A Small Rebellion Called Quiet Quitting

Listening to Complaints Over the Weekend

Over the weekend, I was listening to my wife complain about her company.

Her boss, the organization, the lack of people, evaluations, and so on. They were the kinds of complaints you can hear at almost any company, but for the person involved, they are not trivial at all.

I listened while giving the usual casual responses, and after a while I remembered a phrase that was popular not so long ago: quiet quitting.

In short, it is the idea of doing only the minimum required work and valuing your own life outside the job.

I thought about bringing it up, but I decided not to.

I will explain why later. First, I want to write about how quiet quitting is understood a little differently in Japan than it is in the United States.

The American Context

When the phrase emerged overseas, especially in the American context, it had a much drier tone.

It meant reducing productivity as far as possible and waiting for the company to begin the termination process. Or it meant staying in idle mode until the next job was secured.

Behind that idea is a fluid labor market, where both sides assume that if you do not like the company, you leave, and if the company does not want you, it lets you go.

Japan’s version of quiet quitting has a very different atmosphere.

After all, this country has the powerful shield known as Japanese-style employment.

Even if you show no enthusiasm, and even if you decide to work only for the amount you are paid, you are unlikely to be fired overnight.

So in Japan, quiet quitting was not accepted as a survival tactic. It was accepted more as a lifestyle idea: stop devoting yourself excessively to the company.

I do not think that is a bad thing.

A Healthy Change, But Not the Whole Story

For far too long, we have treated throwing ourselves into work as a virtue.

Working overtime was normal.

Thinking about work even on days off was normal.

Doing your best for the company was normal.

Many people have lived inside those values.

So if more people begin to think, “Work is work, and my life is my life,” that is probably a healthy change.

At the same time, there is something about it that bothers me a little.

Behind the phrase “minimum work is enough,” I can sense a certain kind of resignation.

• No matter how hard I work, my salary will not rise.
• No matter how hard I try, I will not be evaluated properly.
• No matter what I do, my life will not change.

Waking up from excessive enthusiasm is healthy.

But I still do not know what comes after that. Is it a richer private life, or is it just plain indifference?

People Who Cannot Quiet Quit

That was what I was thinking about as I listened to my wife talk.

Then I realized something midway through.

My wife probably cannot quiet quit.

Even while getting angry at an unreasonable boss, she cannot simply abandon her work in the end.

Even while complaining, she ultimately does what needs to be done.

For better or worse, she is serious about her work.

And I am probably the same way.

That is why I never brought up quiet quitting after all.

It is easy to say, “Why not just work for what you are paid?”

But surprisingly few people can actually do that.

On Monday, we go back to work while complaining. On Friday, we come home saying we are exhausted.

Somehow, we keep repeating that cycle.

I do not know whether that is happiness or unhappiness.

But at the very least, it seems we have not become completely cold toward work yet.

That is why I did not talk about quiet quitting.

Neither of us is suited for it anyway.