Admitting your job sucks on live TV

Couldn’t have planned a better ending

Quiet quitting is played. I swore I’d never discuss it. But if you put me on live TV to discuss “quiet firing” well…I’m a sucker for attention. 

Look. None of this is new. Don’t believe me? Watch Office Space. That was 1999 (still holds up.) Both concepts were central to the entire plot.

Here’s the protagonist Peter, explaining how he quietly quits to the managements consultants:

And here’s Milton getting quietly fired:

The concepts have a yin and yang relationship.

Tldr: your job might suck, so you mail it in.

No raises. No promotions. No skill development. Poor communication. Lack of inclusion on relevant meetings. Toxic environments.

So people act accordingly.

It’s all employee engagement (or lack of.) The real question is: why is this coming to the hilt now? Is employee engagement tanking?

Yes and no. We have data!

Per Gallup: employee engagement dipped from 36% in 2020 to 32% now.

But…32% is still higher than it’s been for most of the past 20 years. (Source)

The real change: people feel more comfortable talking about it. Young people in particular, on TikTok. The new generation (typically the lowest paid, in the least desirable jobs) has a way to vent with each other. And people listen.

(Yes, other social media existed. But none had the virality or humor factor that TikTok has. Not to mention most of their bosses haven’t figured out how to use it.)

The old guy in me gets mildly annoyed when people invent new words for old concepts. But I’ll deal. 

????The important thing is people are willing to have more honest conversations about their work experience nowadays. That’s the only way things improve or change.

Plus it’s funny. Kinda like how I got the anchor to admit his job sucks at the end of this interview. ????

Full clip of the Fox 32 interview here.

James Hornick

Partner at Hirewell. #3 Ranked Sarcastic Commenter on LinkedIn.