More and more people are talking about a new trend in the workplace: “Quiet Quitting.” 

People are using this phrase to mean a few different things. 

Some examples of quiet quitting involve mentally checking out from work altogether. Or it can be about not accepting additional work without additional pay.

“I’m just going to work the hours I’m supposed to work, that I’m really getting paid to work,” said one interviewee with the Wall Street Journal. “Besides that, I’m not going to go extra.”

Gallup did a poll and found that around 50% of U.S. workers were “not engaged.” As in, folks felt detached from work and were doing the bare minimum.

The viral origins of this term on TikTok are unimportant. The actual phenomenon that Quiet Quitting describes is as old as dirt. 

In China, for example, it’s called “Lying Flat.” People who embrace lying flat are opting out of the struggle for workplace success and reject the promise of consumer fulfillment.

Now, none of this is new. It’s not uncommon, either. 

I’ve read about similar trends advocated by the labor movements of the 1920s and 1930s. 

My first personal encounter with something like “Quiet Quitting” was in 2004ish, when I was dating a woman who worked as a temp at a law firm. 

She told me that she purposefully moved slowly, to draw out tasks and so milk as many billable hours as she could. She did this because, if she actually finished what she was brought on to do, her temp position would no longer be needed. 

She and I are still friends and I’m pretty sure she reads these. (What up, M.!)

Regardless… none of this stuff… quiet quitting or lying flat or milking hours… ah… sits well with me. 

I have never felt any connection with the old worker’s adage, “Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime, that’s why I poop on company time.” 

When I poop, I make sure I’m doing some kind of work, dangit!

Call it a chip on my shoulder or natural disposition or ambition, but I have an indefatigable need to prove myself, to do more, to try hard, to seek approval and validation through my work. 

Despite that, I haven’t fallen into that trap of trading my life experiences for work. 

Even though I worked hard, I got to travel, to have fun, to explore, to learn and grow, to sustain relationships, to fill my life with fulfilling experiences.

Now, my opinion on “Quiet Quitting” is skewed by my experience of seeing More Work = More Money + More Fulfillment.

But I also realize that not every job permits this. 

Some jobs, very simply, have a ceiling on how much you can make and how much fulfillment you can get out of it. 

So it seems, to me, that most people who do Quietly Quit, who have staunch opinions about the necessity of work-life balance…

They’re simply working in a job or career that sucks for them. 

And It Might Be High Time To Ditch Your Dead-End, Soul-Sucking Job

Now, I warned folks a few months ago that layoffs were coming and they should start working on their resumes. 

But even if you kept your job and you haven’t “quietly quit” it yet, there’s a reason you might find it worth your while to put out some feelers…

According to the Atlanta Fed, the wage growth reward for people switching jobs right now is ASTONISHINGLY high.

Beyond the stats, this has been the anecdotal experience of several people I know, too. 

When I posted about this very topic on Facebook, my friend Oren had this to say:

Am I a witch? 

Nah. I just spend too much time trying to build cohesive stories out of the random chaotic miasma of numbers floating around.

But like anything abnormally far from average, this trend likely isn't going to last very long.

If you have a crappy career that you’ve quietly quit… Or a crappy career that you’re just generally not happy with… You’re probably short-changing yourself out of more money right now. 

But how do you know your job is crappy and it’s time to quit? 

Well, let’s have a tough conversation about this. 

Here’s when to know it’s time to go from “Quietly Quitting” to “Loudly Quitting”... and here’s when to know it’s time to switch jobs or careers altogether. 

There are three major signals that it is time to quit your job…

“Time to Quit” Reason No. 1: The Ceiling

I’ve spoken to a lot of people who are very “rah-rah every business should pay their employees more money.” 

But every career and every job has a natural ceiling to it. Both in terms of pay and fulfillment.

If your job is to stand at a cash register and sell clothes, your paycheck cannot and should not ever be greater than the value of what you’re selling. 

Likewise, a person working a lathe can’t make any more per hour than the value of what they’re manufacturing – doesn’t matter how good their union is.

Why? Because math. The business paying you will go bankrupt if they paid you more than what they can get from your labor. 

So if you’re of the opinion that you should be getting paid more… you can probably work out what the natural ceiling of your job actually is by thinking like your bosses. 

Take a mental note of how much revenue your job actually brings into the business… 

How much, for example, do you bring into your job per hour? Per day? How many labor hours do you save others?  

Then, take a mental note of how much it costs to maintain the space your job inhabits. How much does your job need to spend on every supporting role? Every piece of equipment? The lease? The lights? Etc.

Try not to guess. Your bosses? If they’re a well-run business, they ain’t guessing. They should know down to the dollar what an hour of your time is actually worth to them.

If you discover that the value you’re bringing to your organization far exceeds what you’re being paid? More than 10 times as much, say? 

Then you absolutely need to demand a raise. 

Or start looking for another job. 

I’ve written up a full free report on doing exactly that, here. 

There’s another ceiling you need to be mindful of, too… The ceiling preventing you from getting a promotion you feel you deserve. 

Now, there might be… an evil, unfair reason for this, which I’ll explain more in the next section. 

But there might be also a completely innocent reason for this too: A business cannot be all-managers. It cannot be all-executives. 

If all the upper echelons of your business are full and there’s no chance for you to score a promotion? Make the jump into a business that’s younger or growing faster.

But what if you discover that you’re already bumping up against the salary ceiling for the job you’re working? 

What if you look and find that your wage or salary is basically near the upper threshold of what your business can afford to pay you?

Well. Look. You do not have total control over this. This is something external. 

But one of two things need to happen: 

You either need to do the same job for a better business, one that is able to extract more value from employees and therefore can justify a higher wage or salary ceiling than what you’re seeing… 

Or you need to think about switching careers and looking at doing something different.

In the past, I’ve framed it as “certain careers in our day and age are valued, while others are intrinsically valuable.” 

For example, an orthopedic surgeon is highly paid because it is a hard job with a high barrier to entry and a high demand. We, as a society, value bones and joints that aren’t broken. 

But the moment we have a robot that can do everything an ortho can do? Then that job is going to go the way of switchboard operators and typesetters and elevator operators. That is, into the dustbin of history.

But every time I bring this up with folks, I get pushback. Mostly from people who don’t work in a valuable career.

So let me try to reframe this in a way that’s more… uh… kind? Less harsh? I guess?

Some jobs are a “nice to have,” while others are a “need to have.” 

If you work in a “nice to have” job, your salary will forever have a ceiling and your actual job will forever be the first thing on the chopping block when times get tough.

So what are the “need to have” jobs in our particular society and this particular historical moment? There are only a few: 

• Sales

• Marketing

• Profit management (think: capital allocation, investment, and creative accounting)

• Personnel management

• Product creation

Every one of those jobs can help a business compete or grow. 

They are essential to a properly functioning business. 

And each of them gives the worker the opportunity to produce value many orders of magnitude greater than what they’re being paid…

Which, hey, if you’re able to do that? Guess what… 

You can pretty much ask for any amount of money you want, within what you’re able to deliver. 

And if your bosses don’t want to pay you what you’re able to deliver? 

That gives you the power to tell them to scram, because chances are you can prove to some other employer the value you can deliver. 

But… look, I get it. 

Not every business is going to pay people what they’re worth or what they can deliver. 

And that gives us our second signal:

“Time to Quit” Reason No. 2: The Buckets

Everyone has a “bucket.” Even you. 

Someone does something, or says something, or behaves a certain way… 

And you slot them into a bucket in your mind. 

That bucket might have a label on it like “attractive” or “smart” or “helpful” or “worth going to for advice.” That bucket might also have a label on it that says “ignore” or “jerk” or “pretentious” or “gross.”

Here’s the thing… your bosses and managers have a bucket they slot you in, too.

The label on this bucket might change from "unreliable" to "lazy" to "unambitious" to something else, depending on the owner or manager you're working with.

Now here’s the important thing to keep in mind… 

If you suspect you’re in a bad bucket that you don’t want to be in? 

Guess what. It might be (gasp) because you’re a quiet quitter. Or because you’re always late to work. Or because you stop answering emails after 5pm. Or because you suck at your job and you don’t realize it.

If you don’t like being labeled this way by your work or your bosses, you either have to change your behavior… or work for a business that respects your personal boundaries. 

And if changing your behavior doesn’t get you out of the bucket and into wherever you want to be? Gotta find a new job and start fresh, my friend.

But there’s another thing, too… And it’s here I want to be compassionate. 

Some jobs, managers, bosses will put you in a bucket through absolutely NO fault of your own.

It could be because of your education. Or your gender (or lack thereof). Or your race. Or your ability. 

Whether this is happening consciously or unconsciously, personally or systemically…

It’s f$#*&^ bull$h!t. 

I believe in meritocracy through and through. Above a certain basic threshold of need, the amount of money and fulfillment people get out of their work should generally be based on what they’re able to put in.

It’s here I agree more with the economic left. 

Wage transparency is absolutely a good thing, and the recent laws mandating this appear to be a good thing, too. 

If a job forces you not to discuss your salary…

Or you have a feeling or fear that you shouldn’t talk about how much you make with your coworkers…

It is absolute BS. 

The lack of transparency over money is nothing more than a means of controlling information. Control information? And you prevent people from being able to make rational decisions about their life. 

So it’s time to rewire some stuff in your mind — or ignore any policy your job has in place — and actively start talking about how much you make and how much your colleagues make. 

Try to find out, based on what you find out, how much you make relative to other people with comparable levels of skill or aptitude. 

If you’ve been shafted when it comes to your wage or salary? 

Time to make demands or walk because you already know, for a fact, that you can make more elsewhere AND the people you’re working with don’t appreciate your worth.

YOUR SIX STEP ACTION PLAN FOR TURNING WHAT YOU HATE ABOUT YOUR JOB INTO A POSITIVE ACTION PLAN

Hate your job? Think it sucks?

Here’s what you need to do this instant:

1. Keep a logbook or journal of the things you find you dislike. Be specific. Do this for a week.

2. Review what you dislike and begin separating things into categories: External complaints you can control, external complaints you can’t control, internal complaints you can control, internal complaints you can’t control. (Be honest with yourself. Just because you don’t like Sally from HR’s laugh doesn’t mean you can’t control it–it might mean you have to move your desk.)

3. Look up all the external and internal complaints you can or can’t control. Reduce repeated complaints to a crucial few. If the “can’t control” categories are in greater number? Might be time for a new job. If the “can control” categories win and these seriously affect your wellbeing and fulfillment? Go to the next step.

4. For the “can control” complaints, transform each complaint into an actionable statement. For example, turn “My boss has it out for me” to “My boss has written me up for being late 4 times, and I need to find a way to stop this.”

5. Now, transform your challenges into a plan. Each actionable statement has within it a series of steps you can execute to take control of your life. For the example above, you might leave for work earlier, or take an alternative route, or go to sleep earlier. 

6. Once you’ve successfully transformed all your “can control” complaints, reassess… but also make sure to broadcast your wins. If your complaints turned into solid achievements? Make sure your boss knows them.

“Time to Quit” Reason No. 3: The Rut

I get it. You wake up tired and unmotivated. You dread going to work. You live for Friday nights and, like Garfield, you hate Mondays. You feel guilty and pissed and useless because you fritter away your days. Everything seems more interesting than what you’re being paid to do. 

This feeling might come and go over the course of hours or days or weeks, but it keeps recurring.

You have this sense of just… unmotivated malaise.

Now, I’ll explain how to deal with this feeling in a moment. But let me kick off by talking about WHY you probably feel this way. 

But be warned: I’m afraid that what I’m about to tell you might show you a not-so-rosy reflection of yourself. It might even spur an existential crisis. 

Ready? Ok. Here goes…

What you’re feeling is a lack of meaning and purpose in your work. 

And you’re occasionally feeling this way because, in fact, your work has no meaning or purpose. 

I’ve written before about the proliferation of bullshit jobs in America. There’s a great book about this phenomenon called, well, Bullshit Jobs.

But guess what…

You’re not entitled to a fulfilling job. Or any fulfillment at all. 

It doesn’t matter whether you believe in the Almighty or not: The universe was not manufactured to provide you with a sense of fulfillment, joy, satisfaction, or self-worth. 

There is nothing writ in the moon or stars or physical laws of the universe or the unwritten laws of human behavior that says, “Joe Schmoe from Des Moines deserves a job that pays well and gives him a warm fuzzy sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.”

The previous two reasons I gave to switch jobs? They were external. Stuff you can’t totally control… unless you change jobs.

But a lack of passion and fulfillment and meaning in your work? More often than not, that’s not outside of you. That comes from within.

For what I bet is the vast majority of folks who feel they’re stuck in a rut?

You’re just doing something wrong. Or you’re doing it with the wrong people. Or you’re doing it in the wrong place. 

By “something,” I mean what you’re doing for work. 

By “wrong people,” I mean whom you’re working with.

By “place,” I mean your job or the location of it.

The folks in a rut, who are in a rut because they’re doing something they really don’t like…

That’s probably a strong signal that it’s time to switch jobs. 

The same holds true for the people in your life. 

If you find yourself around people who suck away your energy? Who urge you to do stuff outside your values or goals? Who distract you or make your life miserable? Who don’t respect you or your worth?

Tell em to kick rocks!

Doesn’t matter if they’re a coworker, friend, family member, or spouse. 

You’re the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with, so they say, so make sure you’re spending time with people that LIFT YOU UP.

That said, before you go, like, manically quitting your job and telling your spouse of 10 years to take a hike…

Sometimes this “rut” can be fleeting and passing. 

Make sure it’s not a temporary “bleh” feeling or a touch of burnout before making drastic changes. 

One way to get out of a temporary rut is to take some deep rest. Schedule some “me” time. Reflect. Walk in nature. Yadda yadda. This stuff sounds hokey, but it honest to goodness works. 

That don’t work? Try to rack up a solid win on something that’s been bothering you. 

Finish a small task, or go hard on something that’s been nagging at you.

Once you remove some of the splinters in your brain, take a moment to pause, reflect, and feel gratitude. 

That don’t work? 

Welp. Maybe start looking to change your position, your department, your desk, your home, your work environment, your clothing, the music you listen to, your morning routine, your nightly routine, the stuff you eat, the games you play, the people you spend time with, your partner, your career path. 

I mean it. Try to change EVERYTHING. One thing at a time. Pay attention to what works and what doesn’t. 

Once you’ve tried to change everything… and you’ve constantly found yourself miserable and in a rut no matter what you do or whom you’re with? 

Well, the common denominator is you. And now you know it’s not your fault.

Your “rut” could be the result of depression, anxiety, or some other kind of biochemical imbalance. If that’s the case: Consider therapy, meds, exercise. 

If that’s what’s happening, what’s going on in your brain is faaaarrrr outside of what I’m qualified to talk about. It’s also something that’s not going to be fixed no matter what job you’re doing… or whether you decide to “quietly quit” or work your butt off for 70 hours a week.

But… like I said. Make sure to test and change everything within your power before you start putting labels on yourself…

Or before you let the labels you have attached to yourself define what you’re willing or able to do with your life. 

I’ve known a lot of depressed, anxious, neuro-atypical people who have gotten mighty wealthy and achieve a lot of success and fulfillment despite and not because of everything happening in their brainmeat.

All right… I think that covers this whole “quiet quitting” thing and what you can do about it.

Again, I have a much longer free report on moving up in your career here. 

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