West Side Rag
  • TOP NEWS
  • OPEN/CLOSED
  • FOOD
  • SCHOOLS
  • OUTDOORS
  • REAL ESTATE
  • ART
  • POLITICS
  • COLUMNS
  • CRIME
  • HISTORY
  • ABSURDITY
  • CONTACT
West Side Rag
No Result
View All Result

Get WSR FREE in your inbox

Search the site

No Result
View All Result

Get WSR FREE in your inbox

AVAILABLE NOW!


HERE

Monday Bulletin: Work

September 5, 2022 | 3:48 AM - Updated on September 6, 2022 | 6:16 AM
in COLUMNS, NEWS
18
Street art by Banksy. Photograph by Talia Winiarsky.

By Carol Tannenhauser

Monday, September 5, 2022
Afternoon showers, high 83 degrees.

Notices
Our calendar has lots of local events! Click on the link or the lady in the upper righthand corner.

Labor Day Thoughts
Maynard G. Krebs is a cultural icon. For those who haven’t had the pleasure, Maynard was the beatnik best friend of the title character on the sitcom called The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, which ran from 1959 through 1963, but found a wider audience on cable TV later on. Played by the late, great Bob Denver before he left for Gilligan’s Island, Maynard’s claim to fame was his reaction to the word “work.”

“Work?!” he would yelp in response everytime it was mentioned, as if it were the most horrifying pursuit he could imagine.

Was Maynard prescient? Did he foresee the so-called “Great Resignation” of 2021, when 49.4 million American workers quit their jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics? Could he have imagined the trend that followed in the second half of 2022, an alternative to complete severance, known as “Quiet Quitting”?

“Quiet quitting is the trend of employees choosing to not go above and beyond in their jobs in ways that include refusing to answer emails during evenings or weekends, or skipping extra assignments that fall outside their core duties,” cnbc explained. It was popularized as many things seem to be today: on TikTok, as seen below.

@zaidleppelin On quiet quitting #workreform ♬ original sound – ruby

“Love and work…work and love, that’s all there is,” said Sigmund Freud, the 20th-century neurologist who founded psychoanalysis. In the 21st century, prompted mostly by the pandemic, Freud’s premise and the proportions allotted to life’s pursuits are being questioned — mostly by Millennials and Gen Zers, seeking a “better balance,” CNBC said, last month. Concurrently, “the rate of U.S. productivity is raising some concern.” Reuters reported. “Data on U.S. worker productivity posted its biggest ever annual drop in the second quarter [of 2022].”

Could Quiet Quitting lead to Frustrated Firing?

Not as likely in the current labor market. “Booming jobs creation has also meant fierce competition between employers for a limited labor supply,” The Washington Post wrote in September. “There continue to be roughly two open jobs for every job seeker, according to the July job openings report, and workers continued to quit their jobs at an elevated rate in July, in [the] phenomenon dubbed the ‘Great Resignation.'”

Anthony Klotz, a professor at Texas A&M University’s business school, coined the phrase “Great Resignation.” “I knew from talking to my students, workers, and business leaders that the pandemic had changed how many people felt about work,” he said, in a school publication.

“Workers saw that quitting their jobs gave them a chance to take control of their personal and professional lives….In broader terms, [the Great Resignation] describes how COVID-19 upended the centuries-old notion of what work is and how it should be done.”

Happy Labor Day!

Share this article:
guest

guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

18 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Bob
Bob
6 months ago

This practice has a very long history, and a name: “Working to Rule.” “Quiet Quitting” is a term someone made up to make the workers sound lazy because they were ONLY doing their jobs and not something more. But “doing your job” isn’t “quitting,” quiet or otherwise. It’s doing your job.

We have this bizarre notion in America that companies should operate by the principle of absolute capitalism, in which they buy labor at its cheapest possible price, while workers are somehow morally obligated to operate by a principle of shared effort and sacrifice rather than demanding to be paid for all their labor. And that makes no sense.

If you went to Chipotle and paid for one burrito, you wouldn’t complain that you only got one burrito. You could buy more, but you didn’t. Similarly, people Working to Rule are simply saying “you paid me to do X. You could pay me to also do Y. I’d be willing to do Y… for pay. But if you’re only paying me for X, I’m no longer also doing Y.” That’s not quitting, that’s capitalism.

20
Reply
Paul
Paul
6 months ago
Reply to  Bob

Isn’t part of the idea of “competition” that if you do better than the person in the next office you’ll get a higher raise and a faster promotion?
And who could blame a business owner for leaning in to that?

If we want to promote the idea that everyone should get ‘properly’ paid for the job they’re hired to do? Unionize.

0
Reply
jezbel
jezbel
6 months ago
Reply to  Paul

That’s more the myth than the reality. There was a time where you could rise through the ranks. Theoretically start with a company at the bottom, say – in the Mail Room – and rise to one day become president by working harder than others. That’s no longer true. At least not in corporate American. People go to college and post-college to be able to walk into a position commensurate with their education. So they don’t really start at the bottom, they start in the “middle”. Then they may be able to rise by working un-Godly hours and ignoring their families, traveling often and sacrificing. But younger folks have been the beneficiaries of absent parents during their childhood. It wasn’t always a pleasant childhood. Sure they may have had money & prestige but they had absent parents. I believe they’d like to be present in their own lives and in the lives of any children.
I get it.

0
Reply
Mark Moore
Mark Moore
6 months ago
Reply to  Bob

That’s cool if you never want to do anything new or better in your job. Being a typical drone isn’t fulfilling for most people even if they don’t realize it.

0
Reply
Bob
Bob
6 months ago
Reply to  Mark Moore

Right, the message for years was “do more than we pay you to do and we pinky promise you’ll advance and be more than a drone.” Didn’t work out that way for a lot of people. So instead you might as well get paid for your work.

0
Reply
Mark Moore
Mark Moore
6 months ago
Reply to  Bob

I almost wrote that if you do more without added recognition and pay then go somewhere else, but I didn’t think it was necessary.

0
Reply
Bob
Bob
6 months ago
Reply to  Mark Moore

Right, just go across the street to the other place that pays the same and treats its people the exact same way. Why didn’t everyone think of that.

1
Reply
Great Scott
Great Scott
6 months ago

Meanwhile, the same people who are “quiet quitting” are also the ones expecting to stroll out of college and make 6 figures instantly – with a degree in fly fishing. For some reason, the idea of hard work doesn’t compute for these “quitters.” “Better balance”???? How about learning a skill on the job and being rewarded for it instead of staying in pajamas all day and mindlessly scrolling on tiktok…. these generations seem to want to have their cake and eat it too (don’t want to work but still get the compensation)

5
Reply
Sarah
Sarah
6 months ago
Reply to  Great Scott

Most employers won’t teach skills on the job anymore. They expect young people to show up fully capable, having footed the bill to make themselves capable to do the employers’ work themselves. And then they wonder why young people don’t feel more loyalty to them!

3
Reply
Paul
Paul
6 months ago

Please keep in mind that 95% of the “great resignation” was people quitting one job to take another job.

5
Reply
Kathryn
Kathryn
6 months ago
Reply to  Paul

Actually a lot of the great resignation was boomers entering retirement earlier than anticipated. Whether due to ageism in certain industries or completely voluntary. But it’s not because young people these days want to sit in their pyjamas.

0
Reply
Paul
Paul
6 months ago
Reply to  Kathryn

Not to belabor the point, but 49.4 million quit jobs in 2021, but the labor force participation rate actually increased, by 0.7%, we added 6 million to payrolls, and the employment : population ratio went up by 2%.
Meaning that more people decided to seek work than retire, and the overwhelming majority of participants in “the great resignation” quit one job for another.

1
Reply
Cato
Cato
6 months ago

“…Maynard was the beatnick best friend …”

The word “beatnik” has no “c” in it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatnik ; https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/beatnik .

0
Reply
Phoebe
Phoebe
6 months ago
Reply to  Cato

Oops!

0
Reply
West Side Rag
Author
West Side Rag
6 months ago
Reply to  Cato

Like, thanks! fixed.

1
Reply
Steevie
Steevie
6 months ago

“Love and work, work and love, that is all there is”. Dr. Freud said this before the invention of radio, tv, movies, video, internet, air travel. Most of the people I know hate their jobs and work only to pay their bills. They are counting down to retirement.
A lot of them are divorced and have no desire to remarry. Generally speaking, they are doing just fine.

0
Reply
Phoebe
Phoebe
6 months ago
Reply to  Steevie

Pardon the typos😬

0
Reply
Phoebe
Phoebe
6 months ago
Reply to  Steevie

“Sex &Drugs &Rock & Roll” especially if …”all you ever do is business you don’t like…”
Ian Dury

0
Reply

YOU MIGHT LIKE...

Reader Opinion: ‘Simply Build Nothing’
COLUMNS

Reader Opinion: ‘Simply Build Nothing’

March 25, 2023 | 11:03 AM
Weekend Column: Remembering When the World Was Black & White
ART

Weekend Column: Remembering When the World Was Black & White

March 25, 2023 | 1:02 AM
Previous Post

One Hail of a Ride! Taxi ‘Clips and Flips’

Next Post

Flood Watch and Travel Advisory Called for NYC Tuesday

this week's events image

Explore Your Favorite Subject

20th precinct 24th precinct american museum of natural history animals art bicycling bulletin central park closings columns community board 7 coronavirus crash crime development dogs events fdny fire food gale brewer helen rosenthal history jcc lincoln center monday bulletin morning bulletin nypd openings pedestrian safety photography photos politics public schools pupper west side real estate restaurants retail riverside park silver stars fitness snow sponsored subway upper west side uws

CITY NEWS

Brick Underground
City Limits
Eater
Gothamist
NY Daily News
NY Post
NY Times

LOCAL RESOURCES

Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group
Central Park Conservancy
CB7
Community Education Council 3
Assembly District 67
The New York Historical Society
Riverside Park
West End Preservation

UWS Blogs

Bloomingdale History Central Park Blogger
North River Notes

Next Post
Flood Watch and Travel Advisory Called for NYC Tuesday

Flood Watch and Travel Advisory Called for NYC Tuesday

Blackout Cuts Power to Tens of Thousands on the West Side; Subways Shut Down

WSR Poetry Corner: 'Outage'

Pupper West Side: Charlie Is Back from the Beach

Pupper West Side: Charlie Is Back from the Beach

  • ABOUT US
  • CONTACT US
  • NEWSLETTER
  • WSR MERCH!
  • ADVERTISE
  • EVENTS
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • TERMS OF USE
  • SITE MAP
Site design by RLDGROUP

© 2023 West Side Rag | All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • TOP NEWS
  • THIS WEEK’S EVENTS
  • OPEN/CLOSED
  • FOOD
  • SCHOOLS
  • OUTDOORS
  • REAL ESTATE
  • ART
  • POLITICS
  • COLUMNS
  • CRIME
  • HISTORY
  • ABSURDITY
  • CONTACT US
  • WSR SHOP

© 2023 West Side Rag | All rights reserved.