It is a simple scene from the film, Office Space.

The company has written rules it can enforce.
It also has unwritten rules it cannot by law enforce.

So what does the employer do? It tries to encourage the employee to do more.

This would be a simple enough thing if these unwritten rules weren’t expectations and were truly optional.

That tension: between the boss’s desire and the employee’s autonomy is the fundamental reason we have labor law. But employers have always used social pressure to make employees feel like they have no choice but to do more.

It isn’t a function of good.

Going “above and beyond” is not synonymous with being good at one’s job. Nor is the function of doing one’s job or meeting expectations. Notice that each of these is actually a subjective evaluation.

Being good can be competency in a complex field. Being competent, however, can also be seen as “doing the minimum.”

People who are using the term positively are speaking to their own labor. They aren’t quitting their jobs, but the rat race at their jobs. A condition that more directly effects women, especially women of color.

It is easy to get it twisted.

The idea of working hard is important. And, as Seth Godin frequently argues, one should always strive to love what one does. To take pride in it and want to offer yourself to others.

These ideas do feel at odds with quiet quitting—if we aren’t listening to who is speaking of it positively. This talk is particularly coming from employees who are being unheard or taken advantage of by their bosses.

And it is directly related to the rise in burnout: which began in the helping professions. Burnout is a condition of exhaustion that can affect someone whose job or vocation is to care for others. And the main sign of burnout is that they stop caring.

Burnout now effects people in retail and all across the labor system. Because all of us are required to care. And many people discovered during the Pandemic that their employers didn’t care for them.

This is about the value of life.

Quiet quitting is the expression of people who already give more than is required of them and their employers exploit that.

Nothing about this is an expression of laziness. Nor does this threaten how work is done. It doesn’t derail people from upward mobility or prevent people from doing tough jobs.

We must get clear on who specifically benefits from the public misunderstanding the point of quiet quitting: only employers.

This isn’t about different views on the nature of work. It is built around whether or not an employer can expect what it doesn’t ask for.

It is about employees thinking there is more to life than work. And more to work than pleasing employers who are never truly satisfied.

And when employees understand how little their employers think of them, then a different kind of quitting is on the table.