“It’s a new name for an old phenomenon; it just got worse after two and a half years of the pandemic,” David Zweig, a professor of organizational behavior and human resource management at the University of Toronto, told CTVNews.ca. by phone on Thursday. “I think the last two and a half years have really brought this idea of work-life balance into conscious awareness for everyone, and we’re not willing to go back to what it was before.” While the idea behind quietly quitting isn’t new, the COVID-19 pandemic has fueled an unprecedented invasion of the workplace into people’s homes, disrupting traditional work hours for many. Widespread staff shortages, meanwhile, have led some employers to ask their workers to take on new or additional duties, sometimes without more pay. Seeking better work-life balance and encouraged by the current job market, some workers are quietly pushing back — not by slacking off, but by focusing on core job requirements while forgoing the kind of extra efforts one might make for recognition or career advancement . “I recently learned about this term ‘quiet resignation,’ where you don’t quit your job completely, but you give up the idea of going above and beyond,” TikToker Zaid Khan said in a July 25 viral video that featured the term. broad attention. “We’ve seen the walls between work and home life disappear, but much worse. We’ve been asked to do more and more with less and less,” Zweig added. “It’s a response to silly things like the whole ‘hustle culture’ idea, which is just another name for a toxic workplace culture.” But Toronto-based labor and employment lawyer Nadia Halum Arauz cautions that there are few legal protections for those who choose to respond with a silent resignation. “An employer can fire an employee for any reason as long as that reason is not discriminatory or retaliatory,” Halum Arauz told CTVNews.ca by phone Thursday. “All the employer needs to provide is notice that the relationship is ending or pay in lieu, which is usually referred to as severance pay or a severance package.” But by first talking to your employer about workload issues and trying to establish clearer work-life boundaries with them, Halum Arauz says you can insulate yourself from potential retaliation. “Having an open discussion is probably the best way,” said Hallum Arauz. “Especially because, to me, doing that would actually strengthen your protection, because terminations can’t be retaliatory. So, bringing something to your employer’s attention, if you get retaliated against as a result, you know, that’s a different history”. “It’s also important for employers to have clearly defined job descriptions,” Ottawa-based employment lawyer Samara Belitzky told CTVNews.ca via email Thursday. “This makes it clear to both employer and employee what the expectations are for a particular role and can avoid future confusion about duties and other terms of employment.” Belitzky says you should immediately raise your concerns with your employer if there are any unwanted changes to your usual duties or work hours. “Employees who refuse these things can not only express their refusal and the respective reasons to their employers, but should do so in writing so they have a record in case the employer takes further action in the future,” explained Belitzky. . “If an employee works under different conditions, without expressing a refusal, he can be considered to have accepted the changes and the new conditions can form part of his working conditions going forward.” Zweig says employers should also be proactive in opening dialogue and providing support to employees who may be disengaged from work due to burnout. “Once people get burned, it’s really hard to come back from it,” he said. “It will require a real commitment from organizations to address the issues around burnout and reassess how performance is monitored, how it’s measured and help workers set boundaries so they don’t feel those effects.”
