You’ve seen the posts, noticed the new hashtag, but are wondering what exactly is quiet quitting and is it new? I’ll break it down quickly, from my Chief People & Culture Officer and personal point of view. For contrast, I am old enough to have been in the business world with the majority of my boss’s and coworkers being baby boomers, I’m also just young enough to be a millennial and have studied human behavior as we have all new generations and expectations enter the workforce. I’m often frustrated when we create business rules and norms because they make leaders feel better or more in control. Instead I try to focus on limiting rules to those that directly relate to value creation.

All that said, what is quiet quitting, it’s similar to something I referred to historically as being ‘retired in place‘. You still have a job, you still come to work, your give a damn was busted so you had no desire to come up with creative solutions, to stay late, to help the company succeed. You were just coming in and punching a clock until you could finally retire. I once let a gentleman go on my team after multiple attempts to get him to simply be efficient during work hours. He was doing 20% of the work of his peers. He asked a coworker why I couldn’t just give him 6 more years. I hated the idea of someone being retired in place. How they couldn’t feel the passion and dedication I did was baffling to me. How they could leave their coworkers and company hanging by not pulling their weight felt lazy and disrespectful to me.

Now quiet quitting is here. And now I am older and a bit wiser. Quiet Quitting is different than being retired in place. Quiet quitting is saying I used to do my job and voluntarily gave you extra discretionary effort on top of it, and I realized the extra effort was getting me nothing in return. I was missing out on my family or life and I wasn’t getting extra pay, a promotion, or even recognition for it. So now I’m choosing me. Now I’m choosing life over work. And I’m not going to announce the change. I’m just going to stop volunteering. Stop staying late. Stop letting work consume my life and thoughts. In quiet quitting employee’s give a damns aren’t busted. They still try hard and want to improve things during their work hours. They just intentionally choose a road less traveled. A road of balance.

I explained my transition from being a workaholic into working less and making more in my blog: Work Life Balance Quotes | shaylaking.com. After working less I was able to move up from being a senior manager to an executive and then a Chief People officer.

Quiet Quitting is even more dramatic than what I did. It’s about setting harder boundaries. These boundary conversations are healthy and are coming more and more into modern conversation on career and life. What are your thoughts on “Quiet quitting”? Do you think you can not give your company incremental effort and still be a good employee? Is this laziness or admirable? Have you or are you considering quiet quitting?

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Hey there, I’m Shayla King! 🌟I began by flipping pancakes at IHOP and then hustled my way up to the corporate C-Suite before 40. My journey’s had it all. At first, it was grueling. On top of the challenges of being a young woman trying to climb the ladder in male dominated industries, I was also a single mom battling autoimmune diseases.

The silver lining? I spearheaded leadership development at some of America’s largest companies. I used those skills to distill those trials and triumphs into a proven framework. Now, I’m here to help ambitious moms like you design a life of ease and joy. If this IHOP gal can rise, redesign, and thrive, so can you.

Let’s Evolve Together.

Your coach, cheerleader, and accountability partner, Shayla