WTF is "Quiet" Quitting?

don't know. But we have to bring this to your attention if you guys aren't aware about it, So, um, are you ready to dive in? I am ready, Caroline. I don't watch plenty of tiktoks about this, so I have different angles what we talk about today. Well, you know, I think a lot of people are feeling burnt out by their job. I don't care where you're working. You could be working and I You could be working as a talent on the air like me. You could be

working in digital like honey. Anywhere you know, nurses, doctors, any specific career is feeling this because or I shouldn't say any specific career, but I should say, like everybody is really feeling the burn. And it sparked this movement that a lot of people are talking about that you may be familiar with or you may not be, and this will be your introduction to it. But it's called

quiet quitting. And you know it's crazy, Carolina, because we talked about the create the great resignation and people that are actually just you know, leaving you know, their jobs by the thousands. With happy quitting, it's more about some people maybe not being unhappy at work and being burnt out, but leaving their job is not an option at all, so they stay and they either do the bare minimum

or only what is asked of them. You know, that whole going above and beyond is a trend that hum died out, that whole hustle mentality like I'm gonna kill myself with this job. People are not witted anymore. Yeah, Like the whole p Diddy like can't stop, won't stop, that whole vibe has come to a screeching halt because I think that you know, there are a number of factors that I think are a part of the problem.

So we had the pandemic, and I know we can't keep going back to the pandemic and thinking like, Okay, we can't keep blaming. We got to move on with our lives, right. But I think that the pandemic shifted our perspective on the work life balance. So there were a lot of people who realized that they could do the very same job working from home, and that the commute and all of the other things that they were facing on a daily basis, the grind of it all

wasn't necessary. So you have that. I think that really kind of opened people's eyes to like, wait a minute, am I really giving my whole life away to this job. I also think that maybe people saw how other countries live and how they deal with work life balance, and they figured we're doing something wrong here. We're not doing the right thing by constantly being available for our employers, or constantly being the person that stays late or you know,

mrs family functions because you have to work. I think there are a lot of different factors that we need to think about when it comes to quiet quitting. So much like you said, honey, instead of outright saying I'm done. I've had this, I quit this bitch whatever however you wanted to say it, instead of going out there and looking for a new job. There are people who are just basically saying, you know what, I'm not going to go above and beyond. I'm not worried about my performance

review as much. I'm totally content. I don't need to raise. I'm fine with the way things are, and this is how I'm going to live my life. I'm gonna do what I need to do. Like you said, honey, the bare minimum and that's that. And you know where I'm seeing it a lot Carolina millennials and gen Z and whoever comes after gen Z. If they're the workforce and they not doing what their parents did, they are rejecting, you know, the whole live to work lifestyle that are

a lot of our parents had. And it's like, I gotta make my balls happy, I gotta stay over time, I gotta come in early. These young people are not doing this. They're like, this is what I get paid to do. This is what I am going to do. I am not, you know, sacrificing my social life. I'm not sacrificing my personal life. I'm not doing none of that for a job. Well, yeah, honey, I think there's

this separation of profession with identity. You know, before I think that everybody tied their identity to what their profession was. You know. Look, I have a very dear friend, you know, um she was working in radio. She was let go a while ago, and we had a really long discussion, and I wanted her to know that I was there for her, and and she confided in me and said, you know, one of the hardest things about losing this job is that this defined who I was. I was

always in radio. I was always associated with the medium, whether it was podcasting or having a show. And I think that that's kind of what is a wake up call to a lot of people. And when you hear the phrase quiet quitting, the first thing that I thought, I'll be honest with you want to heard quiet quitting. I'm like, land, you know what, Like, that's not right. These people are lazy. It has nothing to do with lazyness. After I started really researching it and learning more about it,

and some people they want the name change. They're like,

you know, it's a great message. It's going viral. People are talking about it all over TikTok, But that whole quiet quitting has kind of like a negative connotation, even though I have seen people check out of work, But I don't know if it's with the expectation of getting bired and just collecting unemployment or just saying I no longer what to want this job, but I don't have the bulls to quit, so I'm just gonna like hang out now work, see what happens, keep collecting a free check.

I see it. I don't think that's quiet quitting per se as far as like the definition that you see an articles, but quiet quitting is happening in both spectrums. Well, I think that also we're glossing over the fact that this affects other people. When you're quiet quitting, somebody has to show up, right, so your boss. If your boss can't get to you, And we were touching on it about the hustle culture. Basically this is all about setting boundaries and saying, no, my dude, I'm working from nine

to five. You cannot email me at six o'clock and asked me to hop on a call. This is where people are really drawing the line, right. But then if you're not available and you're quiet quitting and you're not taking calls at five pm, somebody else on your team or somebody else that works in your division, is going to have to pick up that slack. So I think

that's where a lot of the resentment comes in. Yeah, if it's a group effort, and let's say it's ten of us, and we both and all ten of us decide, okay, we are going to simultaneously quiet quit at five you know, f our boss, f his boss, this is what we're

getting paid for. Then it all works out. But then if you have a group of people that are like, I am doing only what I am getting paid to do, But then you have another group of people that are over here trying to get raises, trying to get promotions, showing up early, staying late, then they end up picking

the brunt of the other work. So it's just like, even though it's good for mental health for those who opt to quiet quit, then it burns out everybody else who's trying to pick up the slack and it's trying to still be a team flair for the company. Because I think sometimes quiet quitting comes from resentment and hatred towards either your boss, your company, lack of opportunity, lack

of raises. You know, I feel like you no longer see your position or your role with this company as valuable, and you're no longer going to go above and beyond. And you know, kudos to you if you have the balls to be like, nah, boss, it's five oh one. I only get paid till five. Please get off my phone. Own like yo, you gotta be built the right way, and you really gotta have the cohna is to be

like nojolda Nader. Not everybody's built like that, especially us the culture we come from Carolina, like hef Amanda, you could. But you know, like we saw our parents. I saw my mom work at factories, twelve hours ships, you know, as a fore woman, like she killed herself. She never wanted to upset her bosses because she couldn't afford to lose these jobs. But you know, gen Z millennials, people that are still at home with mom and dad, they don't have mortgages, they might not have all the bills

that maybe a forty or fifty year old has. They have this luxury and they are leading the way on quiet quitting. I think their responsibilities give them that freedom, and I couldn't agree with you more. I definitely think that this comes from the top down. I think there is a disappointment in leadership that leads to quiet quitting

and not where it's like okay, right. I feel like that might be the linchpin here for this whole movement, because if you feel like you're getting recognized by your boss, if you feel like your boss is constantly, like you know, giving you that positive affirmation or saying, wow, I really appreciate you going above and beyond thing, you're going to do more. But if you never get that and you're thinking, well, they're intruding on my personal time, they're never giving me

the time off that I asked for. You know, there's a number of things that factor into the quiet quitting, but I definitely think that it's more the resentment toward management that makes people move more toward it than anything. Um. You know. One of the things that I was going to touch on two was like the work life balance. Everybody talks about work life balance. I don't think the work life balance really exists when you constantly have a

way for people to get in touch with you. I think that's just two in the world that we live in. Because before, let's say you were a teacher. Okay, you're a teacher, you show up at school at seven thirty, let's say eight o'clock. I don't know. I'm not a teacher, so I'm making this up. Let's say you show up, you know, seven thirty, you're done. After the kids leave,

let's say around three thirty. Okay, Back in the nine eighties or the nineties, you would go home, you would take care of your family, you would watch the news, you'd watch your favorite show, you go to bed, and you go back into work. Now the accessibility has just it's given everybody the opportunity to get to you. So now if a teacher goes home at three thirty, something happens and their boss, the principle calls them. If they don't answer an email, where were you? Why didn't you

answer me? Everything is pressing. Now, it seems it's very pressing, and people just have this sense of entitlement that you should be available to them twenty four hours a day, weekends, nights, just because you work for the company that they also

work for. That doesn't work that way. You don't you don't have a contract to be available twenty four hours a day, and I feel like post pandemic, this became just a problem, Carolina, where people no longer have boundaries, and bosses are like, yeah, well you're in your house. It's seven o'clock at night, but your home, Like, I don't know. It's it's a huge problem now, and I feel like people are heavily rejecting it. I know people that if you hit them, let's say on a Saturday,

they will say, I'm not near a computer. I don't know what to tell you. I cannot do that right now. And you know what, Carolina, I love them for it because it shows like, come on, guys, you can't expect me a Saturday at three o'clock to be near a computer. Guess what. I'm in the park with my family. And those people are the ones that are which is just as important it is. It's it's super important. Your mental

health is super important. You don't want to live with that anxiety of like, oh my god, I always to check. I gotta check my email every three minutes. It's nine o'clock at night. Let me check one last time before I go to bed. It's six am. Let me make

sure nothing happened overnight. It's just like that burnout that I think that that burnout and constantly feeling like feeling like you have to be on the clock is what forcing people to put their foot down and be like, Nah, five o'clock, I am closing my computer and I'm quitting

for the day, and I'll see people again tomorrow. And there's nothing wrong with that, because you're just putting your foot down if what you're doing is not affecting your teammates and it is not affecting others that are not your boss. Because it's like, it's super unfair. That's like me not doing my work, and then someone who's equivalent to me, my peer, I am putting them in a predicament with now they have to stay late and do their work because I decided I wanted to quit early.

That's the problem. I've only recently had the nerve to tell people, no, I'm not available. You know, in our industry, there's always something, there's always a deal coming through, there's always an interview that is coming through last minute. So and so's in town. Can you do this? Can you do that? Um? I remember a couple of months ago, there was an artist that could only do an interview at five pm on a Friday because they were in l A. And I, I'm up at four in the morning, guys,

you know what I mean. So I I was like really thinking about it, and I said, but you know what, we need to keep those label relations going. There's a lot of things behind the scenes that people really don't know about. And so I sacrificed. At five pm, I said to my kids, here's the iPad. Mommy needs to go downstairs for thirty minutes. Okay, not listen. I'm taking a chance because you know what it's like when you have your siblings, or when you have your brothers or

two sisters and Mom's not in the room. One of them pokes the other one. Then it becomes a fight. Then this or that happened. So you're really taking a chance, right, So I ended up doing the interview. I came back upstairs and it was complete mayhem. My kids had gotten in a tussle. I was just gonna say, what did you find that they on the wall? Oh no, no, they were fighting. He did this, he changed the channel.

It was just total chaos. And I said to myself at that point, you can't Carolina, how old are they now? They can't care for themselves. No, they're six and eight. But in my mind they're little. And that's why I say to people like, yeah, you know, you can leave in eleven year old or a thirteen year old alone and say, hey, watch TV or get on your phone or do TikTok or whatever. I mean. These are still

little guys, you know, I guess yeah. And so I came upstairs and I had to referee the fight, and they both got in trouble, and I thought to myself, like, why why did I do this? Why did I compromise what in my gut I knew I shouldn't be doing. But I did it anyway because I wanted to look good for this label so that they could get their artists interview on the air. So from that point on, I said, no way. My day starts five hours earlier than most people. Most people start at nine am. Let's

say eight nine am. I am done by noon. You hit me up afternoon, I will get to you the next day. So much so that um, you know, just last week I had somebody reach out to me and it was on a Friday. Hey, any chance, you can hop on a call at three o'clock. I said, no, I cannot. We can tackle this on Monday. Do you have time at ten thirty after my show is done.

So I think that there's a way to finesse it, and there's a way to let people know that you have your boundaries without outright saying hey, I'm not willing to do this. You know who has a big problem with that, people pleasers, And I've been guilty of being a people pleaser for years, Carolyne. I hate I hate saying no. I don't want people to be mad at me. I feel like people are going to be resentfuled if

I say I can't do something. I feel like people are not gonna look for me to work on different projects if I say no one time. And I've taken control of that, and you know, things that I used to participate in, let's say, week after week that I really didn't want to do. Now I'm like, okay, maybe every other week I'll say no. Maybe every three weeks

i'll say yes, you know. And I'm kind of like trying to balance that out because it also leads to burnout when it comes to work, and burnout is not just difficult for the employee, but it's also costly for the employers because people with with burnout, you know, they end up taking time off, they worked the least amount as possible, or a not at full capacity because they're tired, they're burnt out, and they're now they were sent they're like, yo,

these people are working me to the core. Fuck them. Well, you know what, honey, I was going to ask you, because you work in a space that never stopped. When when I think of digital, I think of all of the things that you have coming at you, all of the stimuli, everything that is happening throughout the day, whether it is breaking news in the world news or entertainment news, or whether it's a big announcement that the station is

going to be running. So I have been curious as to how you find a way to manage that because I feel like I'm just constantly seeing, like your posts, what you do, You're grind and I don't know how anybody in digital can do that. Like my day starts at like six am with the breakfast club, right Everything breakfast Club or later has to be rolled out, you know, and then I'm on pretty much old day. Like if if something for Clue comes up, like let's say for today,

I've already shared content for Clue. We've already shared content for Angie. We were rolled out a breakfast club interview. That's on TikTok, that's on Twitter, that's on Facebook. It is over stimulating and it can get I guess you can get burnt out. I like to take breaks. I like to, you know, say, okay, for five minutes, I'm gonna just unwind. I'm not gonna look at Instagram. I'm not gonna look at anything. Maybe I'll just look at

emails calmly and softly. Because early I can go ten hours straight and still not be done with what has to be done for the day. Because digital is NonStop, it's ever evolving every day. Oh this changed on Facebook. Oh this, So you constantly have to be retraining and relearning. So, you know, shout out to anybody who works in digital or social media. We are super unappreciated, not as visible

as we should be. But the work is crucial, it's important, and it's become more important than a lot of other things. At this point. Well, I think that you have a really great point there, and I think that it's something that people wouldn't understand because they're not in the industry

and so they don't see what you do. But the number or I guess I would say the impact that your work has on the success of the stations is something that a lot of people can't evengauge, you know, from the outside in Rather, people aren't seeing everything that you do. But something that I thought about is that, like, whenever I want to relax, I pick up my phone and I start scrolling. So how do you find time to relax because you've been literally scrolling all day? So

is that where you're like, oh, this thing is going away? Yeah? No, Ma, you know what I mean, Like, I am just going to like focus on me, Nah, Carolyn, Like I have to like put the phone down. Let's say, if I'm done for the day. Let's say, like I try to check out, like I try to do like seven to three or six to four, you know, one of one

of those two or six. But at one point I pick an hour and I'm like, Okay, I'm gonna close the phone and I lock it and and I'm like, if it's urgent, one of my bosses will either call me or text me. But I have to physically check out. And then I also set up a schedule on teams, you know, I give them a full eight hours a day, and then after that, my team goes away. Like okay, now I am away. If anything is urgent, someone will

reach out to me. I will check my emails. But I'm not actively in front of a computer at our nine hour, ten hour, eleven hour, twelve. I cannot do that to myself. Like just that's where you take a place like once. I feel like, listen, I have been working my ass off for eight four hours. My eyes have been open since six am, you know, about two three. If anybody tells me where were you, I'll be like, you know where I was at six am? I was working? Where were you? Okay, then give me a break. It

is two pm, it is three pm. I've already been working eight nine hours. I deserve to take a break. I deserve to go to the gym. I deserve to take a walk at a park. I deserve to cook with my family. And I just you know, it doesn't happen often. I just make sure i'm either I put away, well it should, it should? You know, every day is different, honey, and I want mean to cut you off, but you just mentioned something that a lot of people I think is obsolete, and that is taking an hour lunch break.

I had too many friends. I have too many friends who tell me what an hour lunch break because obviously, like we don't get time like that. I mean, for me, on the morning show, I'm eating in between breaks and on a commercial during a song whatever, you know. I mean that. I'm not complaining for myself, but I'm talking about my friends who have real nine to five jobs. With the commute it ends up being seven to seven pm, and they say to me, the days of an hour

lunch break. One of my girlfriends works in the city and she said to me, I used to be able in my lunch break. I had it down, she said, I used to be able to go grab a salad, eat the salad really fast, go and get a thirty minute manicure, come back, you know, finish my job. She goes. Now, she says, I'm eating at my desk. She's like, I have salad remnants in my keyboard. And we were cracking

up about it. She was like, this is no way to live, though, you know, I mean, this is where I think the quiet quitting makes sense for a lot of people. Um case in point. One of my friends who actually works in HR, we were discussing this and I said to her, I said, let's talk about this whole like quiet quitting movement. And she rolled her eyes and she was just like, girl, do you know how many companies now have basically given people to three positions,

to three responsibilities that they've never had before. She said, that's the reason why quiet quitting is happening. When you were hired to be a district manager, let's say, but now you're not just the district manager, you're the district manager for three locations. That's where people are getting frustrated because they say, I never sent up for this. I was talking to my friend Carly and who works in HR also, and she's I was like, Hey, what's going on.

She's like, a sucks. Next week, we're gonna let go of fifty people. I'm like what, I said, what are you gonna do? You're gonna have hired them? She's like, no, it's budget cuts. We're gonna spread the work work amongst the people that are there. So of course people are going to be resent for They're gonna be like like wait, hold on to Yeah, fired fifty people and now we got to do their work and you guys save the money and nobody gets raises. So yes, that is exactly

what is happening. Well, I will say this. I asked my friend for advice, and I said to her, what should we tell people if they are quiet quitting, if they are doing the bare minimum, if they get called out by a manager that says, hey, I've been trying to reach out to you and you're unavailable all the time.

Because they'll do that too, they'll try to do the Jedi mind tricks and have the conversations or or scare you into thinking that you could potentially And she said, first of all, do not say where I work or my name. She said, but if your employer ever comes to you and tries to have a conversation about that, you let them know that, um, you are working to contract, meaning you are working and doing what you were contracted for.

And if they would like to discuss any of the responsibilities that go above and beyond what you were contracted for or what you were told you were supposed to be doing when you got employed, when you you know, I guess got the job, then you need to say then then yes, then I'm open to having a conversation because if you are going to give me more responsibilities, can we discuss how that will reflect in my pay.

I said, girl, that is the best piece of advice, And I think the takeaway there is I am working to contract. I'm working to the specifications that you guys hired me for. If there are other responsibilities that you'd like to put on my plate, I think we can have a fair discussion about it to see what I could feasibly do. But otherwise, you know, if if there's

not compensation, then we need to discuss that. And that's totally understandable because she's like, wait, hold on, so now this is my responsibility and this is my responsive okay because my manager got le oh, now I have her work. Okay, Well that's not what I was hired for. But a lot of people, Carolyne, I feel like, well maybe not gen Z and millennials, because they do not give a single fuck. They will be like, I don't need this sh it, I'm quitting. I'm out of here. There's so

many other jobs out there. I'm gonna be a TikTok. I'm gonna be a YouTuber. They have options. Good luck, they have options. But like people that like married people, people with responsibility, people with children, single moms. You know, it's like they allow you know, to work, work to creep into their personal time because they're afraid of giving pushback and possibly losing their job. So it's just it's

the weird situation. It's like, yeah, you want to take a stand, you want to separate yourself from work at a certain time. But then I think it all starts from the top. Carolina also I agree. I think I think bosses, Yeah, bosses be like, you know what, it is, seven pm, it is a Friday night. Maybe I should wait till Monday morning. That would help. Because just getting the text gives some people anxiety, or just getting the email and hearing that ping, and some people say, oh, well,

turn off your notifications. Like some people just don't do that. They just constantly look and they want to make sure they're not getting in trouble, and that anxiety that can kill a person. So I am all for people, you know, separating themselves from work at a certain time. And also we have to really really work on you know what you mentioned with your friend that used to work in radio? What happened to herts? You know, separating yourself worth from work.

You are not your job. You are an entire whole person outside of that title you have, right and one day you know, I mean, look, everybody comes to a point in their life where they retire. So what will you do mentally? How will you be when you retire? Because look, that job is not always going to be there for you. You will not be a part of the industry forever. So what are you doing to build yourself up to make sure that you're ready for that

transition later on in life? And when it comes to quiet quitting, I think it all comes down to how can employers expect their employees to go above and beyond

if they're not doing the same for them. So if you are constantly, like we said, if you're motivating your employees, if you are there for them, if you are encouraging them to have work life balance, if you are being respectful of their time and and only only reaching out to them in a diary emergency, or if something comes through and it's a last minute thing like that's the thing I've always said in our industry, your emergency or I don't know what I have a phrase for it.

It's like, your emergency does not get my urgency. Well, it's true, though, because everything is an emergency. This just came down or we just got this. No no, no, no no. Because then sometimes you go through and you read through the other emails that are on the thread and you're like, baby girl, you got this email last week, and now you're emailing me at nine two pm and this has to run on the air tomorrow at six o'clock. Like what, So, your emergency does not require my urgency.

And I think that that's something that you know, goes back to boundaries. So hopefully, if there are people out there that are listening right now that have this type of a work situation or work dilemma, first of all, you're not alone. There are many many people who are in the same boat. But it might give you a reason to sit back and reflect and say, am I giving my employers more than they deserve? Am I getting

the feedback and the recognition that I deserve? It really is time for us to take a pause and and reflect on that. And if you're listening and you're a manager or you're a boss, I think this whole quiet quitting movement. You know, you should use it to support, you know, the well being of the people that you manage.

Maybe you know, just you know, encourage that they have a good work life balance going on, and you know, just be a good leader and let them know that their value, let them know that what they do matters to the company, that you're their loyalty matters, you know, just express it. I feel like it if bosses were more um I guess communicative and let people know, you know, you're appreciated, have a great weekend. You know what, this

can wait till Monday. That goes a long way. So if you're a manager, a supervisor, or a boss or a business owner, man, take this movement and you know, do right by your employees before you got ten people doing the bare minimum behind your back and your business goes belly up. That part well, honey. On that note, we will end it here and we want you guys to know that if you need support, we are always here for you. You You can d m us. I'm at

the real Carolina on all social media. I am Honey German on Instagram and Honey German everywhere else, and I check all my messages. I haven't been posting lately, but I've been checking all of your messages. Oh good. Well, yeah, and you can also hit us up at l I Spanglish because that's really where we get your questions for the salon. If you guys are going through a dilemma or if you need us to help you out, that's where you can get to us too. And don't forget

every week. Make sure that you like and subscribe so that you never miss an episode guys, and good luck to you if you're dealing with us, because we know the struggle is real. Oh boy is it? Make sure you give us us five stars and we'll see you again next right. Lifense Banglish is a production of Lifense Bangulish Productions in partnership with I Heart's Michael Thura podcast network. H