Quiet quitting.
aka acting your wage, working to contract, disengagement
Doing your job. Just your job. Nothing more, and nothing after six.
What it actually means
Quiet quitting is when an employee stops doing anything beyond what their role formally requires: no extra hours, no volunteering, no answering messages at night. They have not resigned; they have withdrawn the unpaid extra.
The phrase went viral in 2022, but HR has measured the thing behind it for decades under a duller name: disengagement. Gallup’s surveys have long found that most employees are “not engaged”, which means they show up and do the work but do not put in discretionary effort.
Two readings compete. Employees say it is boundaries: the job description is the job, and anything else is a favour. Managers say it is checking out: the person has mentally left and is waiting for a better offer. Both can be true in the same team, and the honest HR response is to ask why the extra effort stopped being worth it, rather than to label the person.
Where you'll hear it
Three of my six are quiet quitting. They hit their numbers, they log off at five, and nobody volunteers for anything. I can’t write anyone up for doing their job.
Translation: the team is contractually fine and culturally stalled, and the manager has noticed they have no tool for that.
You will hear it in engagement survey debriefs, in think-pieces about Gen Z (usually written by people who are not Gen Z), and from colleagues describing themselves with a shrug. Companies rarely say it in official documents; they say “engagement” and “discretionary effort” instead, which is the same conversation in a suit.
The pop-culture version
They are on stage on time. Every note is right. The show is good. Then the lights go up and they are gone: no signing, no after-party, no extra encore the label wanted for the livestream.
Nobody can say they did not do the job. The job was the show. What disappeared was everything the band used to get for free: the hour of goodwill after, the charm that sold merch. Fans notice eventually. So does the label, which quietly starts planning around someone else.
Quiet quitting is exactly that: the set, performed well, with the unpaid encore removed. The question for the band is whether they ever paid for the encore in the first place.
The HR version of that question is sharper than the viral debate: if the extra effort mattered to the business, why was it never part of the role, the pay or the recognition? Companies that answer that honestly tend to get the encore back.
Say it like you mean it
“Engagement in the team has dropped: people are meeting the role but not volunteering beyond it, and I want to understand why.”
Describes the behaviour and asks the useful question, without a label that puts people on the defensive.“She’s a quiet quitter.”
It is a diagnosis without a conversation, and it is often said about people who are simply working the hours they are paid for.If you are the one setting boundaries, say that: “I’m keeping to my contracted hours this quarter.” It is clearer, it is professional, and it gives your manager something to respond to besides a meme.
What the research says drives engagement, and why most retention perks miss the point.
Decoded next
Decoded by the Kurums editorial team. Kurums Decoded translates the language of business for people who are new to it. Definitions are kept short on purpose; the serious version above goes deep. Nothing here is financial, legal or career advice.
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