4 minute read
Recruitment: Barry Whelan
from shelflife - update
by Mediateam
BARRY WHELAN
managing director of Excel Recruitment
www.excelrecruitment.com
W h i s p e r i t : I s ‘ q u i e t q u i t t i n g ’ o n t h e r i s e ?
While employers might perceive the ‘quiet quitting’ trend as staff deciding to do the bare minimum of work, for employees it could instead be a means of setting greater boundaries between their work and personal lives. It’s an important conversation to explore, writes Excel’s Recruitment’s Barry Whelan
The world of work is trending constantly these days, with lots of chatter around ‘The Great Resignation’, but now a new TikTok trend has everyone talking, the trend of ‘quiet quitting’. Quiet quitting can be described from two points of view, that of the employer and the employee. The employer may see quiet quitting as doing the bare minimum at work, whilst employees are seeing it as simply setting boundaries, to work while at work only and not to live with the stress of a highly pressurised job.
Work-life balance
The re-evaluation of our lives in relation to work continues apace on the far side of the pandemic, with many people choosing life and not work as their main priority, despite the risk of sometimes limiting prospects and earnings. Many employees are not doing work beyond what they were recruited to do and beyond what they are being paid for.
A lot of employees are taking a moment now to step back and ask what they can achieve in a day, as they look to regain a work-life balance.
What about in a recessionary environment? Should it not be all shoulders to the wheel? The pandemic has raised questions about work that have not been asked before. With lockdowns blurring the lines between work and home, people are using quiet quitting as a way to set more boundaries between their professional and personal lives.
The new form of “quitting” sees people keeping their jobs, but mentally stepping back from the burdens of work -- for example, working the bare minimum number of hours and not making their jobs an important centre of their lives.
Data shows the trend of putting limits on one’s job and work life, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, is most popular among people just starting out in their careers, those who are in their early 20s, which does seem to reflect the term’s popularity on TikTok where the hashtag #quietquitting has been posted more than 3 million times. Whilst being connected to a mission or purpose is a high priority for the younger generation and something they want, unfortunately they are not always experiencing this in their current workplaces.
Deciding to quiet quit a job should come down to a person’s career goals. If your objective is to secure work-life balance over income and maybe even job security and you are not looking for big raises and promotions, then this could work for you. The current job market is also amenable to the trend. There is no doubt you will be kept on in your employment when there is no-one to fill your role.
The risk of quiet quitting, of course, is that an employee who is less invested in their job may be the one who loses it in times of economic woes.
If you are feeling burnt out or under too much stress in work, then perhaps it may be the right time to speak with your manager. Set time aside to talk to them about this and prepare solutions for how you can fulfil your job obligations while also taking care of yourself. Employees can also look for community within the workplace to make things a little easier on themselves.
Many employees, because they are looking to reset their work-life balance, may be perceived as quiet quitting when in fact that really is not their intention at all. It is crucial for people to simply reset expectations and have open conversations with their employers. That is a great way for employees to set themselves up for establishing a new baseline for balance that does not impact their future career growth.
I am optimistic that quiet quitting and the discussion it has prompted will bring about real change.
The workplace and its culture may be returning to business as usual, particularly if a rise in unemployment forced by a recession takes hold. However, will it stay as flexible as it is today? While we might have some bumps along the road, a focus on work-life balance, working from home and agile working are here to stay. Now is the time to have that conversation. ■
