Is “Quiet Quitting” A New Rod For Black Folx Backs?

Another day, another stigma - and I'm giving it side-eye

Hello friends,

Here’s another unpublished throwback post (a post I wrote but never published when this issue was in the news, much like the one about the Queen I shared last week). I present it as written, and I’ll share some more thoughts at the end.

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There’s been a lot of talk about “quiet quitting” recently. I really don’t get it: surely turning up and doing the job you’re paid for is just doing your job? My concern is that it’s going to be another way to stigmatise Black and Global Majority people. After all, we’re the ones most likely to be holding down second jobs or side gigs to redress historic inequities. And we’re the ones most likely to be affected by racism at work and so least likely to want to go above and beyond.

Here’s what many Global Majority people, myself included, have observed in the offices we’ve worked in: there are people who consistently do the minimum but get the maximum reward. Those people don’t tend to look like me. And there are people who go above and beyond, and may not get any reward at all, other than some quiet firing. Those people tend to look like me.

If you’re a Black person in a workplace filled with the dominating class (not my expression originally but doesn’t it just say it all), you’re already subject to a lot of scrutiny. Aside from the everyday racism, there are people who should be your trusted colleagues looking to undermine and disrespect you and make sure you get the blame for anything that goes wrong.

I know this sounds like hyperbole but it isn’t.

The bosses who should be your mentors are hanging out with your white colleagues while putting you on performance improvement plans. And some are making sure you get the worst projects with the least competent coworkers so they have an excuse to blame you for failure and boot you out the door.

Again, not an exaggeration - I know several cases where this has happened.

So It wouldn’t surprise me AT ALL if this quiet quitting were added to the myriad ways in which white bosses see Black employees as not part of the gang.

So again I ask: is there something wrong with turning up and doing your job? If you’re doing it well, why do you have to do more? Maybe this is a cultural thing: if you believe what you see on TV and the stories you hear from people, overwork is a regular feature of many USA workplaces.

In other countries, it’s accepted that you will work hard and do your job when at work, but you’re not expected to work yourself into a stress break. In France, you’re not allowed to contact people for work stuff outside of work hours, legally, anyway.

Anyway, I hope I’m wrong about how quiet quitting will be used. By the time this is published, I’m sure we’ll know more. Interested to hear your thoughts.

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Well, just for the hell of it, I googled quiet quitting before publishing this, and came across a recent BBC article that had a picture of a Black woman as the header image. I took a screenshot in case it ever disappears.) I think the association between the image and the words “bare minimum” in the headline says it all. Representation matters, and the BBC has just added to negative perceptions of Black women despite all the evidence that as a group we have to work harder and be more qualified.

So it looks like I might be right - what’s your perception or experience?

Thanks for reading,

Sharon

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© Sharon Hurley Hall, 2023. All Rights Reserved.

Cover photo courtesy of Canva.

I am an anti-racism educator and activist, Co-Founder of Mission Equality, the author of “I’m Tired of Racism”, and co-host of The Introvert Sisters podcast.