After the era of the pandemic and layoffs, we have moved into the era of big layoffs (great appointment). We realized that it is better to sacrifice financial security in order to maintain sanity. Then we turned the page. Today everyone (media, influential gurus and social media users) is talking about Quiet care, gradual and silent cessation of work. Although, on the one hand, the new term serves to switch attention to a serious problem, on the other hand, it suggests that even the working world is not immune from trends (since, perhaps, it is too early to talk about a mass phenomenon). .

What is silent care?

First of all, it is important to understand where the term came from: it comes from TikTok. In social networks,hashtag #quietquitting, in the first days of August there were already more than a million video results. Some users with a decent amount of followers have started creating content dedicated to this topic: “I don’t stress anymore I no longer tear myself to shredsClayton Farris admitted. “Basically, you are still doing your homework, but you are mentally abandoning the culture of bustle, the idea that work should be our life,” Tiktoker Zayad Khan explained instead. Then there was a turning point when Wall Street Journal Before, Guardian AND New York Times later this problem was tackled, and #quietquitting turned from a simple hashtag into a topic worthy of media attention and analysis.

Jessie Bello Perez, news creator for LinkedIn, a social network primarily dedicated to the world of work, illustrated the meaning of quietly leaving in a few words, writing that: “it means reject the idea that work should take over our livesand that employees should give back more, even if the work goes beyond normal tasks and responsibilities. Second meterdgo away care this can take many forms: turning down projects that don’t suit your interests, refusing to respond to messages after hours, or simply feeling like you’re less interested in your role.” By what has rested since then wsj extension, employee engagement in the US is actually declining. Survey data from Gallup, an American-based analytics and consulting company, found that among millennials and Gen Z (all workers born after 1989), interest in the workplace has dropped to 31% in the first quarter of 2022. . In Europe, only 14% of those surveyed said they were “really passionate and satisfied” with their job..

But why is silent smoking cessation so disturbing? Anxiety is not quiet care ourselves, but the thought that it took a global crisis and the beginning of a period marked by economic uncertainty made us realize that for many years we adopted a highly toxic work culture. “This concept brings to light a common practice whereby workers have always been required to perform additional, often undesirable tasks,” journalist Taijo Bero writes in the magazine. Guardian – and when they refuse, it is considered a form of “refusal to work.” The second question to which the phenomenon, or, if you prefer, the trend, leads us is this: who will benefit or benefit the most from a quiet departure? (See also: Who has always done extra unpaid work?).

“Women, for example, have always been asked for additional tasks, they were expected to perform those tasks that no one wants to do, such as organizing a corporate party, helping What time-consuming client, keeping track of employees’ birthdays, etc.,” continues Bero. Club No, it’s much easier for a man to say no, because before the refusal is unlikely to be consequences. Women workers have much more interests, especially if they belong to marginalized groups or are in a difficult personal situation. According to the analysis carried out bloomberg people who could benefit the most from quiet careincluding women, are also those who they basically can’t afford it. They pay double the weight for a (paradoxically) selfish choice: in the workplace, you need to cooperate, not turn away. “The fact remains that doing the work you are paid for should be the norm, and not be seen as an act of rebellion,” concludes Taijo Bero.