quiet quitting
- Literally
- Quiet quitting: leaving the job without leaving.
- Meaning
- Doing exactly what the job requires and nothing more, then going home.
- Popular since
- 2022
What does quiet quitting mean?
Quiet quitting is a contradiction with good PR. Nothing is formally quit: the employee stays, does the job, collects the salary, and declines to go above and beyond. Supporters say it is simply working to rule, the contract read literally; critics hear entitlement. The phrase went viral because it named something millions of people had already decided, and boss arguments about it rarely changed anyone's mind.
Where does quiet quitting come from?
The term exploded in July 2022, when a New York engineer named Zaid Khan posted a TikTok arguing that ambition and work had merged and that nobody should have to give up life for a job. Gallup had been tracking falling engagement for years, and the clip gave the trend a name that managers could not stop repeating.
How to use quiet quitting
- He never says no, he just stopped doing the extra. Quiet quitting, and the team somehow functions fine.
- The company blamed quiet quitting for slow numbers, so we all reread our contracts during lunch.
Also available in: 日本語 · 한국어 · Español
Comments
Have you run into this word in the wild? Share where you saw it, who said it, and what happened.