From quiet quitting to burnout – busting work culture buzzwords

‘Quiet quitting’ is the new work/life balance phrase dividing opinion – but here’s how to set your own boundaries

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‘Quiet quitting’ is the new work/life balance phrase dividing opinion – but here’s how to set your own boundaries

By Louis Staples01 Sep 2022
5 mins read time
5 mins read time

It’s fair to say that most people are not feeling great about work right now. In the UK, postal workers, transport workers and bin collection workers are just a few of the groups on strike amid the cost-of-living crisis. This comes hot off the heels of The Great Resignation – a period where high numbers of employees left their jobs in 2021, after the pandemic changed attitudes towards work. Buzz phrases like “burnout” are now used so often they’ve practically lost all meaning, so there is almost a conveyor belt of new terms appearing all the time.

The latest phrase that everyone’s talking about is “quiet quitting”. In a nutshell, it describes workers who are putting in minimum effort at work – only responding to emails in work hours, taking all their breaks and leaving on time every day – but not quitting. Basically, the phrase implies that workers have “quit” in all but name. (And they’re still being paid, of course).

Predictably, “quiet quitting” has divided opinion. Some people think the phrase describes a healthy work/life balance, with boundaries, so workers shouldn’t be made to feel like that is “quitting”. The general vibe is that our capitalist overlords are convincing workers that not working themselves to the bone is shameful in some way.

Social psychologist Ian MacRae, author of Dark Social: Understanding the Darker Side of Work, Personality and Social Media, tells Woo that “quiet quitting” feels like a “rebranding” of burnout. “Quiet quitting feels like a symptom of people being exhausted over time. And it's not that they're lazy or don't want to do a good job, they’re just burnt out and they can't do it anymore,” he says. “It's kind of probably a reaction to doing too much, being burnt out and not being able to do that level of work. So I’m not sure why it should be called ‘quiet quitting’”.

Writer Eve Livingston is also sceptical of “quiet quitting”, like most of these new buzzwords, because it feels unnecessary. We already have the language to describe it, she says. “Working to rule is an age-old union tactic in which workers refuse any work beyond that which they’re formally contracted to do,” she writes for i-D. “And that’s before you even get to the inherent bleakness in a phrase which suggests something radical or subversive about completing the work you were asked to, within the time period you were given to do it”.

Setting aside the precise buzzword, is there a way to set boundaries at work, while also staying motivated? Surely, the ideal is to achieve that without feeling like you’re “quitting”, “burned out”, or guilty for not overworking yourself. But can it be done?

Don’t feel bad about boundaries

Business and life coach Phil Drinkwater tells Woo that it’s normal, at the start, to feel awkward about putting boundaries in place. “Remember that you are currently giving too much and rebalancing by moving towards giving the right amount. The business doesn't pay you extra for working outside of your agreed contract, and long term it's counterproductive to your health which causes difficulties for the business,” he says. “Don't allow yourself to be persuaded that it's in your best interests to work without boundaries when you know, deep down, that it isn't.”

Try not to get drawn into other peoples’ work

Business coach Carole Ann Rice thinks that, particularly in the era where everyone is connected online, it can be easy to get drawn into other peoples’ work stresses and deadlines. “Do let other colleagues’ deadlines and dramas become yours. Help out where you can, but put your own workload first,” she tells Woo. “It’s important to know precisely what is required of you, your workload, deadlines, and time scales so you don’t take on other workloads.”

Remember that work doesn’t have to come at the expense of life

Drinkwater says that people should know that one element of life can’t provide everything we need, because we're much more complex than that. “Work meets some of the needs we have, most notably in the area of financial stability, but for many it also provides meaning to our lives,” he says. For the vast majority, work doesn't meet all our needs and, Drinkwater says, it’s essential to create time for the other things we need in life. “Discovering what else you'd love to have in your life is a positive step, and provides a more complete happiness that will increase your focus and motivation at work over the long term.”

Let go of guilt

Drinkwater says that guilt is a combination of “happiness and fear of the consequences”. Determining what this “fear” is, he says, can provide you with a way to challenge these thoughts and move away from guilt. “For example, an obvious fear might be that you'll fall behind others, but almost all people agree that working smarter is more effective than working harder,” he explains. “So, the question becomes ‘how can you do 9 hours of work in 7’?” Learning to work more efficiently, or admitting that your workload is unsustainable and outsourcing some of it might be ways to let go of guilt, while still keeping up at work.