TikTok has become Gen Z’s go-to place to discuss ideas. Picture: cottonbro Pexels
Durban - Google’s internal data from July 2022, revealed that nearly 40% of Gen Z prefers using TikTok and Instagram for search over Google.
TikTok is one of the most popular social media platforms in 2022, with more than one billion active users spread across 154 countries. Its influence on the youth cannot be overstated.
With the explosion of the concept of quiet quitting, the platform has become the epicentre of this discussion and other new radical ideas about work.
Quiet quitting refers to doing the tasks assigned to your role at work, no more, no less; doing your job without it taking over your life.
While it is hyperbolic that the next work evolution will be streamed on TikTiok, Gen Z and millennials seem to have found solace in seeing many other young people expressing the same frustrations about the state of modern work without any shame or stigma.
@zaidleppelin On quiet quitting #workreform ♬ original sound - ruby
Surprisingly, the expression is not new. Mark Boldger, an economist, is said to have coined the phrase in 2009. However, once it was posted on the social media platform, it spread like wildfire.
For 25-year-old Zama Mtolo, who works as a primary school teacher in Durban, things are not as black and white as they seem. “We are so connected because of social media, but we sometimes overlook that our economic situations are vastly different.
“I may agree with the sentiments behind quitting, but I have to go beyond what is required of me. I sometimes have to use my own money to buy the kids’ stationery, classroom essentials, and sometimes their uniforms,” says Mtolo.
Hunter Kiami, a TikToker, sees the pessimism surrounding work as having to do with the high cost of living this generation has to deal with, less stable jobs, and lack of respect from employers.
“Many of us are working jobs that do not care about us as people… I am not going to f---ing kill myself over a job that does not care about me as a human being. I am not going to put in a 60-hour work week and pull myself up by the bootstraps for nothing,” he says.
Content warning: Strong language
@hunterkaimi just my thoughts take it or leave it #quietquitting ♬ original sound - Hunter Kaimi
“Yes, millennials and Gen Z have high rates of higher education but lower incomes. Meanwhile, past generations worked anywhere and had good pay,” another TikTok user commented.
Going the extra mile is cancelled. According to this TikTok user, workers are just cogs in the machine, they are disposable, replaceable, and are only there to make rich CEOs even richer. Therefore, he believes doing the bare minimum is the way to go.
@ethantrace “Going the Extra Mile” Debunked ❌
♬ original sound - Ethan Trace
Recruitment worker Bonnie Dilber wants the conversation to be shifted from quiet quitting to what she terms “quiet firing”.
In a LinkedIn post, she shares that this happens when companies don’t give employees any praise, feedback or raises and they are kept out of the loop on everything important work-wise.
“It works great for companies… eventually you’ll either feel so incompetent, isolated and unappreciated that you'll go find a new job, and they never have to deal with a development plan or offer severance. Or your performance will slip enough due to the lack of support that they’ll be able to let you go,” says Dilber.
Instead of worrying about “quiet quitting”, she encouraged companies to look at their management practices and identify places where people are being “quiet fired”.
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