Quiet quitting

/KWY-uht KWIT-ing/

noun

Doing your assigned job while refusing unpaid or unnecessary extra effort.

#internet slang
#workplace language
#work-life balance
#hustle culture

Meaning

Quiet quitting is a work posture in which someone continues completing their assigned and paid duties but declines unpaid, off-hours, or extra-role effort. It usually does not mean secretly resigning, deliberately doing poor work, or abandoning core responsibilities. Online, people may use it positively as a boundary-setting slogan against hustle culture; managers or critics may use the same label negatively to suggest disengagement or coasting.[1][4]

1. A pro-boundaries description of doing the job’s agreed requirements without treating work as one’s identity or life.
2. A critical label for an employee perceived as withholding discretionary effort, showing low ambition, or contributing less to a team.
3. A widely debated internet phrase whose meaning depends heavily on whether the speaker emphasizes contractual duties or effort beyond them.

Illustration of a person doing a deep yoga stretch on a mat while reaching to a laptop video call; a cat, weights, and exercise ball surround them. — Editorial illustration of a person stretching on a mat while participating in a laptop video call, evoking the tension between work demands and personal life. Source

Examples

“I’m not quiet quitting; I’m simply not answering work email at midnight.”

“She called it quiet quitting after years of unpaid weekend tasks.”

“Calling every boundary quiet quitting makes the phrase sound like a resignation.”

Origin and spread

The phrase is a deliberately paradoxical compound: “quitting” refers to quitting the expectation of going above and beyond, not quitting the employer. Available evidence ties its mass internet breakout to Zaid Khan’s 17-second TikTok from July 25, 2022, which he described as a term he had recently learned. CNBC reported that Khan popularized the trend, while a retrospective History of Work account cites the July 25 date. The record therefore documents Khan’s role in popularizing the modern internet sense, not his invention of the phrase. The underlying practice of limiting discretionary work clearly predates the viral label, but that does not establish an earlier use of this specific expression.[2]

How to use it

Use it carefully: self-description often signals boundaries, work-life balance, or resistance to hustle culture, while applying it to someone else can sound accusatory. It should not automatically mean poor performance or incomplete work; the central distinction is between meeting assigned duties and volunteering extra labor.

Why the label causes arguments

Supporters described quiet quitting as a way to protect mental health, relationships, interests, and avoid burnout. Critics treated the same behavior as coasting or a burden on coworkers; NPR quoted Kevin O’Leary saying people who shut their laptops at 5 would not work for him.[4]

Not the same as a mass resignation

The phrase can sound like evidence of a workforce-wide collapse, but NPR reported that Gallup’s overall data did not show a sizable recent shift in how workers felt about their jobs. The label spread faster than the evidence could settle its scale.[4]

Why “quitting” is misleading

The New Yorker describes the phrase as quitting the idea of going above and beyond while still performing one’s duties. That tension explains why some people use it as a boundary-setting slogan and others reject it as a misnomer.[2]

Questions people ask

Does quiet quitting mean doing the bare minimum?

Sometimes critics summarize it that way, but the more precise viral definition is completing assigned duties while refusing extra, unpaid, or off-hours labor. “Bare minimum” can wrongly imply that the worker is failing to do the job itself.[1][4]

Who coined quiet quitting?

Earliest use not established. The available evidence documents Zaid Khan popularizing the modern internet sense with a July 2022 TikTok, but reports say he had recently learned the term, so they do not establish him as its coiner.[1][3]

Is quiet quitting the same as burnout?

No. Burnout describes exhaustion or reduced capacity, while quiet quitting describes a work posture of limiting discretionary effort. Burnout may motivate that posture, but the terms are not synonyms.[4]