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Last year, social media popularized quiet quitting, a practice that's actually already been around for a while but did not have a name. It means doing the bare minimum at work to prevent burnout. It is not promoting laziness at work, as career coach Bryan Creely explained in a TikTok video. Rather, it is about prioritizing one's mental well-being and discarding the toxicity of hustle culture. 

Advantages of quiet quitting

Quiet quitting allows an employee to stick to what's written in their contract and helps them avoid doing some extra work, and then some more. This helps reduce the feeling of being overworked, stressed and burnt out.

It also helps an employee set boundaries and emphasize their priorities. This means that at the end of the workday, they clock out at the precise minute, and they actually end their workday. They do not bring any work home. Instead, they can focus on their priorities - whether it's spending time with their family, building their hobbies, or getting physically fit.

Aside from that, quiet quitting also helps boost productivity. While this may sound counterintuitive to some, the practice helps a person focus only on the important tasks instead of juggling multiple roles.

Disadvantages of quiet quitting

While its primary objective is to promote mental health, quiet quitting also comes with some risks. Because they are only doing the bare minimum, these employees have decreased their chances of getting promoted. 

The reality is that overperforming gets noticed by management, and that is when a person receives a promotion, so doing the bare minimum will not help you climb the corporate ladder. In extreme cases, it might even result in losing your job.

Therefore, it is necessary to understand that the practice has no exact formula. It mostly depends on a case-to-case basis, where the decision of different employees to quit quietly from their companies will have different results.