Quiet-quitter quits for real

Dear Zaid Kahn,

I think I may have underestimated you.

When your video about ‘quiet quitting’ came out last year, I was appalled. Although you described it as ‘setting boundaries’ and ‘a rejection of hustle culture’, it sounded to me like sheer laziness -?doing as little as possible and refusing to put in any discretionary effort.?

My first reaction was:How can you have so little pride in your work? What a bludger.?

I assumed that you were a quiet-quitter. But now you say that it was only after posting your video that you began to take your own advice, ‘quiet-quitting’ your remote tech job. And after six months of testing the limits of how much you could get away with, you quit the job, not quietly but for real. While the job was well paid, and you had plenty of flexibility, you were miserable at work and not passionate about what you were doing. You felt a hollowness inside of you.

You sound like an intelligent, educated, talented guy. So why would you waste your life in a job you hate?

You didn’t even enjoy bludging. You discovered a ‘looming dread’ that you would get found out and fired, and ‘the broader existential dread of “what am I actually doing with my life?”’

You’ve learned that trying to avoid work can be more stressful than doing it, and that there are more worthwhile goals in life than seeing what you can get away with. You also discovered the impact on your co-workers, who began to express their frustration with you. You were letting them down, as well as your employer.?

You no longer advocate quiet-quitting, but the genie is out of the bottle. A lot of people found the concept very appealing. You’ve copped a lot of criticism for your back-flip in opinion. Online haters have criticised you ‘for expressing even a morsel of a desire to have fulfilment in what you do for work’. I’ve often seen such views expressed on LinkedIn, questioning why you would do more than you are paid for, that work is a transaction. Sometimes I ask myself if self-actualisation is dead.?

Of course, coasting at work isn’t new. Back in the 1990s, the ‘Dilbert’ cartoon strip had a character who boasted, ‘I did nothing today and still got paid!’ Many of us have at some stage been in jobs they didn’t much care about, jobs that we took just for the money. Sometimes that is perfectly okay, especially if you need money. In that situation you can understand why workers would not go ‘above and beyond’ for their employer. And many workplaces have their share of lazy workers who try to do the minimum and ‘clock-watchers’ who live for the weekend. ?

But if you’re focused on home-time instead of what you could accomplish, the day will go slowly.?You'll gradually die of boredom.

While managers do have a responsibility to create a working environment where employees can feel engaged, the satisfaction you get out of a job often depends on what you put into it. There is not much a manager can do if a worker refuses to participate. Also there is the small matter of money - shirkers don’t usually get promoted.

You say you’re now working on freelance projects and searching for your passion. I hope you find some audacious goals to pursue, or that they find you.?