On ‘Quiet Quitting’: Musings for Labor Day

I loved my work until I didn’t. I had faith in government until I lost it. I spent last summer scrambling to keep 5,000 children safe at an Army base in El Paso, TX. Though we’d been down this road before as a nation, it seemed no one was prepared to help them. A government of infinite resources, but we ran out of mattresses.

Maybe it was that one disappointing summer. Maybe it was 15 years of disappointments. Maybe I’ll never know for sure, but I quiet quit on government after that. I wasn’t an anarchist, but no longer a believer. I went through the motions, but I wasn’t trying to improve anything for anyone anymore, including myself.

Then I launched WhyWork with one goal: help people find what I’d lost – a sense of pride and enjoyment in work.

Over the ensuing nine months, a funny thing happened. I found something to believe in again. I believe in helping people identify the parts of their job that make them come alive - and then presenting their boss with a plan to have them do more of those things. I believe in returning the spark to someone’s eyes and the urgency to their voice when they talk about their work. I believe in helping someone locate the right words to ask for what they need or to speak about something that’s been on their heart at work. As an employee engagement consultant, I find myself believing in my work more and more with each passing day.

I know some will decry this as capitalist propaganda, to try and make someone fall in love with their work. Maybe they’re right. At 38 years old, I have a lot of unlearning to do. All I know is that I felt empty when I “quiet quit” and I didn’t want anyone else to feel that way.

While helping people find pride and enjoyment in their work, I too rediscovered what it feels like to love what you do every day. I guess you really do teach best what you most need to learn.

Happy Labor Day indeed.