They draw lines on a 40-hour work week, limit calls after working hours and e-mail and generally, if gently, saying “no more often”-some American workers embrace the concept of “stop calm” when they push back to what some people see as The stranging constant connectivity trap.
Maggie Perkins-who lived in Athens, Georgia-won 60 hours week as a normal thing as a teacher, but the 30-year-old player realized after his first child was born that something was wrong.
“There are photos I judge the paper on the airplane on the way to the holidays. I have no balance of work life,” Perkins explained in the Tiktok video about how he was picky-even though he had no name for it at that time-to start “stop calm. “
Perkins told AFP that he finally left his job to pursue a PhD title, but still became an advocate for his former colleague – producing videos and podcasts with practical tips for making their workload suitable on their working days.
“Adopting the mindset of ‘stop’ is completely only meaning that you build a boundary that helps you do your work when you are paid to do it – and then you can leave it, and go home and become a human with your family,” he said.
– Work-life balance or slacking? –
The buzzword seems to have first surfaced in a July TikTok post.
In the words of user @zaidleppelin, “You’re not outright quitting your job but you’re quitting the idea of going above and beyond. You’re still performing your duties but you’re no longer subscribing to the hustle culture mentality that work has to be your life.”
That post went viral, drawing nearly a half-million likes. Responses bubbled over with a sense of shared resentment — and newspaper columnists spilled ink all summer trying to decipher the phenomenon.
For the debate soon erupted: Are “quiet quitters” merely trying to draw boundaries in pursuit of a reasonable work-life balance, more associated with a European lifestyle than with always-on US work culture?
Are they slackers with a trendy new name? Or are they people at genuine risk of burnout — who would do best to quit outright?
Data suggests the need for greater balance is real.
On-the-job stress rose from 38 percent of those polled in 2019 to 43 percent the following year as Covid-19 upended the world of work, Gallup found, with women in the United States and Canada facing the most pressure.
Similar dynamics helped fuel the “Great Resignation” — the surge in employees leaving or switching jobs amid pandemic-related pressures.
Many “quiet quitters” say they are perfectly willing to work hard, but only for the hours the job is meant to entail. Their motto: “act your wage.”
Some observers are skeptical, of course, contending that offices have always had their share of clock-watchers and prickly workers claiming certain tasks are not their responsibility.
Going further, Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post, panned the phenomenon as “a step toward quitting on life.”
But former US labour secretary Robert Reich summed up the — forceful — counterargument, saying “Workers aren’t ‘quiet quitting.’ They’re refusing to be exploited for their labor.”
– ‘Six months of dread’ –
Case Example: Bess experience, which asks not to be identified with its real name, illustrates how Covid allows some work to spill far beyond their normal limits.
He was employed just before Pandemi in the work that was originally intended to involve a routine trip to Germany.
But, he told AFP, Covid made him trapped in his apartment in New York, having to receive phone calls at 3:00 am due to time difference.
Out of self-preservation, he began to turn back his efforts-issued by American friends.
“There is a stigma – you put your blood, sweat and tears into your work in the US, and if you don’t work, you don’t deserve to be here,” he said.
“After six months of fear,” Bess explained, he only stopped answering email for several weeks – and finally separated from his company.
Philip Oreopoulos, an economist at the University of Toronto, said that one solution is better communication to clarify the employer expectations before receiving work.
“If you need to be called at home, then they must clearly state that,” he said.
And if things are uncontrolled – and stop still will not fix problems – the hardened worker does have one asset to return: a low unemployment rate historically.
“Come to the employer and say, ‘I have the opportunity with another company and I think to take it,'” Oreopoulos said. “This is the right time in general asking for salary increases.”