Quiet quitting – is it really quitting? And if it’s so quiet how come it’s been able to raise such an uproar for a better part of this year, especially on the socials like TikTok and LinkedIn? Despite the name, it actually has nothing to do with quitting your job. It means doing only what your job demands and nothing more. Wait. Hold up. So, it’s just doing what is within your job description and within the working hours and not doing anything extra? You still show up for work, but stay strictly within the boundaries of your job requirements. So no more helping out with additional tasks or checking emails outside work hours. Why then the concern about this? Maybe the fear that work has no control over people’s lives. Or the feeling that your employees will slowly disengage. Who knows?
It perhaps may have come up before in previous conversations and situations. Though the first known use of “quiet quitting” was by Bryan Creely, a Nashville-based corporate recruiter, later turned Career Coach, earlier this year in March when he posted a video on TikTok and YouTube. According to an August 2022 Harvard Business Review article, when it comes to this rise of quiet quitting, managers are advised to first examine their own behaviour. In the wake of having several employees quiet quitting within your organization, one has to question whether the problem is with all the employees or with the common factor, who may be the manager at times. There could be several reasons why people would choose to quiet quit. Perhaps they have realized after working so hard the pay and incentive will be the same. Maybe it has to do with culture – a slow degradation and fade away from the initial culture of the company. At other times, the drive is just not there and you partner with another colleague who also feels the same way. Though, in the face of all these kinds of situations, I also wondered whether there could be another approach. Another way out. Try quiet acting instead! (Just coined that up in the hope that someone will also quote me someday:)).
“Anxiety was born in the very same moment as mankind. And since we will never be able to master it, we will have to learn to live with it—just as we have learned to live with storms.”
Paulo Coelho
Quiet acting is simply working on yourself and your skills as you realize that what you expect to work for you is not working for you. Now instead of throwing your hands up in the air and saying “It is what it is”; identify the challenge or issue and your time to consider the workarounds plus ways to improve. So in a sense, this is not “acting” in the sense of pretending but acting from the point of taking initiative. Being proactive instead of reactive. Making an attempt instead of letting yourself be indifferent to circumstance. The quiet part is making it more private and personal. Practice makes perfect; what you practice in private becomes evident in public when it comes to execution. This could be perhaps through a course you want to study or a programme, a skill to perfect, a project to work on- whatever it takes to get you to the next level. That is quiet acting.
Purpose and mission. These two are what will keep you motivated when it comes to quiet acting. Being tied to a wider purpose and mission will more often than not give us the enthusiasm to forge forward. At an organizational level, this is being in tune with what the organization is about and linking (or trying to link) what you do to the company’s goals. Just having this at the back of your mind will keep you motivated and steady on your work. On top of this, we each have our personal purpose and priorities. These are ideals and what we hold priority to. These are our values and beliefs. When we work on something that we believe in it’s less and less of a task for us and becomes something that we can naturally take up.
This leads me to the next point which has to do with investing in the right direction. Watch the returns flow. If you are someone who is passionate about the environment, then be the first to motivate those around you towards making the environment better. This is even in our day-to-day lives. Planting a seed of what we thrive in reading about it, practising, and mastering- goes to bear fruit in the future. The fruits that you will be able to personally enjoy. On top of this, it always pays to invest in the physical, mental and financial well-being of yourself and the people around you. Small acts and lessons that we learn about healthy living will build toward a greater result.
Everybody has quiet quit at some point in their lives. However, when we are in that space it is not always that the solution is for you to move on emotionally and mentally from there. Instead, it’s probably a time to learn and manage your energy in the work you are doing. Of course where we are honestly ready to transition from a job, career, or business – then by no means move. It’s better to fully move than be half and half in something. Quiet act through it all, no matter how long or painful that journey may be. It is in such seasons that we also learn and grow. We learn more about ourselves and grow into what we would like to be. Quit quitting, get acting.
“You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over.”
Richard Branson
Tonerre's Word 