Quiet quitting

[Utah Bob #35998]

I never heard of this. Disgusting.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careersandeducation/conan-obriens-assistant-whos-quiet-quit-her-job-for-over-a-decade-says-its-okay-to-be-mediocre-and-find-ways-to-do-the-minimal-amount-of-work-possible/ar-AA11oUXH?ocid=mailsignout&li=BBnb7Kz

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

When I was in a job I found I didn't like, I found a new job. Best move I could have done!

Did 40+ years and enjoyed the challenges every day! (Even the Emergency Night Time calls!!)

 

[Utah Bob #35998]

10 minutes ago, Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 said:

When I was in a job I found I didn't like, I found a new job. Best move I could have done!

Did 40+ years and enjoyed the challenges every day! (Even the Emergency Night Time calls!!)

 

Challenge is apparently not popular these days. Except for the stupid youtipube and Twitter ones. 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

I've had more jobs than almost anyone I know.  

 

Some quit me: plants shutting down, losing contracts, being bought out, etc.

 

I let my mouth and insubordination get me fired from some....but I also got some really good promotions when I was right.

 

Some I quit out of sheer boredom or a lack of interest.

 

Many times I quit one job to move up...and sometimes I was right and a few times I was wrong.

 

Once in awhile I quit because I knew I couldn't do the job and moved on to give someone else a shot at it.  Once the boss got me a job with another company that supplied us with specialized tooling, twice I got in plant transfers  with the same company.

 

Two times I walked off a job because I was accused of something I didn't do and one time because the boss hated me and I hated him (and his boss helped move to another job that turned out to be one of the best experiences I ever had.)

 

Lots of times I was transferred to another division or department.

 

But I never gave any job less that my very best. I just wasn't raised that way.

[Dantankerous]

At least she's honest about being a natural born loser.

[Rye Miles #13621]

I've been self employed most of my life. Musician, drum teacher, music store owner and piano tuner/technician. No time to be "mediocre" when your working for yourself!

[Pat Riot]

Gee, I guess that’s what happened at the last agency I worked for…only it was the entire agency!
Not kidding. I was verbally reprimanded numerous times for going above and beyond  and making others look bad. 
 

“L.A. Metro” they like to call themselves. “Metro” (how original)  They used to call themselves “MTA” but New York City threatened to sue them for using NY Transit’s ‘nickname’.

You cannot make this kind of dumbassery up. 
 

My version of “METRO”

Mediocrity

Eternally

Triumphs in this

Ridiculous

Organization

Oh, and if you’re an employee of Metro and found this in a search and you’re offended…Good! Perhaps it will motivate you to be a better government servant. But, I would bet you won’t. You’ll probably forward this to executive management and thousands of taxpayer dollars will be wasted to try track me down and look for ways to make my life miserable.

Oh wait…who am I kidding. That would mean you would have to do some work. Never mind. Carry on. 

 

[Buckshot Bob]

I think this has always been the way many in our society operate . They just came up with a new name for lazy.

I worked for a couple large corporations, and I can’t tell you how many times I had people tell me they were only going to do as much as they had to do to keep from getting fired. Many others did it without saying it , especially if they were in a position where part of their job was to at least act like they cared . 
And on the flip side there are some place’s that will beat the give a $hit out of you in short order, so sometimes I guess it goes both ways . 

[Rip Snorter]

Not a new thing.  When I graduated college I was going to be drafted and sent to Viet Nam.  Had no plan beyond that.  Turns out, despite being an athlete in peak condition, I failed the pre induction physical.  Had 9 jobs in 11 years, this and that.  Several supervisors, shop stewards, etc.  Told me to slow down, go have a nap in the warehouse.  One even threatened.  I told him to send someone he could do without for a while, or simpler still give credit for part of my work to others.  When I settled down in corporate America, 35 years between two corporations, it was institutionalized - Teams and Workgroups.  Translated, a couple of folks did the heavy lifting and the rest shared the credit.  

[Pulp, SASS#28319]

At the recycle fiber plant we had several hundred light reject cleaners.  There were always some that would be plugged up from a fiber wad, piece of plastic and various other reasons.  To unplug you had to valve out the inlet and outlet valves, unscrew the reject cup and remove it, then remove the plug, put it all back together and valve it back in.  Not particularly hard, but very hot, dirty and smelly work.  One day I spent most of 12 hours putting cleaners back on line.  Relief showed up, I told him I had all but three cleaners on line.  He said, “They’ll be waiting on you when you come back in the morning.”

I rarely have hard feelings toward people, but I really wasn’t very happy with his response.

[Charlie Harley, #14153]

This is just a new and slightly derogatory term for something that's probably been around since time began.

 

Some folks view a job not as a challenge or an opportunity to grow, but simply as a way of earning a paycheck to support their life.  Some people put in a solid eight hour day and go home to their life.  Others put in the bare minimum and look for ways to cut corners at every turn but not lose the paycheck.

 

The first group can actually be decent employees, as long as they perform during their eight hours and management doesn't expect them to do much more.

 

The latter can be a cancer whose performance must be addressed by management.

[Buckshot Bob]

One millwright I worked with had a interesting  saying he repeated often. Give your laziest man your hardest job, and you’ll find the easiest way to do it . Sometimes I found that to be true , but generally it was the most sleaze bag way to do it . 
We also had one electrician that used to introduce himself as the laziest man at our corporation. I wasn’t sure if he was proud of that or just wanted to make sure to keep your expectations low .

[Chantry]

Don't really condone it, but kind of understand it.  Personally I hate being bored at work, even as a full time work at home.

 

If all hard work gets you is more hard work (and stress) with no recognition or reward, why work harder?

 

I've heard a number of stories from friends who worked in union job.  Doing anything but doing your job at job at a certain pace was discouraged.  Working hard or taking on extra work made your co-workers look bad, which they resented.  It could also cut into the amount of OT that they could make and you were going to get the raise that the union negotiated no matter what.

 

It happens all the time, just look at your typical clerk at the checkout at a food or big box store or your average state employee who deals with the public.  Department of Motor Vehicles is usually a good example of this.

 

How many of us at work have decided not to start on the next task with 30 minutes left in the day or on a Friday?

[Pat Riot]

1 hour ago, Charlie Harley, #14153 said:

 

The latter can be a cancer whose performance must be addressed by management.

What is really a shame is, in my case, executive management was just as bad as the slackers that work for them. 

[Utah Bob #35998]

I just couldn’t live like that. It’s not how I was raised.

[Buckshot Bob]

35 minutes ago, Chantry said:

Don't really condone it, but kind of understand it.  Personally I hate being bored at work, even as a full time work at home.

 

If all hard work gets you is more hard work (and stress) with no recognition or reward, why work harder?

 

How many of us at work have decided not to start on the next task with 30 minutes left in the day or on a Friday?

I also have always liked to be busy , it makes the day fly by . 
In your second example I had a fellow state exactly that . When I was a apprentice instrument man part of our training was to do a rotation in our company’s valve shop . We had just finished up a job allot faster than was estimated and I told the journeyman valve repair man I was working with that this was great we could probably knock out our next job before lunch. The journeyman just shook his head and said Bob, Bob, Bob, here in the valve shop our reward for getting our work done fast is more work. And he was right, employers are as much to blame as employees. If they really wanted to they people who shape policy could reward the people who accomplish allot. But then I guess that would mean they would also have to be doing a good job. 

 

[Blackwater 53393]

My last job was with a major entertainment transportation outfit.  I worked for them for fifteen years and mostly loved the work. The owners?? NOT SO MUCH!!!

 

 I left a job that I truly enjoyed and that the guys I worked for were appreciative and supportive!  They placed the customer at the top of the list, right next to quality and honesty and instilled that mindset into the employees.  I hated leaving, but I had to have the kind of money that they couldn’t afford and I was extremely overqualified.  I’d taught a young guy that didn’t support a family the stuff that they needed and left them in good shape.

 

The new job was great but the bosses were much less than honest with their clientele and with all but a very select few employees.  They apparently thought that this was the way business was supposed to be!  When I hired on, I told them that I wouldn’t lie to them and that I wouldn’t be a “YES” man. I was as good as my word.

 

In return, they lied to me and to their customers, tried every trick to short my pay and to cut corners in production that I refused to go along with.  
 

Since I was in a position that they couldn’t work around and they couldn’t hire someone else with my unique skill set for less than half again the the money, I usually prevailed.  At my first annual “evaluation”, the owners grilled me on my attitude and my often confrontational manner.  I plainly stated that I thought that they were untrustworthy and that I was never going to be happy with misleading people or doing less than the job required, “just to get by”!

 

”Why do you sray?” the older of the two asked.

”For the money!” I replied. “I’m a prostitute!”  I paused for a second to let that sink in and then continued, “You’ll always get the best job that I can do, but I turn this trick for the money to do things that make me happy!!”

[Singin' Sue 71615]

14 hours ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

I never heard of this. Disgusting.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careersandeducation/conan-obriens-assistant-whos-quiet-quit-her-job-for-over-a-decade-says-its-okay-to-be-mediocre-and-find-ways-to-do-the-minimal-amount-of-work-possible/ar-AA11oUXH?ocid=mailsignout&li=BBnb7Kz

This is what todays 'Special Ed' programs teach...

Kids only expected to do half the work!

In one meeting I was told to look at a signed page of work done by my 4th grader.

"Look, the writing is like a 2nd grader."

I asked who was accepting the 2nd grade work from a 4th grader?

 

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

It helps to have compensation tied to work, at least over the long term. I worked most of my career in a mid-sized law firm. Partner compensation was not directly tied to immediate production, but it was over the long term. So those who were consistently more productive did make more money than those who were less so. It worked pretty well in the long run.

 

So also with staff. Legal assistants who were really on the ball, worked hard, went the extra mile, and kept an active eye on case files (now and then saving the bacon of their bosses...) always ended up making much more than the merely competent.

 

But that sort of organization was always small enough to make it work pretty well.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

My last job the "boss" was a horse's patoot, never did pay me enough, Had me pay for my own training and licensing (including renewals and up grades) made me work weekends and holidays, and extremely long days, treated my fellow workers better than he did me, made use my own car, but wouldn't pay me for gas, had me running errands on my own time, made me carry his wife and kids around, wouldn't reimburse me for attending four conventions on the east coast, didn't give me any benefits (except a very good retirement plan), and refused to reimbursement for out of pocket expenses.

 

I did get to sleep with his wife, though.

 

I took an early retirement at 58 years old. 

 

 

 

Being self employed isn't all it's cracked up to be.  

 

[J.D. Daily]

5 hours ago, Buckshot Bob said:

One millwright I worked with had a interesting  saying he repeated often. Give your laziest man your hardest job, and you’ll find the easiest way to do it . Sometimes I found that to be true , but generally it was the most sleaze bag way to do it . 
We also had one electrician that used to introduce himself as the laziest man at our corporation. I wasn’t sure if he was proud of that or just wanted to make sure to keep your expectations low .

That philosophy is why an AA DC10 crashed in Chicago in 1979.  Rather than following the mfg's manual AA mechanics figured out that using a fork lift to remove & install a wing mounted engine saved a lot of work.

 

[Buckshot Bob]

We had some written procedures , mostly for safety testing . When we got acquired by Dow Chemical then there had to be a procedure for everything. I spent the first couple years writing procedures for my new masters for everything I did. Sometimes the procedure world isn’t all it’s cracked up to be either. They are only as good as the people writing them . I’ve seen plenty of times where the procedure didn’t always apply or wasn’t competed properly. But all the paperwork was correct. And in the pencil pusher world that seems to be what matters far too often. Everyone is always trying to find a faster, cheaper, easier way to do everything. In life things are either made to a price or a standard . The only time you seem to get both is when the standard is very low 

[Duffield, SASS #23454]

15 hours ago, Buckshot Bob said:

 Everyone is always trying to find a faster, cheaper, easier way to do everything. In life things are either made to a price or a standard . The only time you seem to get both is when the standard is very low 

I put a sign over my workbench that read:

"Good, Fast, Cheap. Pick any two."  

[Pat Riot]

15 hours ago, Buckshot Bob said:

We had some written procedures , mostly for safety testing . When we got acquired by Dow Chemical then there had to be a procedure for everything. I spent the first couple years writing procedures for my new masters for everything I did. Sometimes the procedure world isn’t all it’s cracked up to be either. They are only as good as the people writing them . I’ve seen plenty of times where the procedure didn’t always apply or wasn’t competed properly. But all the paperwork was correct. And in the pencil pusher world that seems to be what matters far too often. Everyone is always trying to find a faster, cheaper, easier way to do everything. In life things are either made to a price or a standard . The only time you seem to get both is when the standard is very low 

Funny you mention procedures

 

The agency I left used to thrive on procedures, and for good reason. Our environment was a dangerous environment. I left to work elsewhere. When I rehired on there years later I found the entire agency had regressed probably 30 years in the way things were done. The real kicker was for even the very most hazardous tasks there were no procedures. I was blown away. Guys doing work on high voltage and no detailed procedures at all. They now used their generic procedure designed to put the liability on the employee should the employee end up dead.

For my shop I started writing procedures. After completing about 50% of them I sent them to my executive management for review and approval. I got no response. 
I brought this up at a staff meeting. My Sr. Director told me “this isn’t the place for this discussion. I will call you after this meeting. 
He called and asked me why I was doing this and was I “trying to make the other shops look bad?”

Anyway, I no longer work there. Thank God.

[Buckshot Bob]

We always had procedures for safety. In a chemical plat there’s allot of dangers . When we were acquired by a larger company they wanted detailed procedures for very simple jobs that anyone who was qualified for the job should know. And as you mentioned I also noticed in the last 10 years or so more a a emphasis on engineering a way to blame the employees for anything that went wrong. 

[Captain Bill Burt]

It seems to me that if I'm cashing the checks I should be doing what they're paying me for regardless of whether I like it.  Old fashioned I guess. 

[Buckshot Bob]

3 minutes ago, Captain Bill Burt said:

It seems to me that if I'm cashing the checks I should be doing what they're paying me for regardless of whether I like it.  Old fashioned I guess. 

Doing that is what kept me sane at a large company. But if doing that doesn’t always make sense it doesn’t mean you have to agree with it . It just means you have to live with it if you want to stay employed there. Small business couldn’t stay in business being run like a large corporations. Working for them is pretty close to working for the government 

[Captain Bill Burt]

I'm fortunate enough to work at a company that respects my opinion and one where I have a voice in policies, in fact with respect to my department, I make policy without much oversight at all.  So, given that, I'm usually in agreement with the policies I make, surprising, but true.  

 

I expect the 250+ people in my department to abide by those policies and give 100% in support of them.  If they can't do that they can explain their concerns to me.  If those concerns are legitimate, in my opinion, we'll change the policy.  If they're not, the concerned persons can follow the policies anyway, resign, or be fired.  

 

I won't tolerate 'quiet quitting'.

[Dantankerous]

In almost 30 years at my current company I have witnessed the company itself destroy the employee's motivation to do darn near anything. This includes unionized hourly as well as salaried supervision, engineering and tech support.

 

To say most employees do the bare minimum is accurate but not because they are incompetent, lazy or incapable of the work. There is simply no reason to do more. The company's management seems to thrive on creating division in the workplace more than it wants sales and profits. I could write a Master's thesis on the incompetence of management within this company but for this thread, not required. Suffice it to say, anyone close to retirement age retires early to get away. Supervisors quit with little warning. Engineers bail for other jobs. Operators and maintenance leave for other companies. No one has any real desire to inspire, lead or be innovative. For those who elect to stay there is simply little reason to apply one's self beyond what it takes to maintain the paycheck. It would seem to me that the culture at this plant site has cultivated the very phenomenon this OP's article is about. I blame a failure of management and corporate hostility for this example, not the once bright eyed and hopeful young engineer or tradesman who had every best intention, once upon a time. 

[Buckshot Bob]

4 minutes ago, Dantankerous said:

 

 

To say most employees do the bare minimum is accurate but not because they are incompetent, lazy or incapable of the work. There is simply no reason 

I can’t tell you how many times toward the end of my career I had fellow employees tell me if I don’t do anything I won’t get in trouble. It was their strategy to stay employed. Just keep your head down and try not to get noticed for anything.
The employees that just complain to complain are a pia . But I have never understood why constructive criticism is not welcomed, at one time in my career it was . And after that criticism is presented if you are the boss and don’t agree with that, then state your reasons and go ahead with your decision. I always had more respect for bosses like that , ultimately they are responsible and technically should be rewarded or held accountable. If they have a competent boss.  

[Dantankerous]

28 minutes ago, Buckshot Bob said:

I can’t tell you how many times toward the end of my career I had fellow employees tell me if I don’t do anything I won’t get in trouble. It was their strategy to stay employed. Just keep your head down and try not to get noticed for anything.
The employees that just complain to complain are a pia . But I have never understood why constructive criticism is not welcomed, at one time in my career it was . And after that criticism is presented if you are the boss and don’t agree with that, then state your reasons and go ahead with your decision. I always had more respect for bosses like that , ultimately they are responsible and technically should be rewarded or held accountable. If they have a competent boss.  

 

Yup.

 

Staying off the radar works nicely.

 

At my employer, being on the radar is NEVER a good thing.

 

At least our own Heinrich Himmler, I mean the last HR manager, retired recently. Thank God. 

[Chantry]

These days, at least in the corporate environment, there are other legitimate reasons for not going above and beyond.  One is if you do good if a job you'll end up a manager.  At my job most managers are working 50+ hour weeks, spend most of their day in meetings, run lots of reports and often have to babysit or coddle overly sensitive employees.  Many of my co-workers are in AZ and as a prior manager put it, they had the California mindset:  Many of them would get upset if they weren't patted on the head (figuratively) and told what a good worker they were on a regular basis.  I avoided interacting with most of them as much as possible since I found them to be easily offended and upset over trivial stuff.

 

I generally try to keep my head down, do my work well, make my boss look good and otherwise be a low maintenance employee.

 

 

[Dantankerous]

Only the "entitled" wish to be managers at my company. Historically it has been the most incompetent or the most vile back-stabbers who get placed in management. We've had some real superduper expletives out here.

 

I cannot wait to retire. I like the work I do but do not trust this company one bit. Everyone I know who has left has done so with a smile on their face and is able to enjoy life much more after no longer being on the payroll. 

[Oak Ridge Regulator]

I dont see any problem with people quiet quitting as long as they dont have a problem with their pay being adjusted DOWN to reflect their reduced work performance

[Texas Joker]

It's slackers slacking. 

 

Quite quitting is doing the bare minimum job description. No volunteering, no extra, no initiative. No taking job related calls after hours. 

 

I am a dinosaur in that I go to work and give my best in the hopes that it'll be acknowledged and rewarded. 

 

Quite quitters want the pay for the job they are EXPECTED to do not the one advertised and offered.