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I agree with many of the points Laura Yuen makes in her piece "The problem with #QuietQuitting" (Sept. 25). It is a privilege to partake in or discuss this concept in a culture that valued work above all else for too long. However, I encourage people to dive a bit deeper into the research before writing this trend off as a mere rejection of "hustle culture."
Yuen pointed out that Gallup, the leading researcher in employee engagement, called "quiet quitting" a crisis. Since she defines the term as "workers refusing to go the extra mile to do work for which they're not being compensated," readers might infer it's a crisis for organizations, as it's detrimental to their bottom line. In reality, Gallup finds that actively disengaged employees report feeling more anger, stress and physical pain than unemployed individuals. By contrast, Anthony Klotz (who coined the term "Great Resignation") defines "quiet quitting" as a refusal to engage in citizenship behaviors — activities that aren't captured in a job description, such as mentoring, helping out a struggling colleague or working to improve a company's culture.
Americans are redefining their relationship to work in ways we haven't seen since World War II. In periods of growth and unrest, people are desperate to label how they're feeling; perhaps we're clinging to an imperfect term that means something different to everyone. Instead, maybe we can shift our energy (and ink) from disparaging the term to something more constructive, like coming together to design work that people love — however they define it.
Leah Phifer, Minneapolis
The writer is founder of WhyWork.
ELECTIONS
Why not focus on issues that affect you reliably often?
I'm trying to identify why abortion rights would be so important that they would become the single factor in determining someone's vote.