Quiet Quitting
what it means
A badly-named idea. Nobody quits; they stop volunteering for work outside their role, which most people would previously have called "having a job".
Doing your job as described and nothing more — declining unpaid extra effort.
the origin story
The phrase spread from a TikTok video in July 2022 and was picked up by business media within weeks.
It became one of the biggest workplace stories of 2022, generating enormous coverage and a substantial backlash to the name itself — critics pointed out that meeting your job description isn't quitting anything. The underlying shift, away from discretionary effort, was measured in several major workplace surveys.
in the wild
I've stopped answering emails after six.
Quiet quitting.
It's called finishing work.
Why is it called quitting?
That's the whole argument against the phrase.
how to use it
- Discussing workplace boundary-setting
- Talking about 2022 work culture
- Casual conversation about jobs
- As a criticism of people doing their actual job
- In performance conversations, where it's imprecise
- Without acknowledging the naming criticism
related terms
receipts
Community feedback
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