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Hey y'all I know you're watching at work
right now and I appreciate it so thanks
I'm Trace as DeLong and Hoppus wrote
"late night, come home, work sucks, I know"
remember in the Great Resignation video
I made last year 40 percent of the global
workforce wanted to quit (and a lot of
them did) but not all! ... Why?
People are so unhappy but just aren't unhappy
enough that they quit instead they quiet
quit oh spit I'm a quiet quitter and I
don't actually feel that bad about it
because now I know the science if you
want to quiet quit you should!
[[ Uno Dos of Trace intro music ]]
I wanted to make a video about the
science of quiet quitting quiet quitting
is taking control over your own work and
building a relationship with work that
has balance it could also be called
coasting or career cruise control it's
got other names like acting your wage or
purposeful professional plateauing okay
I made that one up or the very common
work-life balance and there's nothing
wrong with it quiet quitters are working
they're just not exceeding the
description of their jobs I mean they're
not falling behind either they're just
doing their job and going home in fact
it could be considered healthy here
check this out I think it'll change how you
think of quiet quitting
see see what's happening here Fred hears
that Bell I mean it's not a bell but
either way he hears the bell and he
leaves he's not moving rocks after hours
he's not ignoring Pebbles while he
answers his Dino-mail from his couch.
He leaves and he goes to eat Dino ribs...
which is actually confusing because like
isn't his pet also a dinosaur? so he's
eating his pet? either way, Flintstones
was a prime time television show it
aired in one of TV's most popular
lucrative time slots how many people saw
it and complained about Fred Flintstone
promoting a lazy work culture and of
course quiet quitting applies to
employment but there is a simpler way to
think of it with food hara hachi bu is
an Okinawan idea that you should eat
until you're 80 full and then just stop
you're not full you're not stuffed
you're just 80 as such Okinawa has some
of the lowest levels of heart disease
cancer and strokes but that's not the
important thing with hara hachi bu is
this idea that we should pay attention
to our own bodies so why don't we apply
the same idea to our brains? quiet
quitting is saying I'm not gonna stuff
my face I'm just working until I'm
satiated at about 80 percent. One of the most
successful YouTube creators on the
planet kind of does this already...
Hank: My secret to productivity I'm not ashamed
of it I'm a little ashamed of it here it
is... ... ....
eighty percent! Everything creative I do
I do my best to get it eighty percent of
the way to as good as I can make it and
go no further I just don't try to get it
to a hundred percent!" Trace: Hank's Baseline is
not "Perfection" but just "pretty darn good"
and then he moves on and this is
important because no matter how much you
love it work is work a 2019 pre-pandemic
study found that most people were only
really productive half the day after
five hours people's productivity tanks
and yet right now amidst quiet quitting
and a great resignation the United
States is still in one of our most
productive periods in our entire history
so why are we so concerned with quiet
quitting more on that in a second the
Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks
American productivity from the late 90s
to the early 2000s productivity growth
rates were great it was a boom why
because of a new tool that we could use
for work...
yeah computers and the internet but
since 2005 things have been declining
not because of quiet quitting this is
totally a normal part of the cycle I'm
no Economist but productivity is
measured and increased by a few
different things they've known this for
like a century land labor and capital
more land equals more productivity
because you have more space to do stuff
more people equals more productivity
because you have more people to work
that land or build that stuff more
Capital equals more resources to do
stuff with people or land or to make
better tools to do productivity more
efficiently and today that's still true
so as I see it tools are the final
frontier here and we got this throughout
history we get more productive as we
create common tools that benefit
everyone trains telecommunication
electricity the invention of business
organizations and regulations each of
these specific inventions changed our
economy creating a productivity Spike
followed by a plateau my therapist calls
this upgraded problems for example if
you invent electric lights a huge deal
now you can work machines all day and
all night but that means we're going to
need shifts of workers and we're going
to need to think of more about
exhaustion and well-being of those
workers people can't work 24 hours a day
they gotta sleep and they gotta you know
go home and take care of their family
that is an upgraded problem eventually
the workers band together and forced
those concerns to be heard maybe quiet
quitting is part of a new Plateau after
the invention of 24-hour availability
thanks to computer and internet
connections and we talk about this
upgraded problem all the time burnout we
can't leave the factory because it comes
home with us it pings us at 2 am the
factory isn't a place it's a peep it's
an idea so people are reacting to that
overreach by stepping back to make
themselves happier at work and that's
not a bad thing the science is clear
happy people are productive people one
reason a four day work week is so
popular is because it makes people
happier and those happier people report
better well-being and according to one
test in Japan 40 percent better productivity so
quiet quitting isn't a bad thing it's
just renegotiating our relationship with
work and you can use me as an example I
quiet quit and I work for myself I have
a rubric of money exposure growth and
fun and the reason I have these things
is because every job comes with one of
them at least if you're hustling maybe
you're getting a lot of money maybe
you're getting a lot of exposure and
growth you know you're going to change
over time I take lots of little jobs in
a year and they can't all pay an
exposure they shouldn't all be just for
money getting all four is great but
that's like a dream job so you have to
balance throughout your career quiet
quitting is just another way to think
about this rubric you're basically
prioritizing different parts of it you
want money and maybe some fun but you
don't really care about the exposure and
maybe not the personal growth priorities
are going to shift with time or even
promotions say a barback they're going
to have a completely different rubric
than the manager but even those jobs
over time are going to change how they
fit in that rubric quiet quitting is
just looking at this constant
rebalancing of your work and trying to
understand what's best for you so look
at your work apply the rubric and what
are you doing if every everything you do
is just exposure and you're making no
money and you're having no fun
it's probably time to quiet quit and
start reevaluating you can Career Coast
for 2022 and refocus in 2023 that's okay
quiet quitting gives the worker agency
over their efforts without judgment
regarding their choices doing what is
required nothing more and presumably
nothing less is not a bad thing it's a
great thing especially if it's good for
you remember in the great resignation
video I made last year 40 percent of the global
Workforce wanted to quit and a lot of
them did and they moved to other jobs
where they felt happier quiet quitting
is just the next stage of that same
problem people who are so unhappy but
just aren't unhappy enough that they
quit and this comes back to agency
elevator door closed buttons aren't
actually even connected to anything most
office thermostats don't actually change
the temperature they're used to give you
the impression of agency when you have
none it's called a placebo but agency is
a complicated idea it's basically the
idea of self-determinism you have some
control over your life the lack of
agency we know is terrible for people
lots more studies here more researchers
need did now imagine the thermostat on
the wall at your office is there but it
has a lock over it where the elevator
didn't have a door closed button at all
that is denial of agency and I have to
say I'd be ticked off you want some
control even if it's not real so if we
extrapolate this to work Economist
Albert Hirschman wrote a book "Exit, Voice
and Loyalty" which explores consumer
behavior in the face of declining
qualities of consumer goods. Put simply,
if you think the iPhone quality is
declining over time you have the agency
to do a couple of things exit the
consumption of the good buy something
else or voice your concerns at work you
can do this too people who are unhappy
with their organization can either quit
or speak up about why they're unhappy if
they speak up and nothing happens or
they aren't heard they have no agency so
maybe they quit remember great
resignation but for some quitting is not
an option it's too risky too scary not
economically viable they need these jobs
or or it's just too much work to go find
a new one exit or speak that wasn't
exactly enough so decades after Hershman
wrote the book researchers at Cornell
added neglect and neglect is where quiet
quitting lives speak no not going to be
heard quit no too much work rebalance,
coast, neglect... sounds fine to me!
If this isn't that wild and crazy the whole
quiet quitting thing then why are people
caring about it? Because there is money
to be lost if we hate work. We know this
because of Sociology. In this case that
sociology or science is called the Q12
the Q12 are 12 questions to assess
worker engagement they ask these 12
questions to thousands or tens of
thousands of employees all the time
Gallup uses these answers to understand
where the employees are on a scale from
five to one actively engaged to actively
disengaged and actively engaged
employees happy to be there they're
excited to do their job and actively
disengaged employee is resentful that
their needs aren't met and they're
acting out of their unhappiness
economists estimate that disengaged
employees cost the global economy 7.8
trillion dollars this is why people care
about QQ because people aren't happy
which costs money big tech companies
like app people Google and Twitter have
flexible hours and free food and
entertainment they let you do laundry on
site sometime they're literally
fulfilling Maslow's hierarchy of needs
at work anyway that's neither here nor
there sixty percent of workers are
emotionally detached at work and 19 one
in five one in five are miserable at
work which is the same as being actively
disengaged that's a problem and you
can't disconnect these two things the
Q12 and the pandemic from each other so
many of us are at home and employers are
terrible at making us feel heard making
us feel understood we don't get perks we
aren't part of a community and one of
the Q12s you have a best friend at work
yeah my cat or this person that I chat
to over slack now we're rebalancing
we're making ourselves more happy and in
part that means pulling back from work
which you would do in any relationship
that hurts you and is unbalanced of
course now thanks to tick tock Trends
this is called quiet quitting so work
sucks I know and you're dealing with
this by reevaluating your relationship
and you know by the way what doesn't
help this shaming people: Kimberley Kardashian: "I have the best
advice for women in business get your
frickin' ass up and work." Trace: That's not great.
the Q12 has science there too: 70 percent of the
problems at work are due to management
bad management equals unhappy employees
very few people are quiet quitting
because they hate the tasks that they're
doing at work but the environment the
opportunities the growth the exposure
Ms KK saying no one wants to work
isn't just unhelpful it's deflection no
one wants to work for you 95 of people
who are thriving at work report being
treated with respect all day they're
engaged they know their mission they
feel included and listened to and they
have friends at work heck 87 percent of
them report smiling and laughing a lot
and I've worked in places like this and
maybe you have too we used to long for
the days when we had it we recognized
when work used to be better and you know
what changed management the people were
all the same and we were doing this the
same thing but we didn't feel listened
to or respected anymore you're not gonna
quit that's just more work on you but if
you stick it out you can find other ways
to be happy now before we wrap let's
look at this in practice imagine you're
a teacher you work during school hours
you're teaching kids you're doing great
but you don't take on the cheerleading
coach job or teach driver's ed you don't
plan the pep rally Your Instinct might
be think of the kids who coaches the
cheerleaders who does the pep rally and
the answer is right in front of you
those are other people's jobs if you
want it done you can volunteer to help
join the booster club But the teacher if
they want to quiet quit on this that's
good for them because they'll be a
better teacher if they do that now
imagine you're a Hugh Jackman it's
Deadpool 3 you're working during
business hours you're hitting your mark
you're acting good things I think you
know you're doing great but
you're not planning that marketing push
you're not pitching new ideas to the
director you don't plan Jenny the
intern's birthday party you don't set up
the lights Your Instinct might be that
Hugh he's too busy for that he's one of
the leads right
is he quiet quitting though he's walking
at the Bell he's doing his job and he's
not doing more and he's not doing less
that's quiet quitting we don't see these
two jobs as equivalent in part because
we value teaching jobs differently
because they're prominently done by
women so a patriarchal society tends to
see them as lesser that's for another
video though both of these ideas
represent a healthy relationship with
work and we just expect it more with
some jobs more than others both of these
workers will be happier in their
classroom movie show will be so much
better for it and the point is they'll
have the agency and voice to make their
own decisions we shouldn't assume quiet
quitting is bad because it's not maybe
Hugh Jackman has a baby at home that he
wants to be there for maybe that teacher
volunteers to help the less fortunate
after work or maybe some gen zier has a
small business on the side or maybe that
human just needs a break all of these
things are totally valid reasons to
quiet quit we tend to immediately say
that quiet quitters are lazy and it's
not lazy it's work-life balance which is
healthy all of this just gives people
agency over their choices and the
science says that people with agency are
more productive which is good for the
economy are happier which is good for
everyone and are healthier
but speaking of agency
I hated learning math growing up it's
not that I hated math I hated how it was
taught and my teachers didn't seem keen
on helping me understand it the way I
needed to as much as they wanted me to
memorize times tables show my work and
know how to hit the buttons on the
calculator I wanted to be an engineer
but I couldn't make calculus work in my
brain personally I need to understand
the why of something in order for it to
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it out anyway thanks for supporting the
show thanks for helping me keep this
channel going but speaking of let's wrap
things up over here so what did we learn
quiet quitting is a normal part of work
and the way to fix it isn't to shame
them but to listen to those quiet
quitters and learn what they need and
respond to that so simple and yet we're
still not doing it that's how you turn
employees into engaged workers that's
how you limit people quiet quitting and
we have to do it on such a massive scale
that it is quite intimidating luckily
I'm just science YouTuber so I don't
have to do it but it's a big deal for me
I entered the workforce in the midst of
one of the biggest economic slumps in
American history personally I have a
degree I have multiple degrees but for a
while I lived in my grandmother's
basement I was slinging salad and
breadsticks at Olive Garden for two
years while trying to find work and like
many Millennials we ultimately took on
more student debt we didn't make as much
money or progress in our work at a time
in your life when Americans including
gen Z who are doing this now are in some
of their Peak productive years many
Millennials will never recover from this
and maybe because of that they'll Coast
for a while we've all been there that
quiet quitting is a coping mechanism but
once people start respecting you at work
once they listen to you these people
will come out of their shells just like
I did I came out of my shell and I
helped build everything I could I worked
on anything I could get my hands on I
was so happy and excited to be there my
mom always said make yourself
indispensable and I didn't know how to
do that until I felt heard respected and
understood at work creating that rubric
was a way of me kind of saying you're
doing too much much stuff you need to
rein it in and find what makes you happy
combining that with the idea of
haruhachibu and only working to about 80
percent really helped me balance my life
my work and fight my perfectionism in a
way that did make me indispensable
maybe you can do that too...
maybe you should.
thanks a lot for watching I hope you
learned something today also if you're
watching this at work congratulations I
hope you're balancing your work in life
in whatever way is best for you tell me
what you'd rather be doing down in the
comments because maybe someone will see
it and offer you a job you never know
share this with your friends please
consider subscribing to keep on learning
I'm Trace and I'll see you all in the
future
[turn off tv]