{"id":369,"date":"2023-06-05T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/quiet-quitting-doom-loop\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T18:56:01","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T18:56:01","slug":"quiet-quitting-doom-loop","status":"publish","type":"essays","link":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/essays\/quiet-quitting-doom-loop\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cQuiet Quitting\u201d Doom Loop"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A two-year collective existential crisis birthed an interesting phenomenon in 2022: quiet quitting<\/em><\/span><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

While the term primarily began proliferating around the recesses of TikTok, it didn\u2019t take long for quiet quitting to catch fire in the mainstream media. Publications breathlessly debated the topic and took pretty predictable stances: Gallup asked if it was real<\/span><\/a>, the Harvard Business Review declared it was worse than the real thing<\/span><\/a>, and the New York Times wondered who it was good for<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was a reasonable response to the Hustle Culture x Pandemic mashup wherein corporate nihilism ran hot, but something about quiet quitting never quite<\/em> sat right with me as an actual solution to the challenges of maintaining full-time employment. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not because I think you owe it to your employer to go above and beyond every day (you don\u2019t, unless they\u2019re compensating you accordingly) or because I think there\u2019s a perfectly linear relationship between effort and compensation (there\u2019s not), but for the simple fact that quiet quitting is a life satisfaction doom loop<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, a doomer time netted a disheartening solution that essentially translates to the professional equivalent of, \u201cJust give up!\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In Cal Newport\u2019s Deep Work<\/em><\/span><\/a>,<\/em> he asserts a very simple thesis: The fulfillment you derive from your work isn\u2019t based on the work you\u2019re doing, but how you\u2019re doing it<\/em>. \u201cTo build your working life around the experience of flow produced by deep work is a proven path to deep satisfaction,\u201d he writes, probably between sips of fair trade espresso while pecking away in a minimalist chic office.<\/p>\n

He points out that the pinging, dinging, and ringing of notifications and seemingly meaningless tasks keeps us looping in a frenetic, agitated state that doesn\u2019t feel good\u2014but this is so common<\/em> in modern white-collar America that it\u2019s basically become synonymous with the experience of modern office work (\u201cLARPing your job<\/span><\/a>\u201d as opposed to actually doing it, as it were). When you\u2019re the passive recipient of other people\u2019s demands on your time, this dynamic is hard to escape.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n \u201c<\/span>You can train yourself to like what you do by immersing yourself in it more wholly and engaging more deeply with the craft.\u201d<\/span>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n
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Newport\u2019s implication is clear: You can train yourself to like what you do by immersing yourself in it more wholly and engaging more deeply with the craft; by taking a more active role. <\/p>\n

Assuming you accept Newport\u2019s premise, quiet quitting is exactly the wrong medicine for burnout\u2014not because it might help establish boundaries (a positive thing), but because it basically prescribes \u201copting out from caring\u201d as the solution. And while not caring about the work you do can make your life less stressful in the short term, it also makes work (and, I\u2019d argue, your life in general) less captivating in the long term.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve been feeling a little disinterested in your job, so you decide to lean out a little more\u2014but this only makes you feel more<\/em> lukewarm about it, because the psychology of engagement usually functions on a positive feedback loop.<\/p>\n

Not caring about your work is \u201ceasier\u201d in the same way that eating Sour Cream & Onion Pringles for dinner (guilty) every night is easier. It fixes the immediate problem of being less demanding, but it doesn\u2019t fix the long-term problem of actually nourishing you.<\/p>\n

And the reality, for most of us, is that work is going to be a major part of our lives until we amass enough capital to pull the ripcord. Roughly a third of your waking hours for the majority of your life will probably be spent engaging in some<\/em> type of labor\u2014and being mentally withdrawn for a third of your life is, to put it bluntly, a little depressing, isn\u2019t it? <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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My suggestion? If your job makes you so miserable that the only viable solution is emotionally disengaging entirely, you should actually quit<\/em> (well, okay\u2014find a different job that interests you more, then quit). <\/p>\n

The sunk cost fallacy<\/span><\/a> tells us that if we\u2019re not interested in our chosen career, then that\u2019s too damn bad; this is the path we\u2019ve chosen to walk and it\u2019d take too long to go back to the checkered line and restart the race. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n \u201c<\/span>Sometimes, it\u2019s not the job at all\u2014it\u2019s just the way we\u2019re approaching it.\u201d<\/span>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n
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But that\u2019s not how the modern career trajectory works, and the truth is that most paths are more closely connected than they appear. A hop, skip, and a jump sideways may land you squarely in the middle of a different path.<\/p>\n

And remember what Newport said? Sometimes, it\u2019s not the job at all\u2014it\u2019s just the way we\u2019re approaching it. We expect the content of the job itself to be the thing that ignites our passions and provides fulfillment, but what if it\u2019s actually how you do the job?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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So assuming your current employment situation is normal but a little lackluster, how do you make a job\u2014any job!\u2014feel<\/em> like a dream job? <\/h3>\n

Try cosplaying someone<\/span><\/a> for whom your job is<\/em> a dream.<\/p>\n

Think, for a moment, and conjure a fake employee tasked with doing your job who has been obsessed with being this particular thing their entire lives. If you\u2019re an executive assistant, this is the person who grew up dressing as an executive assistant for Halloween every year and made their mommy play CEO with a complex calendar with them.<\/p>\n

What would someone who\u2019s obsessed with this role do differently? How would they approach it? <\/p>\n

You might be like, \u201cOh, they\u2019d use automation software to make this more streamlined, and they\u2019d send proactive check-ins with information before someone asks for it, and they\u2019d maintain calendars with the precision and discipline of a German train schedule, and they\u2019d send thank-you notes on their boss\u2019s behalf, and\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Make a list of all of those things and start mapping them onto a weekly schedule. Pretend.<\/em> <\/p>\n

Maybe Monday from 8\u20139 they\u2019d groom calendars for the week. From 9 to 10 they\u2019d scan through email and make a list of what\u2019s important and deliver it in a timely update. Maybe after that they\u2019d field any new requests for the next hour.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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>
\n \u201c<\/span>If you train yourself to like what you do, I guarantee your performance will improve.\u201d<\/span>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n
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Mapping it onto a weekly calendar makes it real. It takes it from, \u201cI don\u2019t know, that person would probably be more enthusiastic,\u201d to, \u201cThat person would spend 2\u20133 PM every Tuesday cleaning up their record-keeping and doing proactive sales outreach.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m making shit up, but hopefully you get the picture. Now, at first glance, this might sound like a case for settling\u2014but that\u2019s not true. It\u2019s about allowing yourself to derive genuine pleasure from whatever gig you\u2019ve got right now, even if it\u2019s ultimately just a stepping stone somewhere else.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve used this technique to break out of work ruts in the past. It wasn\u2019t until I actually mapped out an ideal week (and tried to actually follow the schedule) that I realized how little I had been giving, and in doing so, I realized I wasn\u2019t having fun at work because I wasn\u2019t doing very well at work<\/em>. And if the work itself doesn\u2019t get me hot \u2019n bothered, the second-most fun thing is being really good at it<\/em>.<\/p>\n

If you train yourself to like what you do, I guarantee your performance will improve\u2014making both compensation increases easier to justify and boundaries easier to implement and enforce.<\/p>\n

And if some parts of it feel slippery, try to operationalize it. For example, we all know how important relationships are at work\u2014if networking feels awkward and untenable to you, operationalize it. For 45 minutes every Thursday morning, you\u2019ll send five outreach emails to people to check in, or set up 20 minutes to hear about what they\u2019re working on.<\/p>\n

At first, it might feel exhausting and counterintuitive to try \u201ccaring more\u201d as a solution for feeling disengaged or disconnected at work\u2014but the alternative is almost certainly more spiritually draining and unsustainable long term.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A two-year collective existential crisis birthed an interesting phenomenon in 2022: quiet quitting. While the term primarily began proliferating around the recesses of TikTok, it didn\u2019t take long for quiet quitting to catch fire in the mainstream media. Publications breathlessly debated the topic and took pretty predictable stances: Gallup asked if it was real, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2491,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[52,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-369","essays","type-essays","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-money-psychology","category-productivity-and-time"],"yoast_head":"\nThe \u201cQuiet Quitting\u201d Doom Loop - Money with Katie<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/essays\/quiet-quitting-doom-loop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The \u201cQuiet Quitting\u201d Doom Loop - Money with Katie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A two-year collective existential crisis birthed an interesting phenomenon in 2022: quiet quitting. 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