Quiet Quitting and Privilege

On October 20th, 2022, the U.S. Surgeon General released a framework to address mental health and well-being in the workplace. The framework is comprehensive, inclusive, and brings awareness to the importance of addressing diversity and equity in the workplace. As the movement is a great benefit to many workers, note that in the release, there are nuances as to why this appears more important today than in the past. One mention is of “quiet quitting” and the 17% point increase of anxiety and depression in two years among workers surveyed in 2021.

The term “Quiet Quitting” became popular in 2022, though the origin of the concept was estimated to occur between 2004 and 2009 (Yikilmaz, 2022). There’s been many different ways in which Quiet Quitting is defined. For example, according to Dictionary.com, Quiet Quitting is the “practice of reducing the amount of effort one devotes to one’s job, such as by stopping the completion of any tasks not explicitly stated in the job description.” Furthermore, the term “implies that this is done secretly or without notifying one’s boss or manager.” The Gallup, defines Quiet Quitting as “a trend where unmotivated, disinterested, checked-out employees do bare-minimum work at best -- just enough to get the job done but no more.” More recently, as written in US News, Quiet Quitting involves doing minimum work vs going above and beyond and not having work become an “end all be all”. Common among these definitions is the idea of behaviorally doing minimum work; whereas, in contrast, the attitude is differently described. In US news, there is an emphasis on setting boundaries and prioritizing values between work-life balance yet in both Dictionary.com and the Gallup suggest a sign of drag, lethargy, and/or a slow sense of giving up.

As you can see from the Gallup poll, the % actively disengaged with work in 2022 so far is actually less than 2007-2008 or 2013.Furthermore, the % of engaged workers is greater than all the years before 2015. So what might be some reasons for why Quiet Quitting is such an issue now? It may be that the issue is now finally impacting those often seen as having privilege and/or power, those who work in white collar jobs and the 27.7% increase of Non-Hispanic Whites seeking mental health treatment from the year 2019 to 2021. Essentially, Quiet Quitting may have become more popular as a result of more people, who represent the majority culture (non-people of color and abled), in the workplace being affected.

Before Quiet Quitting was a thing, the people who have long been disproportionately affected by workplace stress have been women, people of color and marginalized groups. Some quick facts, women and women of color earn less than White, non-Hispanic men, Asian Americans are least likely to be promoted in management or executive positions even when compared amongst Blacks and HIspanics, 46% of LGBT workers have experienced workplace discrimination at some point in their lives, and the unemployment rate for persons with a disability is 10.1% . People of color and under represented groups have had inequitable access to economic opportunities or career advancement for years. Keep in mind that people of color cannot afford to Quiet Quit and Black women have had to work twice as hard while simultaneously dealing with discrimination in the workplace (Hall, Everett, & Hamilton-Mason, 2011).

So in recognizing that there may be some privilege associated with being able to Quiet Quit and combined with a movement to create a healthier workplace environment, it is with hope that the privilege and this movement can be exercised in a way to benefit, raise awareness, and uplift those who have long been left behind with the same economic opportunities.

References:

1. Hall, J. C., Everett, J. E., & Hamilton-Mason, J. (2011). Black Women Talk About Workplace Stress and How They Cope. Journal of Black Studies, 43(2), 207–226. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934711413272

2. Yikilmaz, I. (2022). Quiet Quitting: A Conceptual Investigation [Paper Presentation]. Anadolu 10th International Conference on Social Science, Diyarbakır, Turkey.