Hello everyone and welcome to ZD Tech, ZDNet’s daily editorial podcast. My name is Clarisse Treillesand today I explain to you how the phenomenon of “quiet quitting” redraws the boundaries of our professional and personal lives.
You may have heard of “quiet quitting”, or “silent disengagement” in the language of Molière, a phenomenon that is emerging in the post-pandemic world of work.
This expression appeared a few weeks ago on the TikTok social network, but it has caused a lot of talk about it. Which proves that this concept is far from being anecdotal.
Less zealous workers
Let us first return to its definition. In quiet quitting, there is the term “resignation” (or “quitting”). But let’s be clear, in reality, the employees concerned do not really leave their work. They perform the tasks assigned to them, but do not seek to do “more”.
Respecting working hours, no longer answering e-mails on weekends and generally being less involved in the life of the company, that is the summary of the picture.
In other words, quiet quitting is very different from quitting. Workers who engage in it do not escape their professional responsibilities, but abandon the idea of surpassing themselves at work. Finally, it is also a way of saying that commitment to work is not a reflection of our personal value.
Pressures and insecurities
And for the “quiet quitters”, it is important to underline this. Employees who feel less engaged in their work react no more or less to the pressures felt, as well as to job insecurity in certain sectors.
Basically, it makes you think about what can sometimes be experienced as professional overwork. For while broadband, software, and mobile devices have made us more productive and efficient as workers, few of these innovations have dramatically lightened our workload.
Now, are managers willing to hear it that way? Because it is also their responsibility to create a better working environment. And this through the best weapon in society: communication.