The notion of “quiet quitting” is absurd.

Imagine that you’ve spent weeks perfecting the job description for a new position you’ve created in your organization. You’ve envisioned what this person’s responsibilities will be and what their day-to-day workflow will look like. You know much you’ll compensate them for their work. Finally, you post your job, find the candidate you’ve been looking for, and make the hire.

Soon, you notice that the employee is doing exactly what is in their job description—no less, no more. You could set your watch to them clocking in and out and turning in their work. Sometimes you notice that they have a  little bit of downtime, even. They’ve finished their tasks, but they don’t ever fill that time taking on other projects. They don’t really go above and beyond to help another employee get something done.

Media and employers across the country are starting to take a cynical view on employees like this. They are calling this kind of dependable work “quiet quitting.” Their reasoning is that someone who is not striving to achieve optimal productivity every day must not care about the organization, or must be unhappy with their job, so they are doing the bare minimum expected of them. As a business that values the critical work employees do to make the operation work, we disagree. Good employers would never refer to this kind of performance as “quiet quitting.” We’d call it doing your job.

It’s OK For a Job to Be ‘Just a Job’

As an employer, you must accept that your employees may not have the dedication to your company that you do. Unless a worker feels motivated to advance in the organization over time, they will probably find more happiness treating their job as a means to an end. It’s a way for them to pay bills, not to establish their identity. Employees are now looking for places to work that acknowledge them as people with real lives outside of the workplace. While they are on the clock, it is fair to expect them to do the work you hired them for. If you want them to do more, there had  better be a more compelling reason than some misplaced concept of “passion” for their job.

This is Why Job Descriptions Exist

Even more to the point, this is why employees are looking for jobs with explicit, clear job descriptions. Younger generations of workers want to understand what the work is worth to your company, so they can perform their jobs confidently and effectively with no ambiguity about what they’re being paid for. But building in a cultural expectation that they should do more than what’s in their job description—without more money!—is, at best, unfair to the employee and, at worst, is a hiring bait and switch.

What’s the job? What are those tasks worth to your company? Completion of responsibilities at an agreed-upon rate isn’t “quiet quitting.” It’s just work.

If You Need More, Offer More

Perhaps you’ve noticed that your employee has too much downtime and they might be able to get more done, but it’s not part of their established job description. They are not lazy for not offering to pick up slack for free. If you feel like you want to further motivate an employee to broaden their responsibilities, it’s your job to make it worthwhile. If you can’t offer a salary increase to reflect their additional work, consider a bonus if it’s a non-recurring task. Or, consider extra paid time off.

Work that is above and beyond an employee’s job description should not only be recognized, but uniformly rewarded. If your employees feel like you’re trying to squeeze every last ounce of productivity you can out of them without compensating them for it, one of two things will happen: 1) they’ll “act their wage,” meaning they’ll lose motivation to grow in their role, or 2) they’ll quit—and not the “quiet” kind.

“Quiet quitting” is a sham phrase, designed to be weaponized against employees who don’t want to be burned out at work. As an employer who cares about the people you hire—especially if you care about retention and company culture—it is in your best interest to have the utmost clarity in your job descriptions and communicate with your employees about their expectations. 

As always, Allevity is here to help. Reach out to us and we’ll talk!