‘It’s called acting your wage!’: News article sparks debate on ‘quiet quitting’
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Some netizens say employees should not feel bad about doing only what they are paid to do.
ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
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SINGAPORE - Netizens took to social media platforms to air their grievances regarding the term “quiet quitting” in response to an article that was published in The Straits Times on Tuesday.
Many seemed to share the same opinion, calling the term “unfair”.
The article on quiet quitters
According to the survey, out of 1,000 respondents in Singapore aged between 18 and 67, 35 per cent indicated that they have “quiet quit” their job. This is 4 percentage points higher than the global average.
“It’s called just doing your job and acting your wage, why even give it a name?” said a netizen on Twitter.
Some netizens on a Reddit thread asserted that the term was used by employers to “gaslight their employees into doing more than what was needed of them”.
“What’s so bad about just doing your job?” one of them asked.
Ms Diana Ng, clinic director of 8daffodils Counselling and Psychotherapy, agreed that “one should always have a choice in how they work”.
“Quiet quitters should not be penalised or disadvantaged for just doing what they have to,” she said, adding that some employees may want to prioritise other things in life.
Ms Ng said some employees, especially newcomers who joined their companies during the Covid-19 period and worked from home mostly, could also have “a job is just a job” mentality.
“Not having enough face-to-face interactions with others at work may have perpetuated a sense of non-belonging,” she added. “This could have led to the ‘a job is just a job mindset.”
Ms Roberta Balagopal, Senior Consultant of Gary and Pearl International, a company specialising in career counselling, said “quiet quitting could be a way to describe the response to a burnout”.
Principal therapist of The Lighthouse Counselling, Ms Belinda Lau, said it is important for employees to take good care of their own work-life balance, but still, they should remain “psychologically engaged at work”.
She said doing just the bare minimum at work may not generate a sense of dedication and commitment. “It (can) eventually lead to a prolonged sense of demoralisation,” she cautioned.
