quiet quitting
noun (also quiet quitter; verb: quiet quit)say it: KWY-uht KWIT-ingSafeCurrent
Doing your job, and only your job.
Quiet quitting means staying in your job but doing only what the role and your paid hours require: no unpaid overtime, no volunteering for extra projects, no answering email at midnight. Nobody actually resigns. Dictionary.com defines it as deliberately doing the bare minimum at work. The phrase went viral on TikTok in July and August 2022.
- Plain English
- doing the job as written, setting work boundaries, checking out
- Older version
- work-to-rule, coasting, phoning it in
- First seen
- Earliest known use a March 2022 tweet; viral on TikTok from July 2022
- Used by
- Workers, managers, HR writers and news outlets
- School-safe?
- Yes
What does quiet quitting mean?
The name is misleading on purpose. A quiet quitter has not quit anything. They still clock in, still do the work, still collect a paycheck. What they have quit is the idea that a good employee should give more than the job asks for.
Dictionary.com defines quiet quitting as deliberately doing the bare minimum at one's job, and notes it is often tied to frustration with working conditions, expectations or pay. In practice it usually looks like this:
- Logging off at the end of paid hours, and not checking messages after.
- Saying no to extra projects that come with no extra pay or title.
- Skipping optional after-hours events.
- Doing tasks well, but not volunteering for more.
The phrase carries two very different stories, and which one you hear depends on who is talking. To many younger workers in 2022, it meant reclaiming time and refusing burnout. To many managers, it described employees who had mentally checked out. Gallup took the second view: in September 2022 its chief workplace scientist, Jim Harter, wrote that quiet quitters, by which Gallup meant employees who are not engaged, made up at least half of the US workforce.
Other meanings. Occasionally people use "quiet quitting" for drifting out of a hobby, friendship or app without announcing it. That loose sense borrows the workplace term and is less common.
Examples
- TikTok caption: "Day 30 of quiet quitting: logged off at 5, slept 8 hours, nobody died."
- Manager to HR: "He's not doing anything wrong exactly. He's just stopped raising his hand for anything. Is that quiet quitting?"
- Restaurant break room: "They want us to stay and deep-clean for free again. I'm quiet quitting the extra stuff."
- Teacher's lounge: "I used to grade until midnight. This year I'm grading during my planning period and that's it."
- Opinion headline style: "Quiet quitting isn't a crisis. It's people doing the job they were hired for."
- Parent and teen with a part-time job: "Are you quiet quitting, or did they actually cut your hours?"
- LinkedIn comment: "If doing your job description counts as quitting, the job description is the problem."
The term works as a noun ("quiet quitting is spreading") and a label for a person ("she's a quiet quitter"). A verb form, "I'm quiet quitting," is common in posts.
Where did quiet quitting come from?
No one can be credited with inventing the phrase, but its rise in 2022 is well documented.
- April 2021. On Chinese social media, the tang ping or "lying flat" movement rejects overwork. Wikipedia notes it is thought to have inspired quiet quitting.
- March 24, 2022. Know Your Meme records the earliest known use: a tweet from the account @DrJustinC90 describing an "era of quiet quitting" amid burnout and resignations.
- March 30, 2022. YouTuber Timothy Ward posts a video weighing its pros and cons.
- July 25, 2022. TikToker @zaidleppelin posts a video rejecting hustle culture and describing quiet quitting. Know Your Meme reports it passed 3 million views within a month, and the idea floods TikTok that August.
- August 2022. Newspapers including The Telegraph cover the trend, and the debate over whether it is healthy or lazy goes mainstream.
- September 6, 2022. Gallup publishes "Is Quiet Quitting Real?", drawing on a June 2022 survey of 15,091 US employees.
The idea itself is far older. Labor unions have long used "work-to-rule," in which employees do exactly what their contract requires and nothing more.
Is quiet quitting rude?
The phrase is not rude. It is used in news headlines, HR newsletters and classrooms without any problem.
The label can be pointed, though. Calling a specific coworker a "quiet quitter" implies they are coasting, and that is an accusation, not a neutral description. Wikipedia notes that employers may see such workers as willfully underperforming rather than as people setting reasonable limits. For a teen with a first job, the honest advice is that doing the job well and leaving on time is fine, while doing the job badly is not quiet quitting, it is just doing it badly.
How to reply to quiet quitting
- A friend says they're quiet quitting: "Good for you, as long as it's boundaries and not a slow fade. Are you looking for something else?"
- Your teen says they're quiet quitting their weekend job: "That's fine if you're doing your shift properly. Are they asking you to stay late without pay?"
- A coworker accuses the team of quiet quitting: "We're delivering what's in scope. If the scope has grown, let's talk about staffing, not attitude."
Quiet quitting and the other "quiet" words
The term launched a whole family of workplace phrases, most of them defined in Wikipedia's entry:
| Term | Who does it | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Quiet quitting | Employee | Doing only what the job requires |
| Quiet firing | Employer | Offering the bare minimum, hoping an unwanted worker leaves |
| Quiet hiring | Employer | Giving current staff extra duties instead of hiring |
| Quiet cutting | Employer | Reassigning workers rather than laying them off (2023) |
| Quiet cracking | Employee | Staying put but slowly burning out (2025) |
Is quiet quitting still used in 2026?
Yes, though it is no longer a viral trend. It has settled into everyday English as the standard name for doing exactly your job, and Dictionary.com lists it as a 2022 coinage. Much of the attention has moved to newer workplace labels, above all quiet cracking for workers who stay but slowly wear down, along with job hugging and coffee badging. The new workplace terms guide puts them side by side.
Read more about quiet quitting
- Office speakCorporate Jargon List: What It Really Means and What to Say InsteadOver 90 office phrases sorted by where you meet them: meetings, email, strategy decks, reviews, layoffs and job ads. Each one gets its plain meaning, the subtext people hear, a clearer swap, and replies you can copy.15 min readNov 2026
Slang, comparedLowkey vs Highkey (and Other Confusing Slang Pairs)A plain answer to lowkey vs highkey, a test that settles any sentence, and side-by-side tables for the other pairs that trip people up, from cap vs no cap to quiet quitting vs quiet cracking. Ends with a cheat sheet you can print.15 min readNov 2026- Work wordsNew Workplace Terms 2026: Job Hugging, Quiet Cracking, Ghost JobsThe work buzzwords people are using this year, sorted by the problem they describe. Each comes with a plain meaning, who named it and when, how solid the evidence is, and a line you can actually say.15 min readNov 2026
Office speakPassive-Aggressive Email Phrases and Polite AlternativesMore than 30 email phrases sorted by situation, each with a heat rating, the message people actually hear, and a polite rewrite. Plus before-and-after emails, reply scripts for when you receive one, and a one-page cheat sheet.15 min readNov 2026
Related slang
- quiet crackingStaying in a job while slowly falling apart inside.SafeWork & office speak
- job huggingClinging to your current job because the market feels too shaky to leave.SafeWork & office speak
- coffee badgingShowing up at the office just long enough to be counted, then leaving.SafeWork & office speak
- ghost jobsJob listings with no real intention to hire behind them.SafeWork & office speak
- OOOOut of office; away from work and not answering.SafeWork & office speak
- bandwidthSpare time and mental energy.SafeWork & office speak
lock inFocus completely. Get serious.SafeGen Z slang
FAQ
Is quiet quitting the same as being lazy?
Not necessarily. Someone who quiet quits still does the job they are paid for, on time and to standard. What they stop doing is the unpaid extra: late nights, weekend messages, volunteering for every new project. Whether that looks like laziness or healthy limits usually depends on whether you are the worker or the boss.
Can you get fired for quiet quitting?
If you are meeting the written expectations of your role, quiet quitting by itself is not misconduct. In practice, the line between "doing my job" and "underperforming" is set by your manager, your contract and local employment law, so some employers do respond with warnings or tighter rules. Knowing exactly what your job description says helps.
Who started quiet quitting?
Nobody can be credited with coining it. Know Your Meme traces the earliest known use to a tweet from March 2022, and a July 2022 TikTok by the user @zaidleppelin made it go viral. The behavior itself is much older; unions have long called a version of it "work-to-rule."
What is the opposite of quiet quitting?
Hustle culture, or going above and beyond: treating work as the center of your life and taking on more than the role requires. Some writers also contrast it with "quiet firing," where an employer nudges a worker out instead of firing them outright.
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Sources
- quiet quitting, Dictionary.com
- Quiet Quitting, Know Your Meme
- Is Quiet Quitting Real?, Gallup (2022-09-06)
- Work-to-rule (Quiet quitting), Wikipedia
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