I’ve been following this sub closely since the beginning of the pandemic. I remember hearing the term quiet quitting months ago, way before it became a term used in the media. My initial understanding of quiet quitting is to just mentally check out of work. Be as unproductive as possible; take too long on tasks or just flat out don’t do certain ones, purposefully “forget” to bill clients, stop shaving, be late, etc.
Now that the term has gained popularity in the news, the meaning is “do what you’re paid to do and nothing more”. Am I having an isolated Mandela moment? Or did anyone else see the term change meaning during the course of the past few months? I feel like the former meaning is far more similar to actual quitting than “just doing your job” is. Frankly if this is quiet quitting, then I was quietly quitting way before I was antiwork.
I also have a vague hypothesis that there’s a concerted effort by the rich to get ahead of the antiwork movement and cement the meaning to a slightly more favorable one – a person who does the bare minimum is more productive than the person who does less than the bare minimum.