"Quiet quitting" doesn't really cut it.
 | By Indrani Sen Culture Editor, Opinion |
Do you ever feel like taking it down a notch at work? Not trying so hard to excel or to get an A for effort? Then perhaps you have whiled away some downtime at your desk reading the many — many! — think pieces published recently on the concept of "quiet quitting," a term that went viral with a meditative TikTok posted in July. |
The idea isn't actually to quit your job, but rather to quit "the idea of going above and beyond," as the post explains. And the concept has been polarizing, to say the least, with some arguing that it's bad for business, others dismissing the phenomenon as untenable for marginalized workers and many simply annoyed at the idea that this is something to be concerned about. "Worse than nonsense," a writer at the Financial Times declared, pointing out that "if your staff turn up every day and do exactly what you ask of them, they aren't 'quiet quitting,' they're 'working.'" |
The time-management expert Laura Vanderkam, however, declined to join the fray. Instead of weighing in on whether quiet quitting is good, bad or even a real phenomenon, she argues in a guest essay for Times Opinion that we need to address the root issue: the feelings of stress, exhaustion and time scarcity that make us want to quit our jobs, loudly or quietly, in the first place. And the best way to do that, she suggests, is to change the way we feel about our time. |
We each have the same 168 hours every week. But time is also all about the stories we tell ourselves. When life is full of have-to-dos, with only brief periods of downtime in between, we can feel beaten down by responsibilities. But add things we actually want to do, to compete with those have-to-dos, and time feels different. We feel a bit more in control of our lives. |
It might seem counterintuitive, but Vanderkam says the key is to add activities to your week, as long as they're the right activities. Schedule things that you find "wonderful" — a weekly tennis match, fulfilling volunteer work or even just reading a novel. |
It seems worth a try. Ultimately, whether or not doing fun things keeps you from quiet quitting, adding some joy to your week can't hurt! |
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