I literally thought quiet quitting meant do the bare minimum so less than even required as much as you can get away with. I know people who are like that. So if quiet quitting is just doing your job that is required of you, I don't see how that is a movement that really is all you were ever supposed to do.
The fact that it took a life-threatening pandemic to tell us how shockingly toxic workplaces are is disturbing. We should’ve figured out better work environments by now.
People are terrified of going against the norm. Covid was a blessing just as much as it was a curse in the long run when it comes to reflecting and questioning things.
I saw an article on “quiet-firing” which unlike how quiet quitting is simply establishing boundaries, Quiet-firing is being passive aggressive and acting hostile in a way that actively violates US labor laws. It’s so interesting how simply doing only the work you are paid for is being met with active hostility.
I'm with the Chinese youth on this one: "Let it rot." The owners of my company are off partying in their McMansion, going on vacation every 2 months, etc, and yet while I'm slaving away making them that money, even bringing in record profits, I still get paid the exact same as before, which is already pathetically low. I hope it rots
At my very first job, I worked at this golf store, which meant tons and tons of rich people- people with disposable income to buy thousands and thousands of dollars worth of golf clubs, clothes, shoes, other equipment, and wildly expensive maintenance on that equipment as well. We made profits at that store, and I personally sold more glove protection plans than anyone else... but I got exactly one bonus and got paid $10.50/hr to be a salesman, a cashier, a cleaner during closing hours, to stock shelves, to be a greeter, to answer the phone and schedule appointments, to direct people to the store location, to straight up do PAPERWORK sometimes, all at once. I endured workplace sexism, sexual harassment from customers who PHYSICALLY TOUCHED ME FROM ACROSS THE COUNTER, I endured extremely short lunches while my boss took long and luxurious ones, I endured splitting headaches by taking extra strength Tylenol twice a day every single day, I endured entitled customers asking for discounts, I endured my entitled bosses talking down to me, and my coworkers invalidating my safety concerns and genuine fears. I was being expected to be pleasant and helpful the entire time while my safety and wellbeing was secondary to the interests of my direct store manager. I was also a 17 year old fresh out of high school trying to help my single mother pay for our rent. Let it rot.
I actually love the fact that people are letting companies know that they have a life outside work and that the company doesn’t own the workers. We needed a change.
I agree. My husband works in govt and while there is a ton of bad employee habits to shuffle through like really bad how are they even getting these great jobs kinda bad employees; there are also several very good employees that we have deep discussions on about why he believes it’s his problem if his employees “use and burn” their paid time off instead of saving it up for emergencies like he always has. I’m like, it’s not a problem if they’re doing a great job. It’s not an issue if the job is getting done without any negative impact on the rest of the employees when they ask for time off. Good for them wanting to use their own earned time off to take their time off for whatever the hell they want to. Leave it alone. Also the “ yes such and such is great at their job but that’s all they are willing to do, they’re a one trick pony” me… what’s the one trick department? Him “ accounting and finance” Me…why the hell do you want them to ever waste that importance on what? Tool room? Inventory? Shut the f up it’s the most important area and you should be thrilled they’re so focused on being the best at that one very important job. Him..well it won’t get them a promotion compared to a “ team player” I love him, he’s retiring soon. But other than judgy expectations he’d never tell anyone he’s holding over them he’s a good guy to work for and would go to the end of the earth for his staff. But they seriously look at how much time an employee saves vs uses when they’re up for promotions and bonuses. It’s absolutely insane! My take is that it’s like punishing an employee for earning the time they’re using to do the things that make them happy to keep coming to work. Some take long weekends with families, some use it to chuck out early when they’re work is completed to support their kids school activities, some just want to go home and be home. Good on them.
I'm reminded of that one story: a guy leaves his office and sees his boss getting into a luxury car. The guy says "Wow, I wish I could afford a car like that." The boss says "Well, if you work really hard, put in extra hours, and make sacrifices, then next year I can buy another one."
My friend in the Netherlands works for a multinational company. She ended up working all day, sometimes even until 2 in the morning the following day, WITHOUT getting paid for the overtime. The company refused to hire another person and then she got very sick because of burnout. In the first weeks her boss yelled at her to get back to work and then she went to a doctor hired by the company, who confirmed her diagnosis. After that, they had to give her medical leave with a full salary. She's been on medical leave for 6 months now, her health got better and when she goes back to work they have to let her work part time for a few months. She'll never endanger her health for a company again.
Laziness is the mother of innovation. Intelligent lazy people invent new easier ways to do things so that they don't have to work so hard. "Work smarter, not harder" is a direct encouragement of laziness. Laziness is a virtue, but it's hard to see it that way with the way some people talk about it.
I've always said that one of the main drivers of innovation is boredom. If you don't have the time and space to be bored then you're not tapping into your true creative potential :)
It's not lazy. Having downtime is a necessity for anyone to properly function. It's being proactive about your personal needs and mental health. "Laziness" and "quiet quitting" hold negative connotations. We simply act our wage.
I have a pretty laid back job, but full-time work is still exhausting. There's not enough time to keep a hobby, hang out with friends/family, relationships, cooking dinner, working on your artistic potential or even just time alone. No amount of time management will really make you feel fulfilled with your life. Same thing with wages - you can't budget your way out of poverty. We need a living wage. I'm glad labor unions are being rediscovered - especially here in the US. For decades there's been such a toxic mindset toward work and human dignity (i.e. "if you don't like it, get another job", "quit buying avocado toast", hustle culture, media calling people lazy or entitled, etc.) Seeing as how government has done fuck all for working class people, it's great to see workers finally standing up for better conditions again 😎
Right, I worked 90% this summer and still didn’t have the time and energy outside of work to have hobbies and friends and do the regular life maintenance stuff I have to do (cook, clean etc). Like I basically had to choose each week between either having a clean home and lunchboxes for the week, having a social life or working on my hobbies, I couldn’t have all three and having two out of three cut into my sleep. You can’t win. Full time work goes with the assumption that you have someone at home taking care of the domestic stuff.
Thanks, I finally feel like someone understands. I work full time remote job and still I feel exhausted after work, even when my family I live with does most of the house chores (and I still get shit for "doing nothing" of course). It's so disheartening to have 1-2 hours to choose between doing something around the house, taking a proper shower or a hobby so I won't go totally mental.
@@billbillerton6122 good for you, but you completely missed the point of this post. Nobody should have to spend the vast majority of their waking hours in life toiling away and not being able to have much free time or money to enjoy their lives. If you're OK grinding away for 80+ hours a week then that's your choice; don't expect the same from everyone else just because you're willing to do that. Hell, modern Americans actually work WAY more than medieval peasants. They at least had about half the year off.
@@spacemanrob96 to add to your excellent point, some people actually can't work physical labor jobs at all for various reasons, so you literally CAN'T expect that much out of everyone unless you expect everyone with a disability, or a pregnancy, or an injury to risk it all. Side point, what a CLOWN ASS TAKE to be like "I work more than twice the legal full time hours and am able to be exploited way harder by employer than you, so please spare me your talk of liberation from a system that is actively killing me 🙄🙄" like okay??? We were trying to help you, though 😭😭
As a Chinese person I didn't know 躺平（tangpin）was pupularised oustide China. I think a better word for describing what you promote is 反内卷（fan nei juan), which is also a popular internet term now, because "tang ping" has a more "do nothing" meaning and "fan nei juan" means rejecting or going against unnecessary competition, often employers make employees compete to make them do more work to "win" than they rightfully should. Chinese people fall into this trap easily because we're brought up to over achieve and chase excellence, it's so natural to have that mindset of studying when going into the workplace bot realizing it's different
Just earlier this year I left a job where I felt overworked and disrespected at. It was a nice little office job at a hospital. In the beginning, I was so excited to find somewhere that was career based and willing to take me in without a degree. As I went forward I had all these ideas and ambitions to improve my efficiency and help the very overworked nurses. Eventually, I found out the hard way no one could care less about improving the office or nursing workloads. The more I pushed for better the more hate and lowkey bullying I faced. Even standing up for myself in the face of being bullied was seen as a fault on my end. So, just before my first year anniversary with the company was celebrated, I quit. My ambitions, motivations, love for learning, etc. All were broken down until I became a yes ma'am office employee. Honestly, the experience at the end felt dehumanizing. And sadly had I known about 'quiet quitting' and had used that then, I don't think it would have changed a thing.
That is interesting. Im working in an office job too and Im trying not to become that yes ma’am. My experience in childcare retail tho… straight drained my empathy and made me those workers who are just there to do their job.
That is interesting. Im working in an office job too and Im trying not to become that yes ma’am employee. Are you working somewhere different now? I’m curious about what makes the difference. Why some people encourage our passion while others dont. My experience in childcare retail tho… straight drained my empathy and made me those workers who are just there to do their job. Discouraging to my passion.
!!! I've experienced this twice - unenthusiastic employers or unwilling to try new ideas led to more brow beating and eventually I bowed out. Both times. My current job was posed to be research heavy in social justice projects but all I do is busy work.
This was my experience too - as a fresh faced grad, I tried hard to improve my workplace, and not only did the employers not care, but they criticised me; it's awful how bad at management they are.
The same thing happened to me in a deli where new hires would quit after about 2 weeks; after being there for only 9 months I was the most senior employee including the manager because she was fired for putting expired food onto the floor
I was a barista before the pandemic. the coffee stand where I worked closed down for the pandemic and never opened again. I never succeeded to hold on to a job (all in the service industry) for more than three months or so. I just can't stop feeling like I'm being used by richer people than me. also, my depression reared its head in the pandemic (I'm not the only one, I know). Add to it low minimum pay and the depressing situation of the climate and politics, (I'm from Israel, It's an absolute sh!tshow), It's really hard to care about service jobs and many other overwork demanding jobs.
The antisemitism in these comment replies is just insane. Especially when OP did not even mention Judaism. Not that mentioning Judaism suddenly makes it ok to be antisemitic - that is never ok. I’m so sorry you’re going through a hard time, Tal. Hope things get better for you.
I work in a grocery store and the amount of old people who come through and go "thank you for working. Nobody wants to work anymore!" I just kinda stare at them when they say that
Not all of us spent lockdown relaxing while working at home and reflecting - I had to work all day every day in person, risking catching covid from people who refused to mask and vaccinate. I get kind of salty when people paint lockdown as if it were a break or mini vacation because it was not like that at all for me. I had to work twice as hard and in more dangerous conditions.
I agree with this. Lockdown surely makes us think, but it could be due to not doing anything (losing a job, harder to get a job, policy, etc) or, on the other hand, overworking.
Nothing pisses me off like hearing, "well now that everyone works from home, ____". WHO IS EVERYONE?? I don't work from home! Fuck tons of people do not work from home.
I never missed a single day of work during the "pandemic". I went to work every single day and no one wore a mask. Everything was fine. I had to physically go to work everyday.
I remember listening to a lot of ‘French people don’t work and get paid vacations’. I didn’t know what to make of it but in a way, I liked that there were very clear boundaries. As a Bengali, we get a lot of ‘all of you are lazy and sleeping all the time’ and I see the toxic work culture around me and it’s just awful. People are self-loathing and think it’s cool to work on vacation.
I believe here in India, due to large population, people are easy to hire and easy to replace as well. After all in our culture we are always raised to be competitors rather than skilled. We are also taught hard work is the way to go, if you are not overworking yourself you are just slacking off and its such a wrong and toxic way to put it
Born under the yoke of boomers, we experienced first hand the harsh reality of lack of meritocracy, inordinate amount of job requirements when employers required education AND experience for a starter job (that paid peanuts). All the while the prospect of pensions grew ever distant.
Hi hello, gen Z here, I'd like to remind the x'ers and older millenials that we are NOT superheroes, most of us are indeed children. We have like zero power, so if y'all could start like getting more invested in voting (especially in America) for policies that would help us and maybe participate in mutual aid if you can, that would be swell. I understand y'all are tired, we are tired too, but this is not the time to sit back and let the kids save the world.
I remember when I quit my job bc I was being underpaid and literally not being respected by my boss how employees from other departments acted. Some people were happy I stood up for myself and going somewhere better and others were calling me selfish because that meant my duties were going to other people in the department. It’s hard to say quiet quitting isn’t easy because some people cannot just quit their job to find another, but I think separating your personal life from work is very important. Thank you for this video!
I completely feel you on this. I'm working a shitty job right now. I told my co workers I decided to quit, mostly because I'm pursuing a new degree and because the job will be starting paying less these following months. Due to reason no2, and the fact that our workplace is an absolute dumpsterfire, many other co workers are also leaving soon and particularly one of them has been there the longest. I'm more than happy for her, she taught us a lot and she's one of the best co workers I've had. However, when I also decided to leave (I am a more recent employee), I felt as if it would be unfair for those who will be left behind, as well as for those who actually deserved the quitting "more than I, and/or others did". Why? Well it's because of our boss's horrible ethics and attitude, ofc. It just slips into everything we do and to an extent into our coworker relationships, too. This is absolutely toxic and although I empathize with the concerns of my peers who stay there out of necessity, I can't however share the responsibility of taking burdens off their backs when it was never my job to do so in the first place. It was my boss's and being as toxic as he is, he will always try to foster more piss and unecessary antagonism, even though in other regards we have all been getting along good so far. Honestly, I sometimes wish everyone left his hell of a job and did something better. He deserves to be bankrupt with all his stingy corrupt business practices.
@@nafsikaeuripi7 I feel this 100000% I stood up for myself and yesterday actually I brought up the issues with one the best supervisors I’ve had so helpfully, it makes changes with the other supervisors. But I feel bad leaving the other RAs like that-but at least I vocalized all of the issues that we all are dealing with. So we shall see. Did you end up leaving???
@@Ciciblue18 I'll be gone in a month from now. It's our agreement. And I'll never hear from them again. Jesus, enough.
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In Iceland basically every worker is a union member. Every once in a few years there are negotiations between unions, employers and government regarding wages, work times etc. It’s always a very turbulent period.
I don't make work the main priority in my life and saying this to some people might seem lazy but I've come to accept it's normal. Work should be a part of it, but never demanded as a big focus. Friends, family, enjoy hobbies and just being present should come above it. Of course, this thought on its own is an act of privilege and being aware of it in our environments is very important. Great video as always!
Sadly enough, quiet-quitting as a form of protest is not really possible in some developing countries because workers are really replaceable. Poverty and inflation make it so that employees have no choice but to settle for less than what they deserve. I believe that unions that can put pressure on policymakers can be more effective in these countries.
Totally agree that this is not a privileged people discussion. Everyone wants there to be some meaning in what they do and wants it to matter and feel valued. That's regardless if you're really rich or very poor.
I contend that even if you do work that you enjoy and think is important you still need to have some boundaries, because it's still work and it consuming one's entire being is going to play havoc on anybody's mental health eventually.
Moreover, this should be a workers' discussion in a global scale. You see, worker privilege is miles away from employer privilege. Think about all those six-figure jobs, companies pay these amounts because they can still profit and there is this innate psychological pressure of the hustle culture being the norm. Capitalism has this mentality of self-interest above anything else which is prevalent everywhere. Workers also help this, the high earning worker thinks less of the low earning worker without realizing they are both just tools for profit in their business, this is becoming less prevalent and i'm so glad.
I've quitted my job this morning as soon as I woke up bc i was being underapaid, treated poorly and they made me stay after hours without even asking or paying and as a student this was directly impacting in my final year (now years bc of all this) of academic journey. I'm glad I saw this video right now bc I feel a little less scared about my inmediate future, like a pat in the back. ♥
Bonjour Alice! I've been watching your videos for a while but this is the first time I wanted to comment on the content because it really changed my ideas. I first read about quite quitting a couple of weeks back in a news source. The way that they explained it was "you don't go above and beyond for your work". When I brought it up with colleagues at work it sparked a really interesting conversation around the terms necessity. For context, I work (as a MA student) in the public sector. For indeterminate public servants, they are part of a strong union, have health benefits, get overtime pay (compensated with vacations also) and a competitive pension. The union also protects employees from getting fired without first extensive justifications and interventions. When I brought up the idea of quite quitting a lot of my colleagues (who varied from 5-25 years of workplace experience) felt like the idea wasn't really necessary for them. Sometimes things are slow and work slows down. Sometimes things are busy and overtime is more common. They were comfortable with this rhythm and how they regulated their effort. This gave a sense that the role of personal choice was a big part of the idea of quite quitting. When you called out unionization as the eventual outcome of quite quitting, it completely changed the subtext. Quite quitting didn't really resonate because they already have the infrastructure in place to uphold its values. So it was up to them on how they applied it to their own work. I had never really understood the cultural impact the quiet but mighty union has on my place of work until now.
I wish I knew of jobs that fit for my mental health. I feel I cant hold onto a job without it draining me completely of my energy since I’m so bad at having boundaries and always try to go above and beyond.. :( I feel worthless at times because of it. and no one understands how jobs aren’t made for those who are mentally or chronically ill
What I’m scared of is that employers will exploit my hard working and ‘working at all costs’ nature. I’ve been burned out. I don’t want to end like the Girlboss in Holiday Movies who works to the bone and then misses enjoying themselves.
@@BB-te8tc I mean, it kind of sounds like it is OP’s fault. If you know you have an unhealthy tendency or habit, like not knowing when to disconnect, it is your responsibility to work on that and manage it for yourself. It’s not the boss’s job to set boundaries for you, it’s your job to set them for yourself. If you let yourself get walked all over, that is your fault. You have to care about yourself first.
To some extent, sure, but sometimes you're also given a completely unrealistic workload and are concerned that complaining about it will result in termination.
@@BB-te8tc sure, but OP specifically said they’re worried that someone will take advantage of their specific characteristics, which is something that’s in their control. If you set boundaries and they are forcibly ignored, or if you are put in a position where you’re powerless to set boundaries, that’s not something that’s in your control. But if you’re fully aware of a trait you have and choose to be anxious about someone taking advantage of that trait, instead of working on yourself so that you can feel secure knowing that you can and will stand up for yourself, that’s on you.
@@bxnny0374 That's so individualistic of you to say that. Yes, this potential weakness is indeed theirs, and not their bosses'. But wouldn't it be nicer if we lived in a society in which we look out for each other? I know the example of the airplane and the oxygen mask thingies, and that you should put it on your face first. But what if you know all that, but just couldn't help yourself, tried to help others before taking care of yourself, and you fainted? I wouldn't be standing over your body going: "wellp, irresponsible human adult; not my responsibility." In the same vein, your boss would be an asshole if they relinquish themselves from all responsibility of their employees' well-being and exploit them without a second thought. In fact, ought the boss not to make sure their people are doing well? Unless you think being a decent boss is really all about ordering people around, I guess
Actually, in Russia we have a real union of delivery workers called "The courier" and the leader of the union is currently under custody, because he was able to organise a resistance to unfair wages, long working hours, harsh work conditions etc., all around the country! He is my friend, his name is Kirill Ukraintsev, if you're interested.
I must say that it's kind of ironic that the last name of the person who tried to organise the resistance movement in russia is roughly translated as "Ukrainian". Don't mind me, this is just a random linguo-political joke on the current russian protest movement.
@@nadias6435 Idk, my guess is that his ancestors might have been sent to russian territories and then, when they were passportized, their origin might have been kept somehow in this surname. But overall, yes, this last name is not of an Ukrainian origin, but the irony of the situation is still amusing.
I had started to let go of anti-work mentality because I remembered that Chinese citizens are slaving away for 12 hours to make our clothing…. I started to think it was unfair of Americans to decide that we shouldn’t work, especially knowing that everyone else has to. We have incredible life conditions in comparison, too. But this video reminded me that there’s a way to continue working while having limitations and appropriate support / compensation. I hope that we will continue to unionize to protect ourselves in the process of change. Thank you so much for sharing all of your points in this video!
I quiet quit. The owner of my company was an absolute narcissist. Thought it was his place to tell us all that the company “wasn’t a charity”-after an employee asked him how he’d retain employees. Eventually, I put in my notice, only to be terminated thereafter.
Honestly, working conditions these days feel impossible to overcome. In my most recent job, as a waitress, my coworkers and I would talk about what we could do to get better treatment, better pay, better hours, but most of them seem scared to do anything. I was one of the younger employees there, but every time I mentioned unionizing, or simply going against what the managers would force on us with no previous contractual obligation, I felt like I was doing something. I felt like maybe if we worked together, we could really come out better. But, in the end, I couldn't really take the hours, and I quit. My employers asked what they could do to keep me on the team, that I was a valuable part of the restaurant and that they needed someone like me. I said, quite plainly, "There would honestly need to be a whole change in your system." The general manager asked me "Like, what?", with a smug grin. And I said that, for starters, they would have to start paying us servers our extra hours (cause they don't do that there). They said they would pay mine. I hate the greed that some people have, that most people in power have. Greed, like dragons laying on their pile of gold with no thought of sharing a single coin.
This reminds me of work-to-rule, which is a kind of strike where you follow your job instruction very strictly and formally which usually leads to said work stopping or slowing down. In Russian it's called "an Italian strike" for some reasons, I don't know why. Anyways, some Wikipedia editors suggested merging the work-to-rule article with the quiet quitting article, so that's saying something.
I would recommend everybody in a situation where they can join a union to just join it. It is very easy and costs like 1 percent. It is kinda like life insureance but for your job.
I hadn't heard of "quiet quitting" before - and yeah, it sounds like a misnomer, as you're not quitting your job, you're setting boundaries, and respecting boundaries that already exist. I found your explanation of individualized strikes brilliant. Of course many workers have thought that is their only option when they've been taught nothing but neoliberalism all their lives. I've had a lot of jobs where there was a union, but it didn't include office staff or temporary staff, who are also usually different in gender, race, and other marginalized identities than the predominantly male union members working manufacturing, construction, law enforcement, etc. Also, education and training: I was told one summer that I had to take the $8 office temp job instead of $16 making garbage cans because I had special training in office work. 🤬 Back then I was able bodied enough to be on my feet and do manual labor, but now I have no savings and have been too ill and disabled to work for six months.
I remember saying that if a family is fascist dictatorship, how do we expect democracy in society? Children are infantilised, abused and are robbed of agency. The socialisation process hardly talks about unions and even if it does, it’s in a derogatory way.
Have you ever met a toddler? They're not infantilised, they're literally less psychologically developed than adults. They are entirely dependent on other beings (usually their family) to feed, clothe and bathe them. They are unable to detect danger lest wipe their own bum. And for a lot of people family is crucial to one's identity and one's support network, let alone being an exchange of love and purpose that is often existential in its significance. I really don't understand peoples' hatred of family.
@@ocarter3560 The concept of the traditional nuclear family has been weaponised by the right, and this is bound to lead to pushback. It's not hate towards families, it's hate towards oppression.
@@ocarter3560 The problem is when toddlers grow older and do not receive guidance toward meaningful skills and activities (both physical and social). In modern society, childhood development has been usurped by entertainment and consumption, if not outright abuse and neglect from overwhelmed parents. This results in more selfish, stunted, disempowered, isolated individuals, who fall back on infantile behaviors because those are the only ones they ever learned. Check out the book "Hunt, Gather, Parent" to learn more about healthy family traditions across the world.
10:35 It’s funny how I get a lot of ‘How are you here all the time? Don’t you work?’. I mean, how do I tell them I can work without sacrificing my personal life? A life without leisure (of any kind, doesn’t have to be artsy and ‘creative’) is no life at all.
Poignant and relevant. For quite a long time folks in the services sector felt the social and cultural protection of belonging to the "white collar" world which I think played a major role in the lack of unionization efforts. The new generation, one in debt for degrees we were told we had to get to obtain these jobs, seems to be over the BS. New research has come out showing that our healthcare, tied to our employers, is dwindling, and that even our "cushy" office jobs are killing us from stress. These are not the service jobs of our parents, and the shine is starting to wear off as young Millenials and GenZ face the realities of workplace toxicity and the sacrifice of human health for quarterly earnings. The old gaurd is trying to continue tying productivity to hours worked (long hours, that is), but the data says something different. As we all become more educated and aware of the dangers and outright stupidity of applying industrial era frameworks to modern work it's hard to convince us to do otherwise, and much more likely that we will collectively pushback. I say that, but I see the hustle culture mentality alive and well in vc-bro start-ups and tech in general. Shifts in the energy at Apple have been an interesting indicator, but I'm still watching and hoping!
I real quit my job in the fashion industry last month and have started another, much easier job that pays the same and allows me the time and mental capacity to pursue my passions.
The quiet-quitting trend honestly surprised me. As someone who is on the verge of entering the "real job market", if there is something I learnt from part-time jobs is exactly that - work your wage. It is not my company, I won't get the benefits, I do exactly as I have in the contract, always log in the exact hours I work, don't do (almost) any job related stuff outside of it (except for sometimes helping out coworkers by answering an urgent question, but not directly working; it helped that a lot of my jobs were site-specific, you cannot do much barista work from home). It just seems normal to me. If the neoliberal agenda is that life is a contract, then it has to live up to it - a job is nothing more than a contract, someone is hiring my work. They better define exactly what the company wants from me and pay exactly for that - they wouldn't do anything less for someone contracting them. If anything, it is more than consistent with the ideology and I don't understand why anyone should do differently.
My roommate just told me that this is essentially just "work-to-rule" under a different name. They don't like "quiet-quitting" as much because the name often makes people think that you are immoral for not just actually quitting. I like "work-to-rule" better myself. There are differences tho. It seems like collective vs individual. Quiet quitting is about taking back your life, whereas work-to-rule is much more focused on intentionally slowing down the business (by following EVERY protocol, which are almost always ignored at large). so they arent exactly interchangeable but... theyre really similar
Due to paying my own expenses and student debt, I broke down crying last week when I was finally able to not call myself lazy. To admit to myself that working full time and going to school/two jobs during breaks for the last 5 years (65-70 hrs of work a week) is too much for me mentally and physically, and that when I enjoy life outside of my 40 Hr a week internship, I am not being selfish. The US education system is all kinds of messed up, but I am looking at the future with more positivity and pride than when I was in the midst of my lowest points in life so far.
Thanks for the thoughts. Here is one aspect of religion that might be apreciated: Quality free time, used for things other than work.(such as studying, and debating) Conveniently timed at crop cycles, so not to disturb the harvest too much. (except for Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday depending on your faith) The question here is: Is religion really worth it? Religion does demand sacrificing a lot of one's individuality and most of one's rights after all.
Omg, I've just been watching alot of content on quiet quitting recently. And it's awesome that you made a vid about it. Your perspectives are always the best!
Quiet-quitting is such a weird concept to me because do businesses really believe that people’s motives and purpose in life is to… [insert job occupation]? It’s delusional. If they’re not wealthy, they’re working, and if they’re working, they’re doing so for the MONEY and lifestyle it can afford them. If it CANNOT afford them the lifestyle they want, let alone NEED, then why would they put their job above their life…? The compensation doesn’t reflect the sacrifice. It’s common sense…but arrogance and ego is making this concept seem shocking. It’s a shame.
Hey, great video! Just wanted to say that I've always really enjoyed your videos, and these last couple of months the quality has improved even more! Your effort really shows, and we really appreciate it :) Cheers!
I worked at a shitty, miserable company that thrives on abusing the bottom of the ladder, and I risked everything by quiet quitting. I refused overtime, didn’t work harder than what I was working and very bluntly reminded my superiors that I don’t get paid to do some of the tasks they delegated to me, but I took the time to find a new job as well.
Makes me realise how fortunate I am with my employer, the standard of quiet quitters is the standard at my office (I'm in an industry where the workers have the power of employers). Some people decide to work overtime but they're always compensated accordingly and its not compulsory or expected.
I didn't know until I saw this video that "doing your job without going above" has a phrase. Back when in college, I used to picturing my self working full-time and have a side job (maybe as a writer or graphic design which I enjoy rather than my full time job). But now, me working a full-time as an accountant and seeing this movement... i want it and i need my life back. The positive way about this trend that I wish I have more time to enjoy my life with my family, my friend and working on my hobbies. But I don't think this trend would make sense with the people that don't have again, super okay support system (which can come from individual or from the company, I mean if the company's system is still under developing you can't join this trend tho). I'm thinking about resign from my full-time job but looking at recent conditions.. nah, I don't know what to do except stay healthy and always and always ensuring my self that I can do this job :")
After 25yrs as a nurse working in the nhs, when they then threatened my job just because I valued bodily autonomy that was the final straw for me. They can’t threaten to sack me and then expect me to just forget it and go above and beyond. Nope I now do my hours and what I have to do, no more extra from me anymore, they lost that right with how they threatened my livelihood when I’d always gone above and beyond for them before. If I could afford to I’d not just quiet quit I’d tell them to stick it.
There’s talk of influencers being able to join SAG-AFTRA in the US. Haven’t really been keeping up with where that’s at but might be worth looking into.
If you could get a group of the top 50 or so youtubers to get together and threaten a strike, you might be able to get somewhere. Would be interesting to see what large channels could do. Maybe all of them could post a short video explaining the strike and its terms on their channels
it's not "quiet quitting", it's really more ACTING YOUR WAGE! The corpos could care less about whether we live or die, just as long as the money keeps coming in. Workers of the world unite, an injury to one is a injury to all.
I've been forced to "quiet quit" Poor person's version. I lost my business in the pandemic. I was unemployed for a long time. Homeless for a while because I couldn't pay the rent so subleased my apartment and stayed at friends, hotels, and at job sites when I had could. I did many different things. I built gardens, tiny house villages, handed out food at food banks and many other types of work. I work now when I want and can't see getting a static job again. This has led to becoming very fed up with my country and deciding to move to SE Asia with my partner and start a business there. I've been studying other countries and for my money the USA is the last place you want to be if you are poor. Oh and I'm 60 so staying in the USA and hustling for work won't be ok for me for much longer. And the Social Security we get here is so poor that I would be homeless if I retired and stayed here. Yes General Strike! I've been dreaming of it since summer of 2020!
This is one of the channels that gave me the courage to start my TH-cam channel 8 months ago about self development. Now I have 973 subs and > 800 hours of watch time. I know it’s not comparable with others but I’m still proud I started because I’ve been learning so many lessons that I could haven’t learned without getting started in the 1st place.
It's shocking how some, otherwise switched on and intelligent older people (I mean boomers), ridicule quiet quitting. Especially those on tv and in entertainment.
I think most people would agree from the US, having the same standard as France of a 35 hour work week and 5 weeks of paid vacation sounds like a dream. If jobs offered these benefits, employee retention would be greatly increased, and job satisfaction as well. After 5 years or less of 2 weeks off a year, I feel like quitting sometimes just to take time off and enjoy life.
I don't know how the US works but Europeans also earn significantly less in many jobs. Keep that in mind. Maybe you could arange something where you get more vacation but get paid less.
There's actually a funny thing about unions in the Netherlands. Because most of them are shrinking, which is partially also because of distrust and there's a stigma on being a member. Like with the trainstrikes we had a little while ago, the trainworkers actually persisted their strikes because they weren't happy with the agreement that was made through the union (from what I read at least). And they actually persisted with the strike despite the union, the company and the people (our country relies quite a lot on trains) begging them to stop. It persisted quite a while up until the company finally gave in. But the funny thing is, in my own sector, that of education, joining a union is actually encouraged. I remember my university teachers inviting them over to talk about the union, most of my collegues are members and the board actively encourages us to become members. We can even send invoices for the membership fee to the school. I haven't really figured out yet why that specific union is so populair, but I think it strange to see the difference with other unions.
Also, I feel like, if your schedule has sucked for a while, it's totally fine to call in sick for a few days. Enjoy life. Completely without bad conscience. I do it all the time. Another great "modern union" way to get through the shitty working life.
Strikes function by being coordinated in their initiation, conclusion, and the terms for conclusion. Quiet quitting, anti-work, the Great Resignation, they're all labor actions - I'll grant that much and I don't want to downplay or denigrate them - but individually and without coordination they can't do what strikes, the threat of strikes, and union negotiators can.
Quiet quitting. Or as I call it: doing the fucking job. I don't know when this gross practice this started where you're expected to work 80hrs a week and (in my case) never receive a raise no matter how well you perform the job, but ppl are DONE with that nonsense.
Unions here not only protected workers and fought for their rights, my grandma told me they also rented trains to travel to the beach on general strikes or did multitudinary activities. But back then half a million people where affiliated...
So this is the moviment that takes every episode from The Office and rebrand as something new? Love it! Is better live in an eternal episode of The Office than one from Severance.
I'm not much of an enthousiast when it comes to work and go as a result many months or over a year without job (yes priviledged) but it's not trully so that I don't want to work, I just feel petrified by the fact that I'm bound to a contract and feel like I'm limited and can't live on impuls, which can be freeing if you can let it happen once in a while, rather than only and just self-control, which is ofcource also important to actually get things done. A bit of both seem to be the best fix for a healthy life. But to be honest, I don't know hjow a world would function without preset contracts of what is expected of you. It would be chaos, nothing would be reliable. You'd probably have to start expecting for things to always be done later than you'd actually like when buying a product or service. Or maybe that's not as bad as it sounds? As long as things get done when needed most. Probably will take time to adapt though.
I prefer using the word "vulnerabilities" rather than privilege in these conversations. Not because privilege is a bad word, but because I think our use of the word is something that is static. My white privilege doesn't go away. But vulnerabilities ebb and flow. A construction worker (here, where I am) say, someone who works installing roofs, what we call a "roofer" and they make MONEY, a lot of money really considering they don't have university educations and can start making pretty good money even in an apprenticeship. They also have really good unions (here) and can walk off a jobs jobsite super easily and since they mostly deal with private contractors they will get what they want quickly. They are organised and savvy and won't be taken advantage of. In this manner they don't NEED to quiet quit, their conditions are secure and even though the hours they work are shit (fuck getting up at 4am thanks) they are not going to be asked to do excessive overtime because they have to be paid for it, they need good lighting etc etc. Are they privileged? Well no, not in my book. Most of these very physical jobs (here) are extremely demanding and prone to injury. If you hurt yourself on the job, especially if you are at fault for lifting something wrong or making a mistake, you could lose your ability to make money doing the one thing you know. There is little room to just move to another area in the same field, it does not really work like that. And even if you don't hurt yourself you cannot work your body for that long that hard. You cannot keep working at the same pace into your 60s or 70s. Some people might only get into their 40s or 50s before they physically cannot keep up with the job. So saving, being smart with your money and planning for your retirement is essential because (here) the money the government gives retirees won't even keep them above the poverty line. I don't think quiet quitting is a privilege so much as it tells you things about office work. When I got my first job it was in a supermarket and I worked SO hard, I even worked overtime. I was told to stop because if I clock off I am off and there could be insurance issues if I hurt myself while working off the clock. So I worked hard, yes, on my feet and it was thankless and I hated every minute. But I would rarely work unpaid work (except for my lunch breaks but I was young). But when I got my first office job? Oof, so much overtime. And then I had to travel for work, and while there I was expected to socialise even when I didn't feel like it, even though I had nothing in common with anyone because I was a 19 year old girl who was a glorified receptionist. After my boss screaming at me and calling me names in a hotel because I said I would be a few minutes late to dinner I quiet quit. The term had not even been invented then, but I did it. On the way back on the plane he snored the whole time and I got no sleep and he expected me in the office at 9am. Even though we arrived at the local airport at 6am and I had no sleep. I was truly done. I took the only power I had, because I certainly didn't have the power to take on my abusive boss and I had no idea what I was worth, but I knew I was unmotivated to keep whipping myself. I knew that I legally couldn't be asked to work that close to when I had had last worked. So I took the time off to sleep. I never worked overtime after that. I did my job as well as I could in the hours i could and I stopped volunteering. I did what I was paid for. No more or less. This never felt like a privilege. It felt like necessary care to reserve some of my own will. I understand that some people get upset that my generation and younger sometimes have the option to work from home and they don't because they are literally required to be at their jobs. I understand resentment. But I think it is worth remembering that your resentment is misdirected if you aim it at those who are doing the best for themselves in the only way they know how. If people are making you feel resentful of the time you spend at work...then it sounds like the real issue are the people you work for and that is where you should direct it. Other people just trying to find a balance they want in life are not your enemy. Some of them will be the first to cheer for you and align with you when you go on strike. In the words of Sinead O'Connor: fight the real war.
It’s not illegal here to unionize (in Turkiye) but most of the compaines don’t allow their workers to join one. It’s common to see in contracts that joining a union is banned and person who is known to be in one will be sacked without a warning.
I am fine with unions as long as barriers to entry are kept to a minimum. The problem is that in practice, unions sometimes protect people who are already established within an industry at the expense of people trying to get into it for the first time, by making it impossible to make a living in that industry without union membership while also making it very difficult and time consuming (sometimes years) to get membership. This is true especially in creative industries.
I am maybe undergoing my own quiet quitting as a freelance translator with only one huge corporate client. I've been trying to informally unionize my fellow external collaborators with little results, working remote by default has this one downside. My company has been raising individual fees (THEY provide US our fees, instead of the other way around) based on how much you're able to work and sacrifice your time for years without/hiding any mental or physical issues. Unfortunately I suffered from a huge burnout right after the spring 2020 lockdown, caused by the appalling workload they gave us while we were stuck at home ("it's not like you have anything else to do, right?"), which meant I worked 10-14 hours a day, weekends included, for 3 months. Of course my mental health plummeted and I had to take a forced break in 2021, but I've been recently told that this is why I don't deserve any raise for the next 2 years, maybe they'll consider it if I prove to be "stronger" (i.e.: go back to the lockdown regimen). I have also been compelled to take over some unpaid editing work, which isn't in my contract and it was literally the editor's job, not mine, as a punishment. I don't think I'll give them my time for much longer.
I agree that the people who find themselves in this kind of problems are indeed privileged by the standards of many, many people. But that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t bring change worldwide after a while by setting examples of healthy boundaries for the work-life balance. This could mean actual positive change starting with how we raise our children and wether we feel like having them which will make for growing, prosperous societies and freer and happier individuals.
I’ve been quiet quitting for a while at my job now. My type of job is the one that lets you take work home, and i decided i would stop doing that. As soon as i get home, be it noon or 4 pm, i just stop with my job and resume the next day. I get paid well, better than at an older job and it’s a good salary for my city, but i refuse to burn myself out for my job. So far, they haven’t complained about my performance yet, so it’s fine. I give 50% of what i could give and am happy about it.
I always adpired to that. 40h work week focused effort, in emergency cases more, but otherwise I come in or turn in work until break then the rest and then I am done. I want to work. It's very important to me. But like as one aspect of my live. Not my live
before convincing ppl they have to unionize, we have to convince they're first of all workers (since some people say working class does't exist anymore)
Drawing the link between "quiet quitting" (an awful, meme-y and not particularly accurate term, in my opinion) and striking/industrial action is excellent. I would say that it's more properly a backlash to inappropriate employer creep, the wielding of power to coerce workers to act beyond their role or their paid hours. Alice has correctly pointed out that weak labour laws are responsible for the conditions which are now being resisted under the guise of "quiet quitting" (mainly because without legitimate legal avenues, a more individual and subversive approach is necessary). It is also part of a broad redefinition of the role of work in modern society. It's arguably the culmination of a discussion that was started at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, and which finally may be satisfactorily answered for the future of work, and workers.
Comrade Alice PREACH, I completely agree, the people in the west NEED to unionize and some people on the right also agree, the issue is neoliberalism as a system is inherently anti-union. The only way to end union busting is to get many people into unions and make hiring scabs impossible, but that is impossible due to union busting. Damn, this is quite the vicious cycle lol
Quiet quitting has been a part of work culture for a long time, it's just now we have a name for it. I think if you can, it's healthy to set boundaries between what you do to pay the bills and what you enjoy doing with the rest of your life. Side note, it was great to see the mention of what's happening in the UK right now, from my perspective the whole of our summer up until this weekend has felt like 1910 rather than 2022, a new Prime Minister elected by only 200,000 people (Conservative party members) and then our Queen dies just after the PM is sworn in pushing the nation into 10 days of mourning - it has been a strange few weeks...
It's crazy to me that we live in a world where just doing your job without going above and beyond is seen as equivalent to quitting.
Yea I was literally cringing when I read the first article about it.
I think the term quiet quitting means quitting going above and beyond, not actually quitting your job. But i also think its quite misleading.
I literally thought quiet quitting meant do the bare minimum so less than even required as much as you can get away with. I know people who are like that. So if quiet quitting is just doing your job that is required of you, I don't see how that is a movement that really is all you were ever supposed to do.
Your comrade Iljič Uljanov would certanly agree.
Yeah, going above and beyond your job is just expected by the company you work for.
The fact that it took a life-threatening pandemic to tell us how shockingly toxic workplaces are is disturbing. We should’ve figured out better work environments by now.
we have
the rich said we can't have nice things
What is comfortable to one person is toxic to another.
Only a sick society can tolerate this insanity dystopia
People are terrified of going against the norm. Covid was a blessing just as much as it was a curse in the long run when it comes to reflecting and questioning things.
It didn’t. People have known the years but haven’t had the ability to do anything.
I saw an article on “quiet-firing” which unlike how quiet quitting is simply establishing boundaries, Quiet-firing is being passive aggressive and acting hostile in a way that actively violates US labor laws. It’s so interesting how simply doing only the work you are paid for is being met with active hostility.
I'm with the Chinese youth on this one: "Let it rot." The owners of my company are off partying in their McMansion, going on vacation every 2 months, etc, and yet while I'm slaving away making them that money, even bringing in record profits, I still get paid the exact same as before, which is already pathetically low. I hope it rots
Sounds like you need to quit ❤
Let it rot
At my very first job, I worked at this golf store, which meant tons and tons of rich people- people with disposable income to buy thousands and thousands of dollars worth of golf clubs, clothes, shoes, other equipment, and wildly expensive maintenance on that equipment as well.
We made profits at that store, and I personally sold more glove protection plans than anyone else... but I got exactly one bonus and got paid $10.50/hr to be a salesman, a cashier, a cleaner during closing hours, to stock shelves, to be a greeter, to answer the phone and schedule appointments, to direct people to the store location, to straight up do PAPERWORK sometimes, all at once.
I endured workplace sexism, sexual harassment from customers who PHYSICALLY TOUCHED ME FROM ACROSS THE COUNTER, I endured extremely short lunches while my boss took long and luxurious ones, I endured splitting headaches by taking extra strength Tylenol twice a day every single day, I endured entitled customers asking for discounts, I endured my entitled bosses talking down to me, and my coworkers invalidating my safety concerns and genuine fears.
I was being expected to be pleasant and helpful the entire time while my safety and wellbeing was secondary to the interests of my direct store manager.
I was also a 17 year old fresh out of high school trying to help my single mother pay for our rent.
Let it rot.
Company: “Can you work more and get paid less?”
Me: “No.”
Company: “Lazy Quiet Quitter!!”
Yeah, that's basically it👌
bingo
I actually love the fact that people are letting companies know that they have a life outside work and that the company doesn’t own the workers. We needed a change.
I agree.
My husband works in govt and while there is a ton of bad employee habits to shuffle through like really bad how are they even getting these great jobs kinda bad employees; there are also several very good employees that we have deep discussions on about why he believes it’s his problem if his employees “use and burn” their paid time off instead of saving it up for emergencies like he always has.
I’m like, it’s not a problem if they’re doing a great job. It’s not an issue if the job is getting done without any negative impact on the rest of the employees when they ask for time off. Good for them wanting to use their own earned time off to take their time off for whatever the hell they want to. Leave it alone.
Also the “ yes such and such is great at their job but that’s all they are willing to do, they’re a one trick pony” me… what’s the one trick department? Him “ accounting and finance”
Me…why the hell do you want them to ever waste that importance on what? Tool room? Inventory? Shut the f up it’s the most important area and you should be thrilled they’re so focused on being the best at that one very important job.
Him..well it won’t get them a promotion compared to a “ team player”
I love him, he’s retiring soon. But other than judgy expectations he’d never tell anyone he’s holding over them he’s a good guy to work for and would go to the end of the earth for his staff.
But they seriously look at how much time an employee saves vs uses when they’re up for promotions and bonuses. It’s absolutely insane!
My take is that it’s like punishing an employee for earning the time they’re using to do the things that make them happy to keep coming to work. Some take long weekends with families, some use it to chuck out early when they’re work is completed to support their kids school activities, some just want to go home and be home. Good on them.
I'm reminded of that one story: a guy leaves his office and sees his boss getting into a luxury car. The guy says "Wow, I wish I could afford a car like that." The boss says "Well, if you work really hard, put in extra hours, and make sacrifices, then next year I can buy another one."
My friend in the Netherlands works for a multinational company. She ended up working all day, sometimes even until 2 in the morning the following day, WITHOUT getting paid for the overtime. The company refused to hire another person and then she got very sick because of burnout. In the first weeks her boss yelled at her to get back to work and then she went to a doctor hired by the company, who confirmed her diagnosis. After that, they had to give her medical leave with a full salary. She's been on medical leave for 6 months now, her health got better and when she goes back to work they have to let her work part time for a few months. She'll never endanger her health for a company again.
This sounds familiar. Is your friend a teacher? This is our reality on a daily basis
If I may ask what's the name of that company?
😂. 😅
Laziness is the mother of innovation. Intelligent lazy people invent new easier ways to do things so that they don't have to work so hard. "Work smarter, not harder" is a direct encouragement of laziness.
Laziness is a virtue, but it's hard to see it that way with the way some people talk about it.
I've always said that one of the main drivers of innovation is boredom. If you don't have the time and space to be bored then you're not tapping into your true creative potential :)
I am a patent attorney and could not agree more
Yep, work smart is necessary
No, laziness isnt a virtue. But the creativity and ingenuity it begets are.
@@mack7207 laziness is saving resources.
It's not lazy. Having downtime is a necessity for anyone to properly function. It's being proactive about your personal needs and mental health. "Laziness" and "quiet quitting" hold negative connotations. We simply act our wage.
I have a pretty laid back job, but full-time work is still exhausting. There's not enough time to keep a hobby, hang out with friends/family, relationships, cooking dinner, working on your artistic potential or even just time alone. No amount of time management will really make you feel fulfilled with your life. Same thing with wages - you can't budget your way out of poverty. We need a living wage. I'm glad labor unions are being rediscovered - especially here in the US. For decades there's been such a toxic mindset toward work and human dignity (i.e. "if you don't like it, get another job", "quit buying avocado toast", hustle culture, media calling people lazy or entitled, etc.) Seeing as how government has done fuck all for working class people, it's great to see workers finally standing up for better conditions again 😎
Right, I worked 90% this summer and still didn’t have the time and energy outside of work to have hobbies and friends and do the regular life maintenance stuff I have to do (cook, clean etc). Like I basically had to choose each week between either having a clean home and lunchboxes for the week, having a social life or working on my hobbies, I couldn’t have all three and having two out of three cut into my sleep. You can’t win. Full time work goes with the assumption that you have someone at home taking care of the domestic stuff.
Thanks, I finally feel like someone understands. I work full time remote job and still I feel exhausted after work, even when my family I live with does most of the house chores (and I still get shit for "doing nothing" of course). It's so disheartening to have 1-2 hours to choose between doing something around the house, taking a proper shower or a hobby so I won't go totally mental.
Dude I work 84 hours a week, physical labor, spare me.
@@billbillerton6122 good for you, but you completely missed the point of this post. Nobody should have to spend the vast majority of their waking hours in life toiling away and not being able to have much free time or money to enjoy their lives. If you're OK grinding away for 80+ hours a week then that's your choice; don't expect the same from everyone else just because you're willing to do that. Hell, modern Americans actually work WAY more than medieval peasants. They at least had about half the year off.
@@spacemanrob96 to add to your excellent point, some people actually can't work physical labor jobs at all for various reasons, so you literally CAN'T expect that much out of everyone unless you expect everyone with a disability, or a pregnancy, or an injury to risk it all.
Side point, what a CLOWN ASS TAKE to be like "I work more than twice the legal full time hours and am able to be exploited way harder by employer than you, so please spare me your talk of liberation from a system that is actively killing me 🙄🙄" like okay??? We were trying to help you, though 😭😭
As a Chinese person I didn't know 躺平（tangpin）was pupularised oustide China.
I think a better word for describing what you promote is 反内卷（fan nei juan), which is also a popular internet term now, because "tang ping" has a more "do nothing" meaning and "fan nei juan" means rejecting or going against unnecessary competition, often employers make employees compete to make them do more work to "win" than they rightfully should.
Chinese people fall into this trap easily because we're brought up to over achieve and chase excellence, it's so natural to have that mindset of studying when going into the workplace bot realizing it's different
Just earlier this year I left a job where I felt overworked and disrespected at. It was a nice little office job at a hospital. In the beginning, I was so excited to find somewhere that was career based and willing to take me in without a degree. As I went forward I had all these ideas and ambitions to improve my efficiency and help the very overworked nurses. Eventually, I found out the hard way no one could care less about improving the office or nursing workloads. The more I pushed for better the more hate and lowkey bullying I faced. Even standing up for myself in the face of being bullied was seen as a fault on my end.
So, just before my first year anniversary with the company was celebrated, I quit.
My ambitions, motivations, love for learning, etc. All were broken down until I became a yes ma'am office employee. Honestly, the experience at the end felt dehumanizing.
And sadly had I known about 'quiet quitting' and had used that then, I don't think it would have changed a thing.
That is interesting. Im working in an office job too and Im trying not to become that yes ma’am. My experience in childcare retail tho… straight drained my empathy and made me those workers who are just there to do their job.
That is interesting. Im working in an office job too and Im trying not to become that yes ma’am employee. Are you working somewhere different now? I’m curious about what makes the difference. Why some people encourage our passion while others dont. My experience in childcare retail tho… straight drained my empathy and made me those workers who are just there to do their job. Discouraging to my passion.
!!! I've experienced this twice - unenthusiastic employers or unwilling to try new ideas led to more brow beating and eventually I bowed out. Both times. My current job was posed to be research heavy in social justice projects but all I do is busy work.
This was my experience too - as a fresh faced grad, I tried hard to improve my workplace, and not only did the employers not care, but they criticised me; it's awful how bad at management they are.
The same thing happened to me in a deli where new hires would quit after about 2 weeks; after being there for only 9 months I was the most senior employee including the manager because she was fired for putting expired food onto the floor
I was a barista before the pandemic. the coffee stand where I worked closed down for the pandemic and never opened again. I never succeeded to hold on to a job (all in the service industry) for more than three months or so. I just can't stop feeling like I'm being used by richer people than me. also, my depression reared its head in the pandemic (I'm not the only one, I know). Add to it low minimum pay and the depressing situation of the climate and politics, (I'm from Israel, It's an absolute sh!tshow), It's really hard to care about service jobs and many other overwork demanding jobs.
Just work for your families bank
*palestine
The antisemitism in these comment replies is just insane. Especially when OP did not even mention Judaism. Not that mentioning Judaism suddenly makes it ok to be antisemitic - that is never ok.
I’m so sorry you’re going through a hard time, Tal. Hope things get better for you.
@@nene5417 cope
@@bxnny0374 It's not "antisemitism" to even mention Palestine - which existed before Israel was established on Palestinian land in 1948.
I work in a grocery store and the amount of old people who come through and go "thank you for working. Nobody wants to work anymore!"
I just kinda stare at them when they say that
They’re saying you’re a nobody, to your face. Rude ass boomers
Boomers have and always will be out of touch with reality. They are also the generation most likely to think exactly what the news media tells them
I’d say, “No corporation wants to reward workers with opportunities to better their lives anymore.”
Not all of us spent lockdown relaxing while working at home and reflecting - I had to work all day every day in person, risking catching covid from people who refused to mask and vaccinate. I get kind of salty when people paint lockdown as if it were a break or mini vacation because it was not like that at all for me. I had to work twice as hard and in more dangerous conditions.
I agree with this. Lockdown surely makes us think, but it could be due to not doing anything (losing a job, harder to get a job, policy, etc) or, on the other hand, overworking.
Nothing pisses me off like hearing, "well now that everyone works from home, ____". WHO IS EVERYONE?? I don't work from home! Fuck tons of people do not work from home.
Ohhh. Thanks to who? Oh yes the chinese communist s party s coverup of this disease for 7 weeks before it even came out on the world.
It wasn't dangerous, get over yourself. Do you think most people wanted to be forced to be essentially unemployed?
I never missed a single day of work during the "pandemic". I went to work every single day and no one wore a mask. Everything was fine. I had to physically go to work everyday.
I remember listening to a lot of ‘French people don’t work and get paid vacations’. I didn’t know what to make of it but in a way, I liked that there were very clear boundaries.
As a Bengali, we get a lot of ‘all of you are lazy and sleeping all the time’ and I see the toxic work culture around me and it’s just awful. People are self-loathing and think it’s cool to work on vacation.
I believe here in India, due to large population, people are easy to hire and easy to replace as well. After all in our culture we are always raised to be competitors rather than skilled. We are also taught hard work is the way to go, if you are not overworking yourself you are just slacking off and its such a wrong and toxic way to put it
But ironically, Bengalis are the most successful ethnic community when it comes to running and establishing businesses in East India.
Being Generation X, we were almost defeated before we began, I'm happy to see Gen Y and Z fighting 'the man'...
Born under the yoke of boomers, we experienced first hand the harsh reality of lack of meritocracy, inordinate amount of job requirements when employers required education AND experience for a starter job (that paid peanuts). All the while the prospect of pensions grew ever distant.
We were brought up on dystopian YA stories of kids overthrowing corrupt governments! Bless you Suzanne Collins 💖
Hi hello, gen Z here, I'd like to remind the x'ers and older millenials that we are NOT superheroes, most of us are indeed children. We have like zero power, so if y'all could start like getting more invested in voting (especially in America) for policies that would help us and maybe participate in mutual aid if you can, that would be swell. I understand y'all are tired, we are tired too, but this is not the time to sit back and let the kids save the world.
@@ohshiditsgriff2793 point taken!
@@ohshiditsgriff2793 When you grow up you will realize voting is a scam.
I remember when I quit my job bc I was being underpaid and literally not being respected by my boss how employees from other departments acted. Some people were happy I stood up for myself and going somewhere better and others were calling me selfish because that meant my duties were going to other people in the department. It’s hard to say quiet quitting isn’t easy because some people cannot just quit their job to find another, but I think separating your personal life from work is very important. Thank you for this video!
I completely feel you on this. I'm working a shitty job right now. I told my co workers I decided to quit, mostly because I'm pursuing a new degree and because the job will be starting paying less these following months. Due to reason no2, and the fact that our workplace is an absolute dumpsterfire, many other co workers are also leaving soon and particularly one of them has been there the longest. I'm more than happy for her, she taught us a lot and she's one of the best co workers I've had. However, when I also decided to leave (I am a more recent employee), I felt as if it would be unfair for those who will be left behind, as well as for those who actually deserved the quitting "more than I, and/or others did". Why? Well it's because of our boss's horrible ethics and attitude, ofc. It just slips into everything we do and to an extent into our coworker relationships, too. This is absolutely toxic and although I empathize with the concerns of my peers who stay there out of necessity, I can't however share the responsibility of taking burdens off their backs when it was never my job to do so in the first place. It was my boss's and being as toxic as he is, he will always try to foster more piss and unecessary antagonism, even though in other regards we have all been getting along good so far.
Honestly, I sometimes wish everyone left his hell of a job and did something better. He deserves to be bankrupt with all his stingy corrupt business practices.
@@nafsikaeuripi7 I feel this 100000% I stood up for myself and yesterday actually I brought up the issues with one the best supervisors I’ve had so helpfully, it makes changes with the other supervisors. But I feel bad leaving the other RAs like that-but at least I vocalized all of the issues that we all are dealing with. So we shall see. Did you end up leaving???
@@Ciciblue18 I'll be gone in a month from now. It's our agreement.
And I'll never hear from them again. Jesus, enough.
In Iceland basically every worker is a union member. Every once in a few years there are negotiations between unions, employers and government regarding wages, work times etc. It’s always a very turbulent period.
I don't make work the main priority in my life and saying this to some people might seem lazy but I've come to accept it's normal. Work should be a part of it, but never demanded as a big focus. Friends, family, enjoy hobbies and just being present should come above it. Of course, this thought on its own is an act of privilege and being aware of it in our environments is very important. Great video as always!
I can never imagine my life being stable without an equally stable job to support it.
However I do agree with you. We should be more than surviving.
This
I love the fact that you acknowledge your privilege, cheers
Sadly enough, quiet-quitting as a form of protest is not really possible in some developing countries because workers are really replaceable. Poverty and inflation make it so that employees have no choice but to settle for less than what they deserve. I believe that unions that can put pressure on policymakers can be more effective in these countries.
The unions are very important here in South Africa
i’ve been fired yesterday morning. this video came in gooood time. sending you my love 💛
Totally agree that this is not a privileged people discussion. Everyone wants there to be some meaning in what they do and wants it to matter and feel valued. That's regardless if you're really rich or very poor.
I contend that even if you do work that you enjoy and think is important you still need to have some boundaries, because it's still work and it consuming one's entire being is going to play havoc on anybody's mental health eventually.
Moreover, this should be a workers' discussion in a global scale. You see, worker privilege is miles away from employer privilege. Think about all those six-figure jobs, companies pay these amounts because they can still profit and there is this innate psychological pressure of the hustle culture being the norm. Capitalism has this mentality of self-interest above anything else which is prevalent everywhere. Workers also help this, the high earning worker thinks less of the low earning worker without realizing they are both just tools for profit in their business, this is becoming less prevalent and i'm so glad.
In these times of doubt, let’s not forget that ‘9 to 5’ is a great movie on toxic workplaces and getting back at the boss.
In Brazil is "9 to 6" 🥲
I've quitted my job this morning as soon as I woke up bc i was being underapaid, treated poorly and they made me stay after hours without even asking or paying and as a student this was directly impacting in my final year (now years bc of all this) of academic journey. I'm glad I saw this video right now bc I feel a little less scared about my inmediate future, like a pat in the back. ♥
You got this!!! That really is huge and I’m so glad you stood up for you-as you should 💅🏽
I hope things continue to look up 💗💗💗
Bonjour Alice! I've been watching your videos for a while but this is the first time I wanted to comment on the content because it really changed my ideas. I first read about quite quitting a couple of weeks back in a news source. The way that they explained it was "you don't go above and beyond for your work". When I brought it up with colleagues at work it sparked a really interesting conversation around the terms necessity. For context, I work (as a MA student) in the public sector. For indeterminate public servants, they are part of a strong union, have health benefits, get overtime pay (compensated with vacations also) and a competitive pension. The union also protects employees from getting fired without first extensive justifications and interventions. When I brought up the idea of quite quitting a lot of my colleagues (who varied from 5-25 years of workplace experience) felt like the idea wasn't really necessary for them. Sometimes things are slow and work slows down. Sometimes things are busy and overtime is more common. They were comfortable with this rhythm and how they regulated their effort. This gave a sense that the role of personal choice was a big part of the idea of quite quitting. When you called out unionization as the eventual outcome of quite quitting, it completely changed the subtext. Quite quitting didn't really resonate because they already have the infrastructure in place to uphold its values. So it was up to them on how they applied it to their own work. I had never really understood the cultural impact the quiet but mighty union has on my place of work until now.
I wish I knew of jobs that fit for my mental health. I feel I cant hold onto a job without it draining me completely of my energy since I’m so bad at having boundaries and always try to go above and beyond.. :( I feel worthless at times because of it. and no one understands how jobs aren’t made for those who are mentally or chronically ill
What I’m scared of is that employers will exploit my hard working and ‘working at all costs’ nature. I’ve been burned out. I don’t want to end like the Girlboss in Holiday Movies who works to the bone and then misses enjoying themselves.
They can and they will, and then gaslight you into it being your fault for not knowing when to disconnect.
@@BB-te8tc I mean, it kind of sounds like it is OP’s fault. If you know you have an unhealthy tendency or habit, like not knowing when to disconnect, it is your responsibility to work on that and manage it for yourself. It’s not the boss’s job to set boundaries for you, it’s your job to set them for yourself. If you let yourself get walked all over, that is your fault. You have to care about yourself first.
To some extent, sure, but sometimes you're also given a completely unrealistic workload and are concerned that complaining about it will result in termination.
@@BB-te8tc sure, but OP specifically said they’re worried that someone will take advantage of their specific characteristics, which is something that’s in their control. If you set boundaries and they are forcibly ignored, or if you are put in a position where you’re powerless to set boundaries, that’s not something that’s in your control. But if you’re fully aware of a trait you have and choose to be anxious about someone taking advantage of that trait, instead of working on yourself so that you can feel secure knowing that you can and will stand up for yourself, that’s on you.
@@bxnny0374 That's so individualistic of you to say that. Yes, this potential weakness is indeed theirs, and not their bosses'. But wouldn't it be nicer if we lived in a society in which we look out for each other? I know the example of the airplane and the oxygen mask thingies, and that you should put it on your face first. But what if you know all that, but just couldn't help yourself, tried to help others before taking care of yourself, and you fainted? I wouldn't be standing over your body going: "wellp, irresponsible human adult; not my responsibility." In the same vein, your boss would be an asshole if they relinquish themselves from all responsibility of their employees' well-being and exploit them without a second thought. In fact, ought the boss not to make sure their people are doing well? Unless you think being a decent boss is really all about ordering people around, I guess
Actually, in Russia we have a real union of delivery workers called "The courier" and the leader of the union is currently under custody, because he was able to organise a resistance to unfair wages, long working hours, harsh work conditions etc., all around the country! He is my friend, his name is Kirill Ukraintsev, if you're interested.
I must say that it's kind of ironic that the last name of the person who tried to organise the resistance movement in russia is roughly translated as "Ukrainian".
Don't mind me, this is just a random linguo-political joke on the current russian protest movement.
@@lyd-llyd Russian protest movement? You mean Russian invasion and destruction of Ukraine?
@@lyd-llyd right, and doesn't Kirill come from the same roots as Cyrillic does?
@@lyd-llyd Definitely looks like a fake last name. I am ukraininan and have never met or heard of anyone named Ukraintsev
@@nadias6435 Idk, my guess is that his ancestors might have been sent to russian territories and then, when they were passportized, their origin might have been kept somehow in this surname. But overall, yes, this last name is not of an Ukrainian origin, but the irony of the situation is still amusing.
I had started to let go of anti-work mentality because I remembered that Chinese citizens are slaving away for 12 hours to make our clothing…. I started to think it was unfair of Americans to decide that we shouldn’t work, especially knowing that everyone else has to. We have incredible life conditions in comparison, too.
But this video reminded me that there’s a way to continue working while having limitations and appropriate support / compensation. I hope that we will continue to unionize to protect ourselves in the process of change. Thank you so much for sharing all of your points in this video!
I quiet quit. The owner of my company was an absolute narcissist. Thought it was his place to tell us all that the company “wasn’t a charity”-after an employee asked him how he’d retain employees. Eventually, I put in my notice, only to be terminated thereafter.
I quiet quit my old job because in the grand scheme of things nothing I was doing really mattered.
Honestly, working conditions these days feel impossible to overcome. In my most recent job, as a waitress, my coworkers and I would talk about what we could do to get better treatment, better pay, better hours, but most of them seem scared to do anything. I was one of the younger employees there, but every time I mentioned unionizing, or simply going against what the managers would force on us with no previous contractual obligation, I felt like I was doing something. I felt like maybe if we worked together, we could really come out better. But, in the end, I couldn't really take the hours, and I quit.
My employers asked what they could do to keep me on the team, that I was a valuable part of the restaurant and that they needed someone like me. I said, quite plainly, "There would honestly need to be a whole change in your system." The general manager asked me "Like, what?", with a smug grin. And I said that, for starters, they would have to start paying us servers our extra hours (cause they don't do that there). They said they would pay mine.
I hate the greed that some people have, that most people in power have. Greed, like dragons laying on their pile of gold with no thought of sharing a single coin.
Beautifully written comment! Thank you for sharing
@@wendypeters6084 thank you!
It's funny, that "laziness" is actually a necessity for job productivity.
This reminds me of work-to-rule, which is a kind of strike where you follow your job instruction very strictly and formally which usually leads to said work stopping or slowing down. In Russian it's called "an Italian strike" for some reasons, I don't know why. Anyways, some Wikipedia editors suggested merging the work-to-rule article with the quiet quitting article, so that's saying something.
another word for this is malicious compliance!
Your passion, your energy, your drive, your intellect and your beauty… what a magnificent woman you are!
Guys I really really really recommend The Right to Be Lazy by Paul Lafargue, it absolutely changed my mindset about work
I would recommend everybody in a situation where they can join a union to just join it. It is very easy and costs like 1 percent. It is kinda like life insureance but for your job.
I hadn't heard of "quiet quitting" before - and yeah, it sounds like a misnomer, as you're not quitting your job, you're setting boundaries, and respecting boundaries that already exist. I found your explanation of individualized strikes brilliant. Of course many workers have thought that is their only option when they've been taught nothing but neoliberalism all their lives. I've had a lot of jobs where there was a union, but it didn't include office staff or temporary staff, who are also usually different in gender, race, and other marginalized identities than the predominantly male union members working manufacturing, construction, law enforcement, etc. Also, education and training: I was told one summer that I had to take the $8 office temp job instead of $16 making garbage cans because I had special training in office work. 🤬 Back then I was able bodied enough to be on my feet and do manual labor, but now I have no savings and have been too ill and disabled to work for six months.
I remember saying that if a family is fascist dictatorship, how do we expect democracy in society? Children are infantilised, abused and are robbed of agency. The socialisation process hardly talks about unions and even if it does, it’s in a derogatory way.
Have you ever met a toddler? They're not infantilised, they're literally less psychologically developed than adults. They are entirely dependent on other beings (usually their family) to feed, clothe and bathe them. They are unable to detect danger lest wipe their own bum. And for a lot of people family is crucial to one's identity and one's support network, let alone being an exchange of love and purpose that is often existential in its significance. I really don't understand peoples' hatred of family.
@@ocarter3560 why not make the family the village? Why does it have to be nuclear?
@@ocarter3560 The concept of the traditional nuclear family has been weaponised by the right, and this is bound to lead to pushback. It's not hate towards families, it's hate towards oppression.
@@ocarter3560 The problem is when toddlers grow older and do not receive guidance toward meaningful skills and activities (both physical and social). In modern society, childhood development has been usurped by entertainment and consumption, if not outright abuse and neglect from overwhelmed parents. This results in more selfish, stunted, disempowered, isolated individuals, who fall back on infantile behaviors because those are the only ones they ever learned. Check out the book "Hunt, Gather, Parent" to learn more about healthy family traditions across the world.
10:35 It’s funny how I get a lot of ‘How are you here all the time? Don’t you work?’. I mean, how do I tell them I can work without sacrificing my personal life? A life without leisure (of any kind, doesn’t have to be artsy and ‘creative’) is no life at all.
Poignant and relevant. For quite a long time folks in the services sector felt the social and cultural protection of belonging to the "white collar" world which I think played a major role in the lack of unionization efforts. The new generation, one in debt for degrees we were told we had to get to obtain these jobs, seems to be over the BS. New research has come out showing that our healthcare, tied to our employers, is dwindling, and that even our "cushy" office jobs are killing us from stress. These are not the service jobs of our parents, and the shine is starting to wear off as young Millenials and GenZ face the realities of workplace toxicity and the sacrifice of human health for quarterly earnings.
The old gaurd is trying to continue tying productivity to hours worked (long hours, that is), but the data says something different. As we all become more educated and aware of the dangers and outright stupidity of applying industrial era frameworks to modern work it's hard to convince us to do otherwise, and much more likely that we will collectively pushback.
I say that, but I see the hustle culture mentality alive and well in vc-bro start-ups and tech in general. Shifts in the energy at Apple have been an interesting indicator, but I'm still watching and hoping!
I real quit my job in the fashion industry last month and have started another, much easier job that pays the same and allows me the time and mental capacity to pursue my passions.
The quiet-quitting trend honestly surprised me. As someone who is on the verge of entering the "real job market", if there is something I learnt from part-time jobs is exactly that - work your wage. It is not my company, I won't get the benefits, I do exactly as I have in the contract, always log in the exact hours I work, don't do (almost) any job related stuff outside of it (except for sometimes helping out coworkers by answering an urgent question, but not directly working; it helped that a lot of my jobs were site-specific, you cannot do much barista work from home). It just seems normal to me. If the neoliberal agenda is that life is a contract, then it has to live up to it - a job is nothing more than a contract, someone is hiring my work. They better define exactly what the company wants from me and pay exactly for that - they wouldn't do anything less for someone contracting them. If anything, it is more than consistent with the ideology and I don't understand why anyone should do differently.
My roommate just told me that this is essentially just "work-to-rule" under a different name. They don't like "quiet-quitting" as much because the name often makes people think that you are immoral for not just actually quitting. I like "work-to-rule" better myself.
There are differences tho. It seems like collective vs individual. Quiet quitting is about taking back your life, whereas work-to-rule is much more focused on intentionally slowing down the business (by following EVERY protocol, which are almost always ignored at large).
so they arent exactly interchangeable but... theyre really similar
Wonderful comment!!
Due to paying my own expenses and student debt, I broke down crying last week when I was finally able to not call myself lazy. To admit to myself that working full time and going to school/two jobs during breaks for the last 5 years (65-70 hrs of work a week) is too much for me mentally and physically, and that when I enjoy life outside of my 40 Hr a week internship, I am not being selfish. The US education system is all kinds of messed up, but I am looking at the future with more positivity and pride than when I was in the midst of my lowest points in life so far.
So happy to see this video!! It's great to see that consciousness is changing, but like you said the planet is burning.
Thanks for the thoughts.
Here is one aspect of religion that might be apreciated:
Quality free time, used for things other than work.(such as studying, and debating)
Conveniently timed at crop cycles, so not to disturb the harvest too much. (except for Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday depending on your faith)
The question here is: Is religion really worth it?
Religion does demand sacrificing a lot of one's individuality and most of one's rights after all.
Productivity has outpaced wages for decades either productivity needs to come down or wages need to go up
Omg, I've just been watching alot of content on quiet quitting recently. And it's awesome that you made a vid about it. Your perspectives are always the best!
Quiet-quitting is such a weird concept to me because do businesses really believe that people’s motives and purpose in life is to… [insert job occupation]? It’s delusional. If they’re not wealthy, they’re working, and if they’re working, they’re doing so for the MONEY and lifestyle it can afford them. If it CANNOT afford them the lifestyle they want, let alone NEED, then why would they put their job above their life…? The compensation doesn’t reflect the sacrifice. It’s common sense…but arrogance and ego is making this concept seem shocking. It’s a shame.
Hey, great video! Just wanted to say that I've always really enjoyed your videos, and these last couple of months the quality has improved even more! Your effort really shows, and we really appreciate it :) Cheers!
I worked at a shitty, miserable company that thrives on abusing the bottom of the ladder, and I risked everything by quiet quitting. I refused overtime, didn’t work harder than what I was working and very bluntly reminded my superiors that I don’t get paid to do some of the tasks they delegated to me, but I took the time to find a new job as well.
Makes me realise how fortunate I am with my employer, the standard of quiet quitters is the standard at my office (I'm in an industry where the workers have the power of employers). Some people decide to work overtime but they're always compensated accordingly and its not compulsory or expected.
I didn't know until I saw this video that "doing your job without going above" has a phrase. Back when in college, I used to picturing my self working full-time and have a side job (maybe as a writer or graphic design which I enjoy rather than my full time job). But now, me working a full-time as an accountant and seeing this movement... i want it and i need my life back. The positive way about this trend that I wish I have more time to enjoy my life with my family, my friend and working on my hobbies. But I don't think this trend would make sense with the people that don't have again, super okay support system (which can come from individual or from the company, I mean if the company's system is still under developing you can't join this trend tho).
I'm thinking about resign from my full-time job but looking at recent conditions.. nah, I don't know what to do except stay healthy and always and always ensuring my self that I can do this job :")
my favorite youtuber :)
She really has a good sense of humor
After 25yrs as a nurse working in the nhs, when they then threatened my job just because I valued bodily autonomy that was the final straw for me. They can’t threaten to sack me and then expect me to just forget it and go above and beyond. Nope I now do my hours and what I have to do, no more extra from me anymore, they lost that right with how they threatened my livelihood when I’d always gone above and beyond for them before. If I could afford to I’d not just quiet quit I’d tell them to stick it.
There’s talk of influencers being able to join SAG-AFTRA in the US. Haven’t really been keeping up with where that’s at but might be worth looking into.
If you could get a group of the top 50 or so youtubers to get together and threaten a strike, you might be able to get somewhere. Would be interesting to see what large channels could do. Maybe all of them could post a short video explaining the strike and its terms on their channels
it's not "quiet quitting", it's really more ACTING YOUR WAGE! The corpos could care less about whether we live or die, just as long as the money keeps coming in. Workers of the world unite, an injury to one is a injury to all.
I've been forced to "quiet quit" Poor person's version. I lost my business in the pandemic. I was unemployed for a long time. Homeless for a while because I couldn't pay the rent so subleased my apartment and stayed at friends, hotels, and at job sites when I had could. I did many different things. I built gardens, tiny house villages, handed out food at food banks and many other types of work. I work now when I want and can't see getting a static job again. This has led to becoming very fed up with my country and deciding to move to SE Asia with my partner and start a business there. I've been studying other countries and for my money the USA is the last place you want to be if you are poor. Oh and I'm 60 so staying in the USA and hustling for work won't be ok for me for much longer. And the Social Security we get here is so poor that I would be homeless if I retired and stayed here. Yes General Strike! I've been dreaming of it since summer of 2020!
I’m so happy that things turned out much better and you are at a place that you love, and that is beneficial towards you! Have a blessed day💖
At the end of her videos I always feel guilty for not having subscribed and then I check and realize I have already subscribed
This is one of the channels that gave me the courage to start my TH-cam channel 8 months ago about self development. Now I have 973 subs and > 800 hours of watch time. I know it’s not comparable with others but I’m still proud I started because I’ve been learning so many lessons that I could haven’t learned without getting started in the 1st place.
It's shocking how some, otherwise switched on and intelligent older people (I mean boomers), ridicule quiet quitting. Especially those on tv and in entertainment.
this video is one of your best
I think most people would agree from the US, having the same standard as France of a 35 hour work week and 5 weeks of paid vacation sounds like a dream. If jobs offered these benefits, employee retention would be greatly increased, and job satisfaction as well. After 5 years or less of 2 weeks off a year, I feel like quitting sometimes just to take time off and enjoy life.
I don't know how the US works but Europeans also earn significantly less in many jobs. Keep that in mind. Maybe you could arange something where you get more vacation but get paid less.
There's actually a funny thing about unions in the Netherlands. Because most of them are shrinking, which is partially also because of distrust and there's a stigma on being a member. Like with the trainstrikes we had a little while ago, the trainworkers actually persisted their strikes because they weren't happy with the agreement that was made through the union (from what I read at least). And they actually persisted with the strike despite the union, the company and the people (our country relies quite a lot on trains) begging them to stop. It persisted quite a while up until the company finally gave in.
But the funny thing is, in my own sector, that of education, joining a union is actually encouraged. I remember my university teachers inviting them over to talk about the union, most of my collegues are members and the board actively encourages us to become members. We can even send invoices for the membership fee to the school. I haven't really figured out yet why that specific union is so populair, but I think it strange to see the difference with other unions.
Finally a french person with a great english accent . Love the content.
Bonjour Alice! Your videos are very instructive, I learnt a lot and really like them so I subscribed. I look forward to more videos! Good job
if you think "quiet quitting" is bad, well i hope you dont mind doing my jobs for me while i get paid for your work
Here some engagement for you love you sis 💕. i love quiet quitting. It helps me create stronger boundaries
Also, I feel like, if your schedule has sucked for a while, it's totally fine to call in sick for a few days. Enjoy life. Completely without bad conscience. I do it all the time. Another great "modern union" way to get through the shitty working life.
Agree, especially if you're massively stressed from work you should take a sick day. Mental health is health.
banger of a video
watching this at work while i snack!
Strikes function by being coordinated in their initiation, conclusion, and the terms for conclusion. Quiet quitting, anti-work, the Great Resignation, they're all labor actions - I'll grant that much and I don't want to downplay or denigrate them - but individually and without coordination they can't do what strikes, the threat of strikes, and union negotiators can.
Quiet quitting. Or as I call it: doing the fucking job. I don't know when this gross practice this started where you're expected to work 80hrs a week and (in my case) never receive a raise no matter how well you perform the job, but ppl are DONE with that nonsense.
Unions here not only protected workers and fought for their rights, my grandma told me they also rented trains to travel to the beach on general strikes or did multitudinary activities. But back then half a million people where affiliated...
perfect! thanks, Alice!
So this is the moviment that takes every episode from The Office and rebrand as something new? Love it! Is better live in an eternal episode of The Office than one from Severance.
I work in the food service industry in a college town with a ton of bars and restaurants, but somehow we have no unions for service employees :(
I would like to hear your take on unpaid work in academia 👀
I'm not much of an enthousiast when it comes to work and go as a result many months or over a year without job (yes priviledged) but it's not trully so that I don't want to work, I just feel petrified by the fact that I'm bound to a contract and feel like I'm limited and can't live on impuls, which can be freeing if you can let it happen once in a while, rather than only and just self-control, which is ofcource also important to actually get things done. A bit of both seem to be the best fix for a healthy life. But to be honest, I don't know hjow a world would function without preset contracts of what is expected of you. It would be chaos, nothing would be reliable. You'd probably have to start expecting for things to always be done later than you'd actually like when buying a product or service. Or maybe that's not as bad as it sounds? As long as things get done when needed most. Probably will take time to adapt though.
I prefer using the word "vulnerabilities" rather than privilege in these conversations. Not because privilege is a bad word, but because I think our use of the word is something that is static. My white privilege doesn't go away. But vulnerabilities ebb and flow.
A construction worker (here, where I am) say, someone who works installing roofs, what we call a "roofer" and they make MONEY, a lot of money really considering they don't have university educations and can start making pretty good money even in an apprenticeship. They also have really good unions (here) and can walk off a jobs jobsite super easily and since they mostly deal with private contractors they will get what they want quickly. They are organised and savvy and won't be taken advantage of. In this manner they don't NEED to quiet quit, their conditions are secure and even though the hours they work are shit (fuck getting up at 4am thanks) they are not going to be asked to do excessive overtime because they have to be paid for it, they need good lighting etc etc. Are they privileged? Well no, not in my book.
Most of these very physical jobs (here) are extremely demanding and prone to injury. If you hurt yourself on the job, especially if you are at fault for lifting something wrong or making a mistake, you could lose your ability to make money doing the one thing you know. There is little room to just move to another area in the same field, it does not really work like that. And even if you don't hurt yourself you cannot work your body for that long that hard. You cannot keep working at the same pace into your 60s or 70s. Some people might only get into their 40s or 50s before they physically cannot keep up with the job. So saving, being smart with your money and planning for your retirement is essential because (here) the money the government gives retirees won't even keep them above the poverty line.
I don't think quiet quitting is a privilege so much as it tells you things about office work. When I got my first job it was in a supermarket and I worked SO hard, I even worked overtime. I was told to stop because if I clock off I am off and there could be insurance issues if I hurt myself while working off the clock.
So I worked hard, yes, on my feet and it was thankless and I hated every minute. But I would rarely work unpaid work (except for my lunch breaks but I was young).
But when I got my first office job? Oof, so much overtime. And then I had to travel for work, and while there I was expected to socialise even when I didn't feel like it, even though I had nothing in common with anyone because I was a 19 year old girl who was a glorified receptionist. After my boss screaming at me and calling me names in a hotel because I said I would be a few minutes late to dinner I quiet quit. The term had not even been invented then, but I did it. On the way back on the plane he snored the whole time and I got no sleep and he expected me in the office at 9am. Even though we arrived at the local airport at 6am and I had no sleep. I was truly done.
I took the only power I had, because I certainly didn't have the power to take on my abusive boss and I had no idea what I was worth, but I knew I was unmotivated to keep whipping myself. I knew that I legally couldn't be asked to work that close to when I had had last worked. So I took the time off to sleep. I never worked overtime after that. I did my job as well as I could in the hours i could and I stopped volunteering. I did what I was paid for. No more or less.
This never felt like a privilege. It felt like necessary care to reserve some of my own will.
I understand that some people get upset that my generation and younger sometimes have the option to work from home and they don't because they are literally required to be at their jobs. I understand resentment.
But I think it is worth remembering that your resentment is misdirected if you aim it at those who are doing the best for themselves in the only way they know how. If people are making you feel resentful of the time you spend at work...then it sounds like the real issue are the people you work for and that is where you should direct it. Other people just trying to find a balance they want in life are not your enemy. Some of them will be the first to cheer for you and align with you when you go on strike. In the words of Sinead O'Connor: fight the real war.
It’s not illegal here to unionize (in Turkiye) but most of the compaines don’t allow their workers to join one. It’s common to see in contracts that joining a union is banned and person who is known to be in one will be sacked without a warning.
I do see a return of Thatcherism and Reaganomics and it’s always a shiny package which then turns out to be Pandora’s box.
I am fine with unions as long as barriers to entry are kept to a minimum. The problem is that in practice, unions sometimes protect people who are already established within an industry at the expense of people trying to get into it for the first time, by making it impossible to make a living in that industry without union membership while also making it very difficult and time consuming (sometimes years) to get membership. This is true especially in creative industries.
Join nebula Alice! It's the TH-cam union!
I am maybe undergoing my own quiet quitting as a freelance translator with only one huge corporate client. I've been trying to informally unionize my fellow external collaborators with little results, working remote by default has this one downside. My company has been raising individual fees (THEY provide US our fees, instead of the other way around) based on how much you're able to work and sacrifice your time for years without/hiding any mental or physical issues. Unfortunately I suffered from a huge burnout right after the spring 2020 lockdown, caused by the appalling workload they gave us while we were stuck at home ("it's not like you have anything else to do, right?"), which meant I worked 10-14 hours a day, weekends included, for 3 months. Of course my mental health plummeted and I had to take a forced break in 2021, but I've been recently told that this is why I don't deserve any raise for the next 2 years, maybe they'll consider it if I prove to be "stronger" (i.e.: go back to the lockdown regimen). I have also been compelled to take over some unpaid editing work, which isn't in my contract and it was literally the editor's job, not mine, as a punishment. I don't think I'll give them my time for much longer.
I agree that the people who find themselves in this kind of problems are indeed privileged by the standards of many, many people. But that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t bring change worldwide after a while by setting examples of healthy boundaries for the work-life balance. This could mean actual positive change starting with how we raise our children and wether we feel like having them which will make for growing, prosperous societies and freer and happier individuals.
Incredible! Hoping more people see this
I’ve been quiet quitting for a while at my job now. My type of job is the one that lets you take work home, and i decided i would stop doing that. As soon as i get home, be it noon or 4 pm, i just stop with my job and resume the next day. I get paid well, better than at an older job and it’s a good salary for my city, but i refuse to burn myself out for my job. So far, they haven’t complained about my performance yet, so it’s fine. I give 50% of what i could give and am happy about it.
I do like that it's a strike in an individualist form. The same goals will probably be achieved as what collectivists want, but in a quicker fashion.
I always adpired to that. 40h work week focused effort, in emergency cases more, but
otherwise I come in or turn in work until break then the rest and then I am done. I want to work. It's very important to me. But like as one aspect of my live. Not my live
Im really grateful to live in a union-free state. I don’t want to be forced to join a union just like I don’t want to be forced to work.
Oh no, how dare they make you join a group that will have you see increased wages, better benefits, and job security! The absolute horror!!
before convincing ppl they have to unionize, we have to convince they're first of all workers (since some people say working class does't exist anymore)
Drawing the link between "quiet quitting" (an awful, meme-y and not particularly accurate term, in my opinion) and striking/industrial action is excellent. I would say that it's more properly a backlash to inappropriate employer creep, the wielding of power to coerce workers to act beyond their role or their paid hours. Alice has correctly pointed out that weak labour laws are responsible for the conditions which are now being resisted under the guise of "quiet quitting" (mainly because without legitimate legal avenues, a more individual and subversive approach is necessary). It is also part of a broad redefinition of the role of work in modern society. It's arguably the culmination of a discussion that was started at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, and which finally may be satisfactorily answered for the future of work, and workers.
Comrade Alice PREACH, I completely agree, the people in the west NEED to unionize and some people on the right also agree, the issue is neoliberalism as a system is inherently anti-union. The only way to end union busting is to get many people into unions and make hiring scabs impossible, but that is impossible due to union busting. Damn, this is quite the vicious cycle lol
Quiet quitting has been a part of work culture for a long time, it's just now we have a name for it. I think if you can, it's healthy to set boundaries between what you do to pay the bills and what you enjoy doing with the rest of your life.
Side note, it was great to see the mention of what's happening in the UK right now, from my perspective the whole of our summer up until this weekend has felt like 1910 rather than 2022, a new Prime Minister elected by only 200,000 people (Conservative party members) and then our Queen dies just after the PM is sworn in pushing the nation into 10 days of mourning - it has been a strange few weeks...