First there was The Great Resignation, now there’s Quiet Quitting – and apparently it’s sweeping through the corporate world.

Don’t know what “quiet quitting” is? Or wondering if you should quietly quit your job?

I’ve broken it down in a brief video, in which I’m also sharing my take on it: you should quietly quit if you want to change careers?
Watch the video below.

Or if you prefer to read: scroll down for the transcript.

What is quiet quitting? Should you quietly quit if you want to change careers?

Hey, it’s Iris Smyth here, coming to you with quite an unplanned and impromptu video that I knew, I just KNEW, I HAD to make when I heard about quiet quitting.

Now you may or may not know what quiet quitting is, but in this video, I’ll explain very briefly what that means, A and if it’s a smart thing to do if you are thinking about changing careers.

Because changing careers is my jam! I’m here to help you find a new job or build a career that you do NOT want to escape from.

Now, if all of that sounds like something you need, then make sure you subscribe to my channel and hit that like button so I know exactly what kind of content you’re into, and then I can make more of these kind of videos.

Alright, let’s talk about quiet, quitting, shall we?

So first things first, what is “Quiet Quitting”?

Quiet quitting is when you don’t actually hand in your notice and leave.

No, you decide to stick with it, even though you really do want to leave, but you feel that’s not a realistic option for you right now.

So, you stick with your job, but then you only do the bare minimum to survive.

You only do the bare minimum to not get fired.

You emotionally disconnect from the work you’re doing.

You show up, you do what you need to do, but then you leave again.

You’ve lost that love or enthusiasm for your job, and you’re just seeing it as a means to an end right now.

So yes, you’re there, you do what you need to do, but then it’s “adios.”, I’m going to do go do my own thing again.

You want to be able to live a life. You want to see your family. You want to have time for your hobbies.

So it is a means to an end, and pay the bills.

Now in a way, I believe that quiet quitting is a counter movement to that hustle culture, where you go 110% for your job. You know, you do everything for your job, for your boss, for the company you work for, you go above and beyond.

COVID – the pandemic – has made a huge, HUGE impact on all of us, and on our attitudes towards work.

Over the past 18 months to 2 years, we’ve had to adopt a different way of living and a different way of working. And I think for a lot of people that’s opened their eyes to how they can (or want to) live their lives, and to what’s most important to us.

We all had time to rethink how we want to live our lives, how we want to work, and what’s most important to us.

And now we’re coming out at the other side, we’re kind of going like: “hey, hang on. I don’t want to continue doing how I used to do things. I think I need to make some changes.”

And if, at the moment, you don’t feel like you can actually quit your job, then quiet quitting might seem like a great idea.

Now the first thing I want to say about this all is this:

It’s okay to say NO to the hustle culture.

It’s, honestly, okay to NOT want to give you all to work – to give your everything to work.

It’s okay to say:

“Hey, actually, I don’t want to sacrifice my health. I don’t want to sacrifice having a life outside of work. I don’t want to sacrifice time spent with family.”

In fact, if you ask me, I think the long hours, the pressure, deadline after deadline, hustling for that promotion, showing your boss that you’re all in… all of that is massively overrated.

It’s normal to want to see your friends during the week for, to grab a bite with them.

It’s normal to say “hey, I want be at home for bath time with my kids. I want to be able to pursue other interests that I have outside of work.”

We’ve somehow come to believe that we need to hustle at EVERY job that we have, and that that’s the only way to be.

In my (humble!) opinion, that’s complete BS.

It really is okay to show up at your job, do what you need to do, deliver on your responsibilities and then go home.

I believe that your work doesn’t need to be your be-all and end-all.

Your job doesn’t need to be your everything – and you don’t need to everything to your job.

It’s okay to be content with your job, and not want more, not want that next thing.

But here’s the thing:

That’s not what quiet quitting is.

Quiet quitting is not when you’re content with your job, and you’re saying “actually, you know, I’m happy here and I don’t need to go above and beyond all the time. I don’t need to go that extra mile all the time.”

Quiet quitting is when you want to leave, you don’t like what you’re doing, you want to go, you want to walk out of that door, but you don’t feel like you have that option – so, you disengage.

You emotionally disconnect and you stop caring about the work that you do.

It’s almost like you are not there anymore… and that, my friend, is not healthy.

What it comes down to, I believe, is that quiet quitting is an unhealthy and counterproductive strategy to deal with an unsustainable and toxic work environment.

Because that’s often what it is: it’s a response to an unhealthy, unsustainable, or toxic work environment where you don’t feel appreciated, you don’t feel acknowledged, or you don’t feel respected for the work that you do.

And, really, that’s all anyone needs to feel good about the work that they do.

If you don’t feel appreciated, if you don’t feel acknowledged, if you don’t feel respected for the work you do, then there’s a good chance that you want to walk out that door. And if you don’t feel that that’s a realistic option to you, then quiet quitting might sound like the answer.

But here’s what I want you to remember:

Quiet quitting is hugely draining.

It really is hugely draining. You will get more and more disengaged with your job as time goes on, and it will become harder and harder to drag yourself to work on a daily basis.

So as a coping strategy?

It’s a terrible coping strategy.

I really don’t recommend you take it – to take this strategy to get through the days, and get through the weeks.

I’ve seen this, not only with all the people that I’ve worked with – the hundreds of people that I helped to change careers – I’ve experienced it myself as well.

And it’s not just me saying this. There’s research that’s been done by Gallup, and according to this research, you are far more likely to experience stress, physical pain, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol if you are disengaged at work.

So quiet quitting really isn’t the answer. It’s not a great solution that’s going to benefit you in the long run.

If you don’t want to be in the job or career that you’re in, if you want change careers, then quiet quitting is not the answer.

There are far better alternatives or strategies to deal with an unhealthy, unsustainable, or toxic work environment.

I’m going to record another video about those strategies really soon.

So, if you do not want to miss that video, make sure you hit that subscribe button and hit the bell right next to it, so you get a little notification as soon as I post that video.

And if you found this video helpful, and think it could benefit other people, then please, please, please hit that like button, so this video can reach more people.

Thank you so much for watching. If you have another 5 to 10 minutes, then why not check out this video in which I explain why and when it’s absolutely perfectly fine to quit your job without having another one lined up.

Bye!

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