Bekit
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- Aug 13, 2018
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Here's my pushback on that.When you do work for another company again, remember to practice quiet-quitting.
When I was working for one of those companies (The toxic ones, the kind that really deserve for their employees to quiet quit, the ones who keep saying, as OP put it, "Don't come up with your own solutions, do what we tell you to do"), I felt this immense pressure to do just that.
Just check out.
Just settle for doing what I was told.
Just stop going above and beyond.
Just stop thinking.
Just do the bare minimum.
Just jump through their hoops and collect a paycheck.
You know why I didn't do that?
Because I knew that behavior would change ME.
Who I am is a curious, intelligent, creative problem solver. Who I am is someone who goes above and beyond. Who I am is a leader. Who I am is someone who doesn't just settle for "it can't be done" just because my boss said so.
And if I don't fit in because my employer doesn't appreciate me being that way, I need a different job. (Or, of course, a fastlane business.)
If I had "quiet quit" in those days, it would have subtly broken me.
If I had ever consented to bow to that pressure, one part of me would believe that "it was good for my survival to do this," but another part of me would have known that I was relinquishing my sense of agency, my ability to make my own choices, my right to engage with my surrounding and assert who I was and how I would participate.
This would have created immense cognitive dissonance. It would have suggested to me that "maybe I'm not all those good things that I define myself as." It would have made me ashamed of myself, my effort, my output, and my quality as a human being. It would have made me see myself as a parasite and a sidewalker and a low-caliber person.
This mindset shift would have been reinforced when I eventually got fired and I knew I only had myself to thank for it due to not putting in legitimate effort.
And once I reached that point, it would have taken a massive amount of effort to build back to the same habits and personal standards and strength of mind I had previously.
It's one thing to ACTUALLY quit. By all means, do that. The minute you discover that an employer is toxic, start sending out your resume and land a different position in a better environment. There is no point in putting up with abuse at work. That kind of employer should not be rewarded with one more minute of your time, even if you're just hanging around leeching off them as long as possible. Just being in that kind of environment is not worth the toll on your mental health.
So in my mind, quiet quitting is not the answer. It keeps you in a toxic environment when you could have pivoted into a better one. It damages the individual who does it. And it doesn't really solve anything.
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