuse. You stop rushing around to meet targets and arguing with slackers like Kevin who don't.

One Thursday morning in November, you wake up with a slight headache and sore throat. Normally, you would drag yourself into work and solder on. This time you phone in sick and have a couple of days off. You have not had a day off sick for the entire year so why not.

Logically, the management should punish you for your downturn in performance, but instead you observe the opposite. They stop pestering you to work weekends or cover sickness. They sometimes complain when production targets are not met, but since they have never actually disciplined anyone, your job is safe. Your working life actually becomes less stressful as a result of this change in attitude. The management divert their attention to the new crop of younger gullible employees.

QUIET QUITTING IS NOT ABOUT BEING A SLACKER

You are still doing your job properly but not going above and beyond what is required. You do enough work to stay out of trouble but not too much so that you are taken advantage of. You would much prefer it wasn't like this but you have no choice. 

Quiet quitting is not just about employment it also applies to other areas of life such as human relationships. MGTOW is another form of Quiet quitting because what you get out rarely compensates for the effort put in.