Engineer says she 'quiet quit' her job. Hear what that means

Page West, a former engineering consultant, discusses with CNN's Michael Smerconish why she "quiet quit" her job. #CNN #News

[billproctor]

I'm a retired truck driver and I busted my hump for 48 years before retiring . When I started working companies had benefits. They had pension plans. They had good insurance at affordable prices. In general they treated there employees with dignity and respect. Now you have nothing. You're treated like crap and expected to work for pennies on the dollar while doing the work of two people. The last trucking company I worked for had me working 80 hours in 6 days. Legally I could only work 70 hours in 8 days. They decided I wasn't doing enough. When I refused to do more I was threatened. So I quit!

[baikinman]

Is it “Quiet Promotion” when your boss eliminates three of your coworkers and dumps their responsibilities on you without extra compensation?

[kickingfatality]

I'm 54 years old . Busted my a** for companies over the years. Companies that showed NO loyalty to me as an employee. The second they felt i was no longer needed i was tossed like last weeks garbage then begged i come back when i was needed again and expected to work myself to exhaustion. No more. I 100% support this generation of workers doing this. They know that companies will shaft you no matter what. This attempt to guilt workers for just doing their jobs is f****g vile.

[nnuunnooc]

“Quiet quitting” is a misleading term designed to make people feel guilty for fulfilling their job roles but not willing to systematically sacrifice personal time for unpaid work, benefit their careers, supervisors or organizations.

[lalaj]

I learned very early in my employment career that companies will suck you dry and throw away your carcass if you let them. I agree with these young people. Workers are being taken advantage of by greedy employers that want you to do the job of three people for the wage of one, and that isn’t even a living wage. My mother always taught us that any job worth doing was worth doing well. She also taught us that you get what you pay for.

[andrewpayseur]

Imagine being upset because "My employees are only doing what I agreed to pay them to do." You want me to go above and beyond? Make my salary reflect that. I'm not "quietly quitting, " I'm what sane people would refer to as "refusing to be exploited."

[davidbingham]

She did a wonderful job. The interviewer clearly went into the interview trying to make a point about how awful “quiet quitting” is, and she completely reversed the narrative by the end, without ever being confrontational. Masterful.
And also, I don’t EVER listen to billionaire CEOs who complain their employees aren’t working hard enough. They don’t actually know any of their employees, just the numbers that show up on the balance sheet.

[Kim]

It's crazy that doing the job that's expected of you is now considered "quitting." And only if you're going above and beyond 24/7 are you "working." I'm glad we as a society are finally setting boundaries and getting our priorities straight.

[SajeD]

Most of us call it “doing the job you were hired for” and not falling for their theft of labor con bullshit.

[AGuyThatKnowsALittleBitAboutIt]

With CEO salaries growing faster and more significantly than employees, how is it not understandable that workers feel exploited? If you don't incentivize good work, then people will look for better opportunities. Smerconish portraying the employers as victims is comedic. Maybe the "quitters" are the CEO's of their own future. Never forget, your company will hire your replacement tomorrow if they feel like it. Nobody is irreplaceable.

[JB-xcjx]

she nailed it, my generation (30 and under) simply don't care about climbing the corporate ladder like our parents generation did. they see people in their 50s and 60s having done this path and how unfulfilling it is

[ChickenNugNugz]

"quiet quit" is such a disgusting term, a worker stops going above their job description, squashed every direction by bills and wages refuse to rise.... It used to be said if you work hard you can go far, these days if you work hard you'll just be ridden until you break

[timothy]

During the pandemic, I busted my ass for my company. Worked extra hours after taking a pay cut and was told that after everything got back to "normal" I would get an increase. Well, everything went back to "normal" but I never saw an increase. After I inquired I was told that the company couldn't afford it and it was left at that. For close to 6 months I did the absolute minimum my job required and every time they asked me to work some overtime I said no, all while looking elsewhere. I'm much happier now with my new employer and to top it off I work remotely which I absolutely love. Employers really need to understand we're not going to take the shit we used to, start appreciating us and paying us a fair wage.

[philgroves]

So, what I'm hearing is that the young woman was working a 9 - 5 corporate job (traditional), but wasn't feeling deeply invested (for whatever reasons), so she began to build her own business outside of "work". Finally, she dumped her "corporate job" in favor of her own, more fulfilling, home-grown business. So ... she's an entrepreneur ... and that makes her bad?

And Mr. Smerconish, if she's doing well, taking pride in her own production, and enjoying her personal business AND more fulfilling life ... why would she ever go back to that boring, dull, unfulfilling corporate job? I'm not really seeing anything weird here at all. Sounds like a perfectly good story of a woman who has built her own successful business. And she's quite content. Sounds good to me.

[evenessa]

its not called quiet quitting. Its called a work-life balance

[lelyluck]

What a professional young lady.
Cool and calm and collective.

I’m not lazy. I just realized how overworked I was with no carrot at the end of the stick.
Everyday there was more on your to do list.
I mentally checked out and went to work for the best boss there is myself.

[dascherofficial]

I love how effectively and completely she shut down his narrative.

[vanessagreen]

Best work advice I was ever given was “don’t do more work than your job requires, because if you do, the employer will take advantage and keep giving you more work without more pay”. People are finally realizing that, and saying that enough is enough. People should be compensated when they take on more duties, not exploited.

[alexanderwilson]

Im an Engineer and I had a coworker just retire at 70, he used to always say they, "They pay us in peanuts." and when you see people in your career choice retiring at an age where most are lucky to live to, it makes you rethink your future.

[christophmalone]

I worked my tail off at a job (hint: a fruit electronic store) for two years while chasing a promotion. Had the top metrics for the store by a wide margin. Got passed up for the promotion because I was too valuable in my position to lose. At that point I quiet quit and applied to grad school the next day. I got a scholarship, and just easily met my metrics until it was time for me to leave. Flash-forward 12 years, and I look back to me quiet quitting as the best career move of my life, because I could have been stuck there for way too long