Quite Quitting

Now what...

I tried to pay attention to the conversation again. After all, I had to report all of this to all the assholes in the room. Email them, he said. Monitor the response, he demanded. When do I have to monitor the responses till? Till 10? Till 11? Till I drop dead from overworking?

Quiet Quitting. It had the word quitting in it. Something I've been trying to do for the last month.

I checked out of the meeting again and, this time, using my phone as a distraction. I googled Quiet Quitting. The first article defined it as the way out for the lazy guy who still needs a steady paycheck. Quiet Quitting, according to the article writer, was for people who do not strive for perfection or career advancement, so they don't give 110%, only do the bare minimum. This did not align at all with me personally. Not something I can do. I clicked out of it, deciding not to bother anymore on this topic, and went back to the meeting.

"Char, section 5.a. Note down that request by Shawn's team was declined by Vcard, and that's why our team worded it the way we did." Eric barked, not at me, but at Shawn.

"Sure thing!" I said, then typed vigorously, adding to my notes. These assholes were ripping this 20-page contract word by word for the last hour. Alex was only supposed to be gone till 6:30. It was almost hitting 7. He must be enjoying his new conquest. Ew. Let me ignore the fact that I called an actual, living, breathing woman with ambitions –probably– a conquest.

My phone blinked with Sugar's message. I opened it, and it read, 'you sure you don't want to come to Cal's? I wanted to go as the three musketeers.' No, thank you.

'Stuck at work. You have fun. Drink a drink for me.' I typed back.

'Boo, Alex sucks! Okay...I won't be back tonight, so don't wait up,' she texted back right away.

My first Halloween weekend in my 30s, and I am missing it. Sugar was right; Boo Alex sucks.

"Charlotte!" An Aussie accent called my name, snapping me out of the pity party I was about to throw myself.

"Yes, Shawn."

"Thanks for the summary of the contract you sent with the email. Made my job so much easier! Saved me hours! You are a Beaut!"

"Uh...thank you," I cooed back. Glad I saved you hours, bud because I wasted half my day making your life easier. For some reason, this made me angry. Shawn was probably making twice as much as me, yet I was doing more work. I turned my phone back on and typed Quiet Quitting once more. This time I skipped all the articles that seemed to be criticizing the term. I decided that if someone like Dug/Duke/vest-wearing pig hated the term, it couldn't all be bad.

According to BurnedOutBabe, Quiet Quitting is a method in which your overachievers find a way to strike a work-life balance. She stated: In today's connected world, everyone is just a touch of a button away. Great for employers, who can easily text, 'can you hop on this call? Can you send out this one email?' But what about the employee, someone like me, who needs to ensure her work is done right away and perfectly so there is no room for complaints. Forget giving 110%. I would give 1000% most days. Eventually, I burned myself out and decided to quit. Find another place that would most likely treat me the same. The sad thing is, I liked what I did! So why should I have to give this up and start the cycle all over again when you can set boundaries with people who know you. Tell them you are not available on the weekend and that after 5, your phone and emails go on silent. Tell them you are allowed a personal life without apologizing for it. They hired you to get one person's job done, so why is it fair that companies now slowly ask you to give up more and more of your free time. 9-5. That is all you legally owe them. More than convincing them, you will have to convince yourself. You will have to be okay with giving a little less than you usually do. Decide today! Set boundaries now! Or you will let your Employer take illegal advantage of you!