When I was in the second grade my teacher gave me a ride home from school. I can’t remember why (maybe I missed the bus?) but I do remember it being late spring and sitting in the back of her silver car.
Matilda vibes.
My mom’s fuchsia peonies were in full bloom at the end of our driveway. As a thank you for dropping me off, my mom cut a bouquet of those peonies for my teacher. Before my teacher left our house she told me a secret, I was her favorite student.
She was the BEST teacher and I spent the rest of that year with my head held high and my heart full of pride knowing that I was her FAVORITE student.
Reflecting back, it’s a feeling I have chased since.
Why be good when you can be the BEST?
Why fit in when you were born to stand out??
In school I didn’t aspire to be the best of the best – no valedictorian candidate here… but I did aim to be in the top.
That behavior followed me right into the workforce.
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The concept of Quiet Quitting was introduced to me 5 years ago in a forwarded email. One of my friends had asked me if I heard of it. “Employees are tried of going above and beyond, instead they reduce their input to that of the job description and nothing more.”
My initial response was questioning WHY anyone would want to do that! No wonder younger generations are coming off as lazy…
But time, the wisdom beholder, weighed in with its insights. Five years later, I not only understand why quiet quitting became a phenomenon but I find myself joining the club.
To be honest, it hasn’t been an easy transition and I OFTEN find myself questioning my decisions BUT I also question why I go above and beyond.
In my current role I am doing 428% more than the average bear. FOUR HUNDRED AND TWENTY EIGHT PERCENT MORE.
Am I getting paid more?
No.
Am I getting bonuses?
No.
Am I getting promoted?
No, in fact I wasn’t even considered for an interview for the lead position. It took me a LONG time to swallow that pill but when it finally went down, I realized, it’s their loss.
And it has been their loss. The moment I wasn’t even considered for an interview is the moment I knew why quiet quitting became a thing. Months later I decided to join in. Instead of doing 4 times the amount of my coworkers, I limit myself to the set standards.
Here’s why…
I’ve been in this department for two years. I’m the only one cross trained in four different areas. Some of my coworkers are cross trained in two areas, but I’m the only one that can jump into four different areas, seamlessly. Besides the fable believe of “job security” I haven’t received any other benefits.
When some of my coworkers are out of work they can watch YouTube videos on diversity or take classes in our internal system – to kill time, I get moved to a different sector and am expected to keep my numbers up.
I have become the cat, while the mice play.
I’ve never really liked cats.
This month the switched flipped. The light bulb is on and I am challenging myself to find other things to do than stack the numbers. If you’re wondering why the switched flipped, I’ll tell you. Our leadership team is auditing everyone’s accounts. I definitely think they should, there are MANY errors that should be prevented. Since these audits have come out people are getting fired left and right. We’ve already lost six people on our small team.
You might be thinking, if these people are making all these errors they should be fired. While I might agree with you, I also believe that these errors shouldn’t be held on to like dynamite and blow someone’s job up. Why wouldn’t leadership reach out when they see trends? Why wouldn’t they hold training sessions to strengthen the team and make people better? It seems like they are celebrating failure by keeping people stressed and anxious about audits and fire them when they haven’t improved.
While my coworkers are fixing their errors and I’m ramping up the numbers it’s actually screwing everyone on my team. After six people have been fired or decided to retire, I had to make a change. I can’t condone the behavior of some of the leadership team. I don’t want to be part of it.
The set stats are hard enough for some people to hit. I can’t be the one that makes it impossible, therefore putting someone’s job at risk.
Am I wrong?
What about you? Are you a quiet quitter?
I’m still trying to nail down how to be a slacker but maybe it’s just a mindset shift that I need. I’m not slacking at work I’m just taking more active mental breaks for the safety of my team. I am a work in progress.
Be well, work less.
Namaste, Jes xoxo