Don’t embrace and repeat the business media buzzwords built to give the CNBC ticker fill text. These terms are created to forgive executives and BODs of the guilt they feel - “It isn’t that we are treating people like shit, it’s that they are ungrateful little piggies and there’s just no winning so why not double down on our cruelty?”
I know it’s an easy draw, but don’t reinforces their lazy bullshit, redefine it. When they say quiet quitting, you say no, you’re getting what you fucking deserve. Act better, and we will consider doing the same. For now, feel empowered to work in active defiance of your shitty job. Stop complying. Show up, do the minimum. Give them the quality and frequency of labor that they deserve. Give them that without apology, excuse or buzzword. They are terrified that you are done adhering to the social contract that they have openly broken while giving you the finger, so be done.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go shake my mouse and type and delete a few characters in a slack message to demonstrate a minimum level of engagement for the algorithm tracking my productivity to determine if my employee number is included in the next batch of names recommended for mass layoffs to juice the stock price.
I used to work at this place where myself and the entire department got screwed over for raises and bonuses one stellar year.
But this place had a heavy “work-life balance”, so we would all just come into work 1-2 hours later, take 2+ hour lunches, and leave early. I’d say on a given day we maybe put in a good 2 hours at best.
Some of us have gone on to working multiple jobs at once…so…yeah.
You can only be seen as a great employee if you’re doing exactly the level of work that these people are commanding by telling you with their actions that they don’t really value your contribution. Hear you loud and clear, boss!