Quiet Quitting Is Wonderful For Financial Freedom Seekers And Parents

Quiet quitting is taking the younger generation by storm, especially those on TikTok. The idea behind “quiet quitting” is to do no more than what's asked of you at work and then check out. Once you're out of the office, there's no more responding to work e-mails, slack, nada.

A quiet quitter does not go above and beyond the call of duty. Instead, they put in up to 100% work for 100% pay. They've been able to create a strong boundary between work and personal life.

Quiet quitters are also the ones who work 40 hours a week or less! By only having to work a single-digit hours day, there is much less stress. So long as they aren't complaining about why they can't get ahead, all is good!

Work-from-home has created increased anxiety for workers to always be on. And most people have a hard time saying no, especially to a boss who also wants to get ahead.

For those of you wishing to achieve financial freedom sooner, the quiet quitting movement might actually be a godsend! Sure, many tech companies have laid off employees after the pandemic. But if you can survive and only work 20-25 hours a week, you're golden.

Quiet quitting is also helping make the FIRE movement obsolete thanks to more flexibility. And for parents, quiet quitting should lower your anxiety about your child's future.

No Such Thing As Quiet Quitting In Some Industries

When I first started working in finance in 1999, I regularly worked between 60 – 70 hours a week. There were no set hours. Instead, we worked every day and every evening until most of the work was done.

But because I worked in international equities, the work was never done! By the time 7 pm rolled around, my colleagues in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore had started trickling in at 7 am their time. Oftentimes, I had to be online until 9 pm ensuring my requests were executed before I went to bed. Because if I woke up and my requests had not been fulfilled, I would look incompetent to my managers and clients for another 12 hours.

During the two years I worked in New York City, I don't think I met a single person who was a quiet quitter. The reason why New York City never sleeps is because it seems as if everybody is always working their asses off trying to get ahead!

It was only after I moved to San Francisco in 2001, did I meet more quiet quitters. The city seems to have a more diverse workforce that cherishes living. Or maybe it's because I decided to just expand my circle of friends. Whatever the case may be, San Francisco has a much better work-life balance.

The funny thing is, everything is relative. I'm sure some folks who relocate from the Midwest to San Francisco for work will probably find my city to be hyper-competitive. In fact, every time I go back to Honolulu to visit my folks, my stress level drops to about a 3 out of 10 versus a 5 out of 10 in San Francisco.

How to engineer your layoff - a book about how to negotiate a severance

Let's Pray The Quiet Quitting Movement Grows

As a fake retiree, I don't care about pay raises or titles anymore. I stopped caring in 2012 at age 34. At the same time, one of the reason why I embrace “fake retirement” is because I feel it's hard to truly let go of work. From rising costs to seeing your peers do great things, deciding to only relax in retirement can be very difficult.

But even more important than being productive in early retirement is how do I help my two children survive and flourish in this brutally competitive world.

The world is getting smaller due to technology and better international economic cooperation. Great colleges still aren't admitting more students despite population growth and their alleged desire to educate the world. Finding a satisfying job that pays well has become harder. And my kids are not from a minority group America chooses to fight for.

As a result, I feel a great responsibility to try and educate my children as much as possible before they get rejected everywhere.

My three-pronged plan to help my children includes:

Step #1: Providing supplemental homeschooling in English, Mandarin, math, science, writing, speaking, entrepreneurship, marketing, investing, real estate, stocks, and overall personal finance.

Step #2: Maintaining a small business to provide real-time, real-world education until they leave home. The small business also acts as career insurance just in case they can't get jobs that pay enough to support themselves.

Step #3: Build a rental property portfolio so they can learn about real estate, manage the portfolio if they need work, and have a place to stay if they can't get a job that pays enough.

Don't Have The Luxury To Trust The System

Thankfully, as an older parent who is financially independent, I can spend more time with my children. We don't have the luxury to trust the system because I've observed its failings since 1999. It’s better to depend on yourself if you can.

Executing step 1 should be no problem because I went to college, got my MBA, have time, and enjoy teaching and coaching. In a different life, I would have been a high school teacher or college professor.

Having operated Financial Samurai since 2009, it will be fun educating my children about the online business world. My children give me the motivation to keep Financial Samurai going until at least 2042 when my youngest graduates from college.

Finally, over the next 20 years, I may add one more property to our existing rental property portfolio. As things break and need to be fixed, I will make lemonade by teaching my kids what to do. And when there is tenant turnover, I will educate my kids about lease agreements and what to look for in new tenants.

If you want to have more purpose in early retirement, have children! They will take up all your energy, but also give you more motivation than you ever thought possible.

The thing is, my wife and I might not always be around. And being a highly-involved parent can be exhausting. These realizations are why both of us getting new life insurance policies felt so good.

Sure, the main part of parenting is mostly done after 20 years. But it sure would be nice if quiet quitting could grow large enough to help reduce parental worry.

Two Main Ways To Get Ahead

The first way to get ahead is to work harder than most people. Eventually, you hope your results will bring you the rewards you deserve. Going the first path is for someone who strongly believes in meritocracy. Unfortunately, as we all know, the best don't always rise to the top due to nepotism, favoritism, bad luck, and systemic issues.

The second way to get ahead is to convince other people to try less hard than you. Encouraging a movement for quiet quitters who do the minimum on the job relieves the stress of the average worker.

For example, maybe the average worker works 8.5 hours a day when they are only required to work 8. They feel bad because they know they can do much more. But if more colleagues start checking out after 8 hours, then the average person will now outperform without having to change their ways!

Combatting Burnout

The main reason why so many of us experience burnout is that there is this ever-increasing desire for corporations to sell more widgets. In a capitalistic society, being satisfied with what we have is not the way! We want more money, money, money!

Capitalism is great for achieving improvements in technology, safety, health, food, and education. However, there comes a point when enough is enough. The quest for better, bigger, and faster results in more overworked and unhappy people. It's no wonder there's an employee disengagement trend to work less.

Besides feeling permanently on-call, other reasons for burnout include feeling like your work has no impact and you don't believe in the company's mission. When your boss is being condescending while making multiple millions, it’s natural to feel down and out. The good thing is, all three reasons for burnout can be eliminated with action.

We can set boundaries between work and play with quiet quitting. We can take on new roles to make a bigger impact at work. Finally, we can join companies that have missions congruent to our own values. If we find our Ikigai, we minimize burnout.

Ikigai

Quiet Quitting Is Self-Care

By lowering the bar with quiet quitting, students and workers will be less stressed. With less constant intense stress comes better mental health. Heck, forget about lowering the bar, how about just keeping the bar stationary?

The pandemic boosted the stress of millions. It also made more of us question our work. Do we really want to be optimizing ads online, marketing sugary drinks to obese kids, creating the next addictive cigarette, and keeping egomaniacs in power just for money?

Maybe! But many have decided to rethink their professions and the constant grind required. Making $400,000+ a year sounds nice. But at what cost? Quiet quitting enables workers to feel less guilty about putting themselves first, ahead of their work.

Classic examples of worker guilt include feeling bad about taking all your vacation days off a year or taking all your parental leave after having a baby. When competition is cutthroat due to a win-at-all-cost work culture, it can be hard to take all your work benefits.

Video Of Someone Quiet Quitting

Below is a sensationalized example of how quiet quitting at LinkedIn is making workers happier. You can do the minimum and have a great time socializing with colleagues and friends. Free vegan panna cotta baby!

LinkedIn was acquired by Microsoft in 2016, so the pressure to hustle is no longer there. Strategically, you may want to join other large companies that pay really well and utilize only a small amount of your skills. Usually, the larger the organization the easier it is to just punch the clock because there is more bloat.

You may not strongly believe in your company's mission or the impact you have. However, at least you'll more easily be able to set boundaries and work on your side hustles, your next great book, or spend more time with family and friends.

Parents Will Feel Less Stressed With Quiet Quitting As Well

One of the most stressed out demographics is the working parent. If quiet quitting emerges as a permanent movement, working parents may benefit the most.

No longer will parents have to worry about their children not getting straight A's. Get a B in a subject your kid doesn't like? No need for a whipping!

No longer will kids have to pursue endless extracurricular activities to the point where they fall asleep in class. The need to cure cancer as a teenager is gone!

After school tutors, expensive music and sports lessons, bribing college officials, and more all go away. All the money thus saved can now go more towards a parent's retirement.

In addition, thanks to quiet quitting, parents won't feel a need to spend a fortune on college or college at all. The reason why colleges, especially elite private colleges, are winning is because they know many parents are willing to pay anything for their children's education.

But if you read Buy This, Not That, you will hopefully see through the absurdity of paying any amount for college. Instead, the chapter on education provides a framework of how much you should feel comfortably spending based on your household income.

Finally, if quiet quitting grows, maybe jobs will become easier to land if you can demonstrate you're willing to put just 10% more effort in than the average person.

Hard To Risk Being A Quiet Quitter Just Yet

The problem with becoming a quiet quitter is that you put yourself at risk. The vast majority of people are still willing to work beyond the minimum to try and get ahead.

Therefore, unless you clearly see most of your colleagues not working past 5 pm and not responding to emails on the weekends, you might be sabotaging your career if you do the minimum.

Once you're labeled as a slacker or someone who just does the minimum, you're booted off the fast track for good. The only way to get back on the fast track is to join a new firm.

The key is to work less for your well-being, but not as less as the majority of quiet quitters. This requires great awareness.

Your Work Ethic Is Rational, So Do What You Want

The main reason why I did more than the minimum was because I knew I couldn't last working a day job until I was 60. Getting in at 5:30 am and leaving past 7 pm was just too painful. Further, client demands often felt overwhelming.

Therefore, I logically worked the maximum number of hours I could bear while trying to get paid and promoted quicker. I figured, if I averaged 65 hours a week for 20 years, that would be like a 40-hour-a-week person working for 33 years.

I was UNLUCKY not to have landed a low-stress 9-to-5 job that enabled workers to quiet quit for 40 years. At the same time, I was also LUCKY to have gotten a job that had a strong correlation with performance and reward.

As a result, by shunning the quiet quitting movement in my 20s and 30s, I was able to break free from corporate for good at a relatively young age. However, I then encountered plenty of negatives of early retirement which nobody talks about. They can take time and energy to sort themselves out.

Being able to work for decades at a low-stress job that provides purpose and financial security also sounds pretty good. I just wasn't able to find that until I created my own ideal job at Financial Samurai.

In the end, feel free to work as much or as little as you want! So long as you are satisfied with the results of your actions, that's all that matters.

Negotiate A Severance If You Plan To Quit Your Job

When it’s time to permanently quit your job, please try and negotiate a severance. With no downside, you will likely surprise yourself with the results.

A severance provides you a wonderful financial cushion so you can relax before deciding on your next adventure. If you quit your job, you get no severance and usually disqualify yourself from receiving unemployment benefits.

I negotiated a severance that provided for five years of normal living expenses. As a result, I was able to travel the world and build Financial Samurai on my terms.

If you are going to quit your job any way, you might as well try and create a win-win scenario! Check out my severance negotiation book, How To Engineer Your Layoff, that teaches you how. Use the code “saveten” at checkout to save $10.

How To Engineer Your Layoff Ebook New Edition

Related posts about quiet quitting:

The Smartest Countries Are Not The Happiest Countries

I've Seen The Future And It Looks So Bright!

The Unhappiest Cities In America Based On A New Wealth Ratio

Quitting Might Be The Best Move If You Can't Give It Your 100% Best

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43 thoughts on “Quiet Quitting Is Wonderful For Financial Freedom Seekers And Parents”

  1. I’ve done my share of working hard, going through Big 4 public accounting for about 8 years. I’ve had weeks when I was working over 100 hours. Was it worth it? When I was young yes. I had no work life balance but I learned so much in a short amount of time. I am now in my early 40’s and FI, and contemplating RE. I’ve moved on to corporate world, and you can say I am somewhat of a quiet quitter. I will get things done and will help when asked, but I am not going above and beyond. I reserve that time for my two sons and wife. I will gladly get laid off with a severance package at this point.

  2. My wife owns a business and between us we have net assets around 400~500k. We are both high school dropouts and work “middle class industries”. Spot on about the hyper competitive world. I think quiet quitting is the push back of how awful working conditions on the lower end of jobs (service jobs) as well as reduction of unions (see places that unionized closing?). Why work harder than our parents when the best we can see is a sports car and rent going up another 15%?

  3. It all depends on one’s personality. I never liked working under stress or manipulate things to get a raise or a promotion but several of my friends do and some of them reap benefits. I think there is space for both these personalities in the corporate world as long as you show value.

  4. Hi Sam,

    Another great and timely article. I believe there are two types of “Quiet Quitters” 1) Those who QQ long enough so in order to devote the time and energy into finding another job; and 2) Those who are late in their career and close to either retirement, financial independence, or those who are already financially independent. I would not suggest Quiet Quitting for those who are miserable in their job and have no exit plan.

    However, I take slight issue with your statement:
    “Finding a satisfying job that pays well has become harder. And my kids are not from a minority group America chooses to fight for.”

    Perhaps the reason America chooses to fight for those other minority groups is because they make their voices heard either through the airwaves or protesting in the streets. Working hard and keeping your head down implies to the people in power that you are satisfied with your place in society.

    1. Hard to argue as a race you are not happy (in general) with place in society with by far the highest income, graduation rates, college graduation rates, rapidly rising median net worth vs others etc. Very few metrics today that Asian Americans aren’t leading in the U.S. I’ve found corporate America loves hiring Asian-Americans. Median Asian-American HHI ~2x the median black HHI in the USA. That’s not to say that Asian-Americans don’t receive any racism at them – they do – in fact I’d argue today everyone does to a small degree – but certainly not structurally.

      Agree on your first points

      1. Highest income, graduation rates, rising median net worth makes you successful but not necessarily happy. Asians coming to america put lots of hard work just like the american ancestors who built the nation and enjoyed the fruits of the labor. Over a period of time, the next generation of asians will slow down as they grow up in America and start seeing other aspects of life. It is the first gen immigrants who had to both work hard and face racism.

  5. SantaMonicaMM

    Quiet quitting sounds an awful lot like returning the workplace norms before the 80’s. It says a lot about our culture (not in a good way) that working 40 hours for a full time salary is analogized as “quitting.”

    The American obsession with work, and corporations’ (and their investors’) addiction to “efficiency” and profits has created a perverse culture where people can be chastised (or viewed in amazement) for actually creating a balance in their lives.

    Eight hours for work, eight hours for life, and eight hours for sleep should NEVER be viewed as “quitting.”

  6. I think quiet quitting, despite its growing popularity, is still underrated and looked at too harshly. When you’re young and just getting started, working harder than everyone else can help you get ahead. However, once you’re established in your career, the payout seems minimal for the extra effort you have to put in. If you’re already making mid six figures, is an extra $20-40k annually worth all the extra effort? Perhaps for some, but I think most will end up just taking that time and spending it with their family & personal lives at the point. If they feel really guilty about not working harder for more money, they could always start a side hustle or business.

    People have options, and the go go go mentality that’s forced on a lot of people just doesn’t work out long-term. Of course, I suppose it all depends on your long term goals…personally, striking a balance between work and family has always been one of my top priorities.

    1. No offense, but wow, my friends and I must be in the wrong industries! I don’t think I know anyone who makes mid-six figures that can “Quiet Quit” or phone it in. Being on call and working after hours and weekend seem to be the norm for mid-senior level executives, and anything less in my travels, would put you firmly in slacker territory and negative reviews. Agree that at that level an extra $20-40K won’t incentivize…it would have to be an interesting assignment or opportunity to acquire new skills/contacts/etc

      Honestly, no sarcasm intended…might I ask what types of jobs you are aware of that pay mid-six figures and allow you to coast somewhat or be uncompetitive?

      1. Starting total comp for new college graduates at the big tech firms like Google and Facebook are around $190-$200K. The hours are very manageable. My friend at Facebook who started a couple of years ago regularly goes to mid day San Francisco Giants games from 1 to 4 PM.

        Many people in the San Francisco Bay area decide to join big tech to Earn high pay and work reasonable hours instead of do the startup grind.

        1. Hi. My children are grown and yours will be some day. You have wonderful plans for your children. What can happen is your adult children don’t like you, they do not care about real estate and they certainly do not care about your business. It will break your heart, but it happens.

          1. Sounds good to me. That means they found something they love to do on their own.

            And all this time, I will have done something that I loved that acted as an insurance policy I did not need.

            Did your children end up not liking you?

        2. Different world I guess. I can’t even imagine a world where someone makes $500-$600K with easy hours and can phone it in. I know for me, if I could get that without all the sacrifice, I’d probably work a few more years and coast…

          It does sound highly specific to big tech…but didn’t Zuckerberg just announce a plan to cull “low performers” and bloat?

          1. Yeah, things ebb and flow. A lot of people stay at Google for the big pay and benefits and not too stressful work hours too.

            Yes, big tech is a different world. They are very fortunate.

            1. im at google and can confirm, fairly easy and very common to do 9-5 and get paid 500k. but there are some who push longer hours because the reward isn’t 20-40k extra, its more like 60k+ extra.

  7. It’s also important for your kids to see you working, since it’s a key part of success in anything. Imho the ideal world is you have a vocation that you love and where you have a lot of control over your life. (Which clearly you do )

  8. I quiet quit a few years ago (software engineer, Bay Area), although I didn’t know the term at the time. However, it has high costs. Younger people with less experience are in leadership positions while I’m not because I explicitly denied them even when offered. So I effectively took a pay cut but also a big credibility hit.

    My team knows I won’t be jumping up and down to grind on the weekend and smash red bulls with the boys for yet another artificial deadline initiated by a VC’s off-hand comment (can you tell I’m a bit jaded on the industry). I’m also aware that age-ism is a thing. One of my older colleagues just got canned, and he hustled more than me, so it was kind of a shot across the bow that I need to take action.

    I have a niche specialty so they kept me around but I still need an escape route – freelance perhaps? I paid off my mortgage to reduce my costs drastically. I side hustled into rental properties but it’s not enough.

    1. Freelancing is a great idea if you are quiet quitting and have more time. Why not right?

      But hopefully, you’ve made a lot of money as a software engineer in the Bay Area and rode the huge wave up!

  9. Sam,
    Excellent article. Similar to you, I worked in M&A and professional services for the last 12 years. I was always head down, worked harder than peers, and job hopped for raises and promotions. Finally, got to a position now where I’m close to the top, making good money for CA… high six figure job. However, through this journey, I’ve become resentful, hate corporate America, all that because I’ve sold my soul and jeopardize family, friends, hobbies etc.

    On the other hand, at 34, my wife and I have a networth slightly above $3M and own 7 rental properties in addition to Fundrise And RealtyMogul for passive play (Thanks Sam).

    My point is that you can complain or envy other peoples decisions. Sometimes you have to be you and really have to sacrifice one part of your life to get gains at the end.

    At this juncture, I’m over corporate America, want to quiet quit once i get a normal industryjob.

  10. Yeah I subscribe to a work hard and play hard motto.. Difficult and complex work takes time and usually extra or overtime. Aiming for doing the minimal amount of work possible is a recipe for mediocrity… If you aim to do the minimal amount of work possible you will also probably need to work for your whole life. Or you can bust it while you are younger and then have a chance at living comfortably and leisurely when your older..

    People should never feel guilty for taking vacation or personal time though and that is a major issue which needs to be addressed in many organizations…

  11. oh my that Tik Tok video… Such a different generation and work culture than what I grew up with. I do wonder what corporations and profitability will be like in 10-20 years when these younger generations start getting into senior positions and have to actually figure out how to meet or beat earnings forecasts, pay for all of those corporate perks, etc.

    I do like that Ikigai image. Finding the right balance is so important and can be quite challenging to attain. But it’s never too late to change and make tweaks until we get there.

    I like your three pronged approach for your kids. You’ve definitely given that a lot of thought and have a great roadmap planned out for them!

  12. I put my 20 yrs in of software sales. It was a grind. Mad a lot of money. Invested. Hung up the cleats 6 yrs ago in my late 40s. Never looked back.

    The key is you have to know you got the numbers in your favor, especially in bad times like now. If you can do that and handle the mental game of everyone else working. Youll be fine. My 2 cents.

  13. After our employers did things like laying off 2 or 3 coworkers and loading that work onto the one remaining, and/or skipped over someone for good raises, many people decided to give 100%…what the company paid for, just not the 110%+ of 11 hour days & working unpaid weekends.

  14. I’m a quiet quitter. I do my job for the money, and not too much else. I’m fortunate to have a position where I can dial it back with the goal of maximizing my dollars per hour. My formula was to work very hard when I was younger, not go for management positions, only keep the areas of my job (clients in this case) where I could maximize my return and fire the rest, build systems that engrained me and allowed me to quiet quit. I think any professional person could seek this, and they should!

  15. I disagree about the Midwest not being hypercompetitive. One reason I moved from the Midwest in my mid 20’s to out West was on my theory that workers were not working as hard out West as they were in the Midwest. In the Midwest folks seem to grind on excessively due to two reasons. 1. The majority of industry in the Midwest is low growth, low profit margin industrial and distribution. This causes folk to have to work really hard just to keep the business afloat. 2. Climate: When it’s 20 degrees and sleeting out “you might as well work” was a common theme since there isn’t much better to do. Plus I think a lot of Midwest folks are trying to make a lot of money in order to pay for vacations or second homes to try to leave during the winter.

    Once I moved out West I quickly understood my coworkers were more concerned about their next ski trip, hike, beach trip, etc., than hitting corporate goals. This made it really easy to work just a bit harder and make it to director at an early age.

    1. Great perspective! Makes sense too. There certainly is a laid-back lifestyle to California living in some towns. But I’m not sure that’s quite correct in San Francisco. The most gung ho people come here to try to make their fortune, so it can be quite stressful.

      Where do you live on the West Coast? I think that might help answer some gray areas. Thanks!

      My experience with people who moved out of San Francisco from the Midwest was that we were too focused on making money and starting businesses. So everything’s relative.

      1. I was in Dublin, CA and Reno, NV for the last decade. I would say if you are in the venture capital or finance space in San Fran you are going to be under much more pressure (with much greater rewards!). I think SF is a great place to spend the first decade or your career to have a crack at making big money and even if you don’t, boost the resume to get a less stressful position in a mid-market when you are in your mid 30s-mid 40s.

  16. I always used the quiet quitting approach (though I never had a word for it at the time), to deal with jobs that made it clear I wasn’t going to be rewarded for going above and beyond.

    The latest version of that was building a data compliance solution for one of the companies that did safety testing on the covid vaccine. It took about 700 hours outside of my regular duties, saved the company 400k for a competitors offering, and I was given a $1700/year raise… which still left me under 50k/yr. Needless to say, I mailed it in for the remaining time I had there, and they have no one to blame but themselves.

    Unfortunately, I haven’t had a job where performance scales with pay in nearly a decade, and that was an entry level spot with a small business owner. Big companies just cannot, and will not eat the expense of keeping or even training up their own people. They all just want to pay to steal the experience from a company that did pay for it.

    I would like to say i’m getting sick and tired of it, but at this point I’ve accepted that real producers are never appreciated until they are gone. And if things don’t start changing to pay the people who really produce, we are all just going to leave.

    1. Yeah, getting only a $1,700/year raise is BS. Totally logical to mail it in after that!

      “I’ve accepted that real producers are never appreciated until they are gone.” Correct. It’s like a game of chicken. It’s also like companies are unable to conduct preventative maintenance by holding onto their great producers. Turnover is terrible for productivity.

      At the end of the day, the more you want a correlation with effort and reward, and the more you believe in yourself, the better it is to be an entrepreneur.

    2. I think a lot of this quiet quitting can also be attributed to those who “want” to work rather than those who need to “work”. If you are living below your means in a major way and have all sorts of passive incomes, work doesn’t become your “do or die” existence and actually might even get you ahead with the relaxed attitude! The saying the rich get richer, well, yes it does happen. Now about that stock market…

  17. The idea of quiet quitting seems kind of silly to me. I thought it was called having a regular job?

    When I worked retail (Walmart, first job), working only your scheduled hours was a big deal for payroll purposes, so everyone was pretty careful with clocking in and out at the correct time. When I switched to a salaried corporate IT job, I stuck with the “40 hours on the job, then you’re done” mentality and that has worked well. I haven’t had any problems with pay raises or promotions. If I work overnight for some reason, I balance it out by working less during a less critical time.

    And eventually I dropped down to working half time because I had enough money, which is pretty great. Same mindset, but with half the hours. But that wasn’t quiet quitting either. Instead, it’s just that I am a part-timer now.

    1. I think a lot of folks, including myself, find it difficult to set boundaries between work and personal life. If you’re boss is grinding away until 8 pm, you feel bad leaving before him or her, let alone at 5 pm or 6pm. So it’s been a race toward oblivion, especially with millions now working from home.

      If you see someone working harder, most folks naturally will work harder as well. And if you see colleagues and bosses slacking off, you tend to do the same thing too.

      Stopping the arms race toward nonstop work sounds like a good idea.

  18. You gave many good points about quiet quitting. But I think it really is a bad idea for young people. By doing the minimum, you’re setting yourself up for failure. You’ll never get great reviews and you’ll become disgruntled when your cohorts leave you behind. The only time that quiet quitting is good is when you’re ready to move on. You can use that time to find a new job or get ready for retirement.
    Doing the minimum might be enough during the good times, but when the economy turns sour, you’ll be the first to go. We’ve all seen it.

    1. Yes, you’re probably right that quiet quitters are likely the first to get laid off. But that’s also a good thing for managers who will feel less guilty when it comes time to choose who to layoff. Managers won’t feel as bad. Further, quiet quitters rationally know they will be the first to get laid off too, so there should be fewer surprises.

      Everything is rational. So lowering the bar helps everybody breathe easier.

      1. After working a 12 hour day today, this post hits the spot! The quiet quitting movement sounds amazing. I don’t usually work this month as it’s only seasonal due to planning season.

        I have no strong desire to move up and would love to coast while working on my side hustles.

    2. I have a co-worker that if you ask to work a little late or beyond certain hours they baulk and always have an excuse. We are all salaried and our salary accounts for some extra hours. I’m the type even on my day off if you need something I’ll help out or I’ll attend an important meeting on my birthday. It not a full days work just a couple of hours, but I’m sure my boss takes note during review time and if the economy goes south they would be more apt to keep me.

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