‘Quiet quitting’ gains traction in Australia

Some employees in Australia are trying ‘quiet quitting’ to avoid burnout and ditch stressful jobs while remaining employed.

Jennifer Luke, a research fellow at the University of Southern Queensland’s Southern Queensland Northern NSW Innovation Hub, described quiet quitting as a new term for something that was already happening in workplaces across the country, according to ABC News.

“With COVID-19 and lockdowns and people having time to stop and concentrate, they’re thinking, ‘Where am I wanting to go?’, ‘Am I happy?’, ‘What’s most meaningful to me?’,” she said, noting that “I think that’s what kicked off this trend again.”

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However, she cautioned that the concept held risks, and employees who were unhappy at their jobs needed to take time to figure out what to do.

“What I support is making sure people understand who they are and what they want to do, and make sure they’re looking at what is happening around them,” she said.