Quietly Quitting the Nine to Five

They have a name for everything these days.  Of late there's been a lot of buzz about 'quiet quitting' - it is apparently the new trend in employment post pandemic.  Basically, it is a description for employees deciding to simply do the bare minimum in the workplace, not doing additional hours or taking on extra workload, instead just sticking as close as possible to their job description.  Supposedly it is a manifestation of an increased dissatisfaction with corporate culture, as employees, in effect, 'opt out' of all the 'high pressure' bullshit and the carrot of career progression and promotion that is frequently dangled in front of them as an incentive to flog themselves senseless at their jobs.  Clearly, I must have been a trendsetter, as I was doing this in the latter days of my last job, long before the term 'quiet quitting' was ever invented.  (In reality, the phenomenon has been well known for decades, back in the fifties there was always a distinction drawn between 'careerists', who would go the extra mile, and 'nine-to-fivers', who just wanted to do their hours, collect their pay and go back home to their real lives).  Having suffered serious illness as a result of work-related stress, (I was doing not just my own job, but simultaneously covering others due to sickness and recruitment failures, for no extra pay and certainly no thanks), I realised, after having been signed off sick for three months, that nothing was going to change.  It was clear that managers had no intention of sticking to agreements over workloads to try and keep my stress levels down, so I acted unilaterally, and declined any requests to work extra hours or cover for others - the days of unpaid overtime were over as far as I was concerned.

Inevitably, this went down like a lead balloon with management - I was well aware of the mutterings, behind my back, of 'not pulling my weight' and so on - but I wasn't breaking any rules, I was simply doing my job to the letter of my job description and no more.  With the pandemic and lock downs, I ended up back at home for several months until pushed back into the workplace (along with everyone else), despite the fact that, as most of my job was out of office activities which were still prohibited due to Covid restrictions, they had no actual work for me to do, so I ended up leaving.  Lockdown had convinced me once and for all that I was happier away from the job altogether.  I haven't looked back.  I've mostly avoided anyone I worked with back then and haven't been near the office in eighteen months at least.  Interestingly, there have been a few attempts by management to contact me over various bogus 'issues', but I've steadfastly ignored them - those people simply aren't good for my health.  The only ecxhanges I've had with my former employer since leaving have been with what passes for their HR department over a pay issue, during which I had to remind them that I was no longer their employee and therefore they needed not only to moderate their tone with me and accord me at least a modicum of courtesy, but that these days I operate to my timescale, not theirs, with regard to correspondence.  After our last exchange, they told me that they would get back to me shortly with a resolution to our dispute, (I say 'ours', but they are only ones disputing facts) - that was six months ago.  (I've no doubt that they'll finally remember about it all when it is least convenient to me).  So, right now, I'm enjoying the silence from my former employer.