With the Great Resignation came a lot of new terminology and a revival of old terminology. People are rethinking work and rethinking their work/life balance. People want the option of working from home. People want to be treated with respect. People want to do the bare minimum and collect a paycheck. So, I was out of the loop about “quiet quitting,” so here’s a definition, via WaPo:
There’s been a great hue and cry lately over “quiet quitting”— also known as “working to rule,” “lying flat,” or otherwise declining to go above and beyond what you are paid to do in your job. Quiet quitting looks to many like a reasonable retreat from the round-the-clock hustle culture. But to others, quiet quitting represents disengaged employees sandbagging and shirking all but the minimum effort, not expecting — or not caring — that their employers might fire them for it.
Is this really quiet quitting, to do what your job requires and nothing more? Isn’t that just… working? A lot of people do that. Anyway, I had to look up “quiet quitting” because Gawker used it in a headline about Queen Elizabeth II. A 96-year-old in poor health, with severe mobility issues, is apparently “quiet quitting” because she’s making Boris Johnson and the new prime minister come to Balmoral next week:
For the first time in her historic 70-year reign, Queen Elizabeth will appoint a new prime minister in Scotland.
Buckingham Palace confirmed Wednesday that the monarch, 96, will receive either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak as leader of the Conservative Party at Balmoral Castle, where she traditionally spends her summers, on Sept. 6. Outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson will also travel to Scotland for a formal farewell.
A source explains that the decision was taken for the audiences to take place at Balmoral to provide certainty for the new prime minister and Johnson’s schedules. The Queen has been experiencing episodic mobility issues, and they wanted to avoid the issue of alternative arrangements at the last minute had the plan been for the monarch to travel to London or Windsor Castle.
Appointing the prime minister is one of the Queen’s key duties, one she wouldn’t delegate to her son and heir Prince Charles. Charles, 73, has been undertaking an increasing number of roles on the monarch’s behalf in recent months.
This is what the royal commentators have been fearing for weeks now, especially when it became clear that the Queen’s health has taken a bad turn in Scotland. As I said previously, I don’t think it’s some BFD that the Queen is forcing the new prime minister to come to Scotland for the hand-kiss or whatever. I wish the courtiers had made this kind of concession to the Queen’s health for the past year. That being said, I guess it is “quiet quitting”? The Queen is doing the bare minimum, all to hang onto the throne. I suspect we won’t actually get another round of “the Queen should just abdicate.” She won’t. She’s going to hang on AND do the bare minimum. Also: it will be a very big deal if the palace doesn’t release photos of the Queen with the new PM.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar, Backgrid.
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- 11/06/2021. London, United Kingdom. Prime Minister Boris Johnson G7 Summit Day One . HM Queen Elizabeth II accompanied by The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge joins the Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie for the G7 leaders summit reception & dinner at the Eden Project as the Prime Minister Boris Johnson chairs the G7 Leaders Summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall. .,Image: 615377261, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: This image is for Editorial use purposes only. The Image can not be used for advertising or commercial use. The Image can not be altered in any form., Model Release: no, Credit line: Andrew Parsons / Avalon
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- Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Boris Johnson greet guests at a reception for the Global Investment Summit in Windsor Castle, Windsor, England, Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2021.,Image: 638818066, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: POOL, Model Release: no, Credit line: Alastair Grant / Avalon
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- Britain’s Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, (L) shakes hands with Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson (R) upon arrival at Westminster Abbey, in London, on March 14, 2022 to attend the Commonwealth Day service ceremony.,Image: 669612599, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: DANIEL LEAL / Avalon
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- Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Louis on the balcony of Buckingham Palace for the fly past after Trooping The Colour – The Queen’s Birthday Parade, London, UK – 02 Jun 2022,Image: 696416836, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Copyright Paul Grover, Model Release: no, Credit line: Paul Grover / Avalon
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- Britain’s Queen Elizabeth departs after the lighting of the Principal Platinum Jubilee Beacon ceremony at Windsor Castle in Windsor, Great Britain, June 2, 2022.,Image: 696553083, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: TOBY MELVILLE / Avalon
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- Windsor, UNITED KINGDOM – Queen Elizabeth II at Day Two of the Royal Windsor Horse Show 2022, at Windsor Castle, Windsor, Berkshire, UK. Pictured: Queen, Queen Elizabeth II BACKGRID USA 13 MAY 2022 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Queen Elizabeth II welcomes newly elected leader of the Conservative party Boris Johnson during an audience in Buckingham Palace, London, where she invited him to become Prime Minister and form a new government.
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- Queen Elizabeth II welcomes newly elected leader of the Conservative party Boris Johnson during an audience in Buckingham Palace, London, where she invited him to become Prime Minister and form a new government.
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- Queen Elizabeth II welcomes newly elected leader of the Conservative party Boris Johnson during an audience in Buckingham Palace, London, where she invited him to become Prime Minister and form a new government.
Quiet quitting Lol, the lady is 30 years past retirement age.
She asked for it, when she took the throne she promised she would do her queen duty until death, so she’s just keeping her word and she wants it the narrative to go down like that in history: the devoted queen to her country until the end. That will be the line. Im not sure what else could be her legacy? the lady is a hard worker, but I havent seen anything that made her change the word? Sorry, it feels harsh to say that.
Well that’s a heck of a legacy, isn’t it? “Queen Elizabeth II…she was there.”
It’s almost like this woman only sees herself as some inferior female placeholder waiting to hand the throne off to a MALE successor. She’s practically a bystander in her own reign.
Or even worse — she’s quietly telling herself she’s got to hold on as long as possible bc look what’s coming after. No one wants Charles or Will as monarch. While the Queen “led” the country with stability for 70 years as a monarch she raised a genuinely lousy family. She goes and there’s a good chance that within a year 1000 years of monarchy goes down with her.
“quiet quitting” is a stupid term that says a lot about the American work culture. Doing what you are paid to do is doing your job, not quiet quitting. I do hope that more talk about this term etc makes people realize how ludicrous some expectations are. Its one of the reasons I love being a fed. I do my job and that’s it. If I take on extra work (a workgroup, training, etc) that takes the place of my main job and my boss takes some of THAT work off my plate. I work 8 hours a day, I can’t check my email outside of those work hours. If I work on the weekend I make overtime. I know not every fed is as lucky as I am, but its one of the reasons I’ve been in the same place since I graduated law school (promotions yes, but same component) and I am NEVER leaving, lol. Even though my job is boring as crap (hence why i’m here, lol.)
Anyway, that aside…..its clear the Queen is doing the bare minimum at this point. She’s doing what she HAS to do (invite the PM to form a government) and that’s about it. When was the last time we saw her? July? Whether its mobility issues or cognitive issues or just general decline, I think we’re seeing the end.
But I also am pretty sure I said that a year ago, soooo……
There’s a recent article about quiet quitting in the BBC Worklife section; not just a US thing. White collar workers all over Europe are experiencing demands to increase their work hours and decrease in pay and/or increased retirement age.
On Wall Street, quiet quitting was when you dropped dead silently at your desk.
Lol, that’s exactly what l interpreted this term as, dropping dead at your desk through overwork.
It is a stupid term. I realized a good 10-15 years ago that going above & beyond was never really appreciated yet it was noticed enough to become expected, so I just stopped. I’ll work my 80 hours (two-week federal pay period) and that’s it. No, I won’t do overtime (diminishing returns anyway after GS9 Step 4, the last pay grade for which it still is time & a half OT), no I won’t work weekends, no I won’t answer my work cell phone outside my normal working hours, and so on. I won’t work myself into a grave, that ultimate in quiet quitting.
“Also: it will be a very big deal if the palace doesn’t release photos of the Queen with the new PM.”
Oh, they’ll heavily photoshop those pictures first, then release them to “prove” she’s fine.
All of this is so stupid. First of all, it’s not “quiet quitting,” it’s doing your job. Second of all, she’s a tired old lady who should have been put out to pasture (almost literally in her case) to go play with her ponies 25 years ago and let somebody else do the “work.” Nobody gives a crap about “divine duty” or whatever she calls it except her. What a stupid concept. Argh. Sorry everybody, I’m in a foul mood today.
I think a lot of people are invested in keeping TQ on duty as long as possible – things will change for them under Charles.
When is the new PM decided, or was it already? Truss or Sunak? And it seems like it’ll be Truss right? This is what I know from scanning headlines on Twitter, so not too much.
Well, the deadline for the handover is in five days, so with THIS government they’ll probably bicker pointlessly about whether or not the new PM should take a tin of fancy biscuits to the meeting as a present for the Queen AND what kind of biscuits it should be right up until about 25 minutes before the plane has to leave for Scotland and then they’ll suddenly realize they haven’t actually determined WHO the new PM will be, and it will be decided by a best two-out-of-three musical chairs tournament.
I was hoping they would have time for a quick round or two of rochambeaux. 😂
The bare minimum? She’s like a million years old! She probably just wants to keep the monarchy out of her idiot son’s hands and idiot grandson’s hands as long as possible. You guys get so judgy! Maybe she’s too busy watching Chris Rock videos to bother working!
I have news for you — the monarchy is now, for the most part, in the hands of Charles as soft regent. She’s not a million years old, she’s 96 and very frail but it has been her stated life-long duty to be Monarch and head of state until she dies, not some employee who is forced to retire at 65 with a watch as thanks. Maybe she’s too busy preparing Charles for her imminent death and taking on his role as King. SMH.
Agreed. It seems like Charles has been in power for quite some time now (probably starting with him and Andrew forcing out Lord Geidt in 2017), it’s just become more apparent in this past year, year and a half. His power has also likely increased as the Queen’s health has worsened.
Quiet Quitting reminds me a lot of a term that was flying around about maybe 10-15 years ago – the Japanese Strike – which is basically the same concept. You do the job you’re supposed to do, no more. Nothing wrong with that in my view!!
They keep creating new terms and trying to sell these things as something new but it’s almost always a repackaging of something else.
Technically she’s not “quiet quitting” because she’s NOT doing the bare minimum of her job – instead of going to England, she’s making the new PM come to Scotland.
But when she was in better shape she was a quiet quitter. So are the rest of the royals. They fake smile at peasants for 10 minutes a week and in return they each get 4 mansions and a life of luxury. Unless they marry a person of color, of course.
Several unions in Canada have taken issue with the term “quiet quitting” and have put out statements saying it is a victim-blaming term meant to shame people who are working to rule. Food for thought, as noted in the article.
I also don’t think the queen is “quiet quitting” or “working to rule.” I just think she’s too old and fragile to do anything more than the occasional appearance.
“Quiet quitting” is an offensive term. It shames employees who are simply doing what they’re being paid to do, full stop, and distracts from the fact that employers have, for years, browbeat workers into giving away their labour for free. How about we say these workers are “doing compensated work.”
Maybe she’s just trying to avoid having to meet Liz Truss. With what I’ve seen of her, I wouldn’t blame her.
Before I retired I spent literally decades HAVING to do more than my jobs entailed to be considered worthy of a raise or promotion. The pressure was intense, especially having to report to workaholic bosses who’d think nothing of calling me while I was on vacation. I’m glad workers are starting to fight back and get some proper work-life balance. The company I worked for until I retired jumped on the work-life balance bandwagon, but all it was was lip service. We were still expected to go above and beyond.
I remember my boss telling me right after I had my son that there was zero possibility for me to get more than average review if I didn’t work more than 40 hours week — even though the quality of my work was excellent.
And my boss wasn’t even being bitchy about it. She had had twins six months before my son was born and was very sympathetic. But my boss knew that I was a sole parent, with no family in town, and regularly working 50+ hour weeks just wasn’t going to happen for me anymore. She and I both knew that that was how our world works.
Ironically, I still did work overtime. Like the time I worked until 3 AM for a deadline, got up at 4 AM to nurse my 3-month-old, and got a message at 6 AM that the release date was rolled by two weeks….
At this point, I think Charles is the de facto King and the Queen is brought out on occasions to show the public that she’s still alive and pretend that she’s still in charge.
I think it’s insulting, too! I know from ugly experience that a lot of times you go above and beyond your job description…and someone else gets promoted over you. I think work/life balance is vitally important to people. I do sometimes put in the extra effort nowadays, but not to the extent of completely forfeiting my free time. Also, I adore what I do for a living, so it’s no big deal. That being said…I think it’s insane that the Queen is still plodding along, when she should be enjoying her golden years—but she did promise long ago that she’d carry on. In the meantime, Charles looks like death warmed over, and will probably last 5 minutes on the throne himself. Then the country will get the do-nothings.
A 96 year old monarch who has been on the job for 70 years is allowed to have “the work” brought to her.
Meh. If Boris had left when he got the no confidence vote this would have been wrapped up already. I wouldn’t interrupt my vacation either for that fool.
I think the term is stupid, but the underlying rationale should strongly be considered. It has become the norm for employers to expect more than 40 hours, email checking, responding to texts, answering phone calls blah blah blah outside of working hours without additional compensation. Nope.
PS The Queen isn’t quiet quitting. She’s merely an exhausted shell.
This is off-topic, so I apologize. But I look at that photo of BoJo bowing to the Queen and — his loathsomeness aside — I cannot imagine bowing to someone who doesn’t bow in return.
I just don’t get monarchy. As for quiet quitting, that should be expected workplace behavior, but we all know that in the private sector in the US, it’s not.