By Mulengera Reporters
With more and more people around the world using the rise in work-from-home jobs to address their work-life balance, there’s a new cultural phenomenon on the rise. The urge to quiet quit and start a new freelance business has never been greater in certain sections of the workforce. We’re going to take a look at the key trends that are emerging and how new industries are set to sprout up.
What is quiet quitting?
Quiet quitting is where you gradually put in less and less effort and simply go through the motions. You are still employed, you still do your work, but you never do a second of overtime or put any extra thought into the tasks at hand. Going quiet in meetings is a literal example, but it’s really all about doing the minimum required to keep your job. While we would never recommend this as a way to advance a career, we do note that it is a pattern of behaviour that is becoming increasingly common.
Working from home and hybrid roles conducted largely over Zoom and Slack lend themselves to quiet quitting. If a worker is seen online at the right times and delivers their work when they say they will, their bosses and supervisors will be largely oblivious to what they are doing the rest of the time. The fascinating thing about quiet quitters is that they are rarely low-level workers within any given team — most quiet quitters are disenchanted high performers. They know they can do their work in a fraction of their 40-hour week and then put their feet up, and that’s exactly what they’re doing.
The appeal of freelance work
Opting to become a freelancer gives high achievers the chance to be the boss and free themselves from the rigmarole of having to directly exchange time for money. Companies that don’t reward talent with raises and promotions will lose an increasing number of highly skilled workers to the freelance world. Many are quiet quitting their salaried positions to moonlight as freelancers and consultants in their respective fields.
Many quiet quitters who make the jump to the freelance world cite the fact that they feel like they are finally being paid what they are worth as their prime motivation. Being able to see a direct link between speed and quality of work and the pay received can be really empowering. It’s also something that allows the best and brightest to put themselves out there and find new of ways of doing business and making money.
New industries emerge
The rise of roles like virtual assistants, freelance content writers, and even freelance coders and scientific consultants is something to take note of. There’s an explosion of job boards and freelance platforms that match clients with freelancers, allowing workers to outsource much of their marketing and focus on what they do best. This is good news for those looking to make the switch as the creation of such platforms shows that there is plenty of work to be had, provided you land in the right place.
There are also more and more outsourced service businesses that work fully online. Gone are the days when media agencies would have to spend big on a city-centre premises — today it’s all about remote work and quickly onboarding freelancers from all over the world. One area where this really pays off is in the speed of creative output and the pace at which it can adapt to ever-changing user behaviour. Need to onboard a new client who wants video production alongside your normal offering of content writing and social media management? You are sure to find a freelance video producer who has recently quiet quit a much more static, restrictive role.
We can also expect to see more and more quiet quitters leverage the power of AI to streamline their processes. Content writing and coding always work best with the human touch, but that’s not to say that initial brainstorming and ideation can’t be taken care of much more efficiently. This alone makes quiet quitting a more attractive option for many as it can feel like you have a team by your side as soon as you decide to quietly make your move. Ideal when you want to make sure that you can stay the course and build a new career and move on out before your current boss even notices.
Is quiet quitting moral?
To answer this question, we really need to think about what it really means to work. Clearly if a surgeon quiet quits it is putting people in immediate danger, and no one would contest that. Quiet quitting is more for office-based roles in which it is easy to feel lost amongst the crowd because you cannot see the tangible results of a day at your desk.
Quiet quitting may annoy or shock some but to others it’s a way forward in life that will allow them to finally follow their passion. There are no judgements here — we are only trying to highlight the issue and understand the nature of the trend. And with that, we give you our final thoughts in the next section.
Final thoughts
Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised by these new emerging industries given that we’ve seen the rapid emergence of new businesses with tech paradigm shifts before. The dot com boom made sites like Netflix, Facebook, and Bonus Focus possible so that billions can now watch, socialize and play online with the click of a button.
Who knows what will happen as we see AI and AR make greater inroads into the world of work, but it will certainly be fascinating to find out. We also believe that quiet quitting will increasingly take on an element of social contagion. Teams in certain companies that don’t feel represented or heard could quiet quit in their droves and start new careers on the side. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
