They named it like it was a movement. Like people decided to stop caring all at once. “Quiet quitting.” Trending on LinkedIn. Think pieces. Hot takes.
Quiet quitting is just: doing your job. The hours you’re paid for. The work you’re contracted to do. Nothing more. Not volunteering for the committee. Not answering emails at 9 PM. Not doing the work of the two people they didn’t replace.
They had to invent a pejorative for doing exactly what you agreed to do. Because the system runs on people doing more than they agreed to do, and when they stop, the system calls it a character flaw.
Quiet quitting is a company admitting out loud that the business model depends on unpaid labor.