仕事のオンオフ見直す「クワイエット・クイッティング」 米で注目

【ＡＦＰ＝時事】米国で働く一部の人々の間で、「クワイエット・クイッティング」という考え方が広まりつつある。働くのは週４０時間、仕事とプライベートに線を引き、就業時間外は仕事の電話やメールには対応せず、何か頼まれても穏やかに「ノー」と断る──。クワイエット・クイッティングをそのまま訳すと「静かにやめる」という意味になるが、この言葉は、常に仕事とオフの切り替えがないという気がめいる状態に抵抗する姿勢を指す。（写真は資料写真）
　ジョージア州アセンズに住む元教師のマギー・パーキンズさん（３０）は、週６０時間、当たり前のように働いていた。だが１人目の子どもが生まれてから、自分の働き方に疑問を持つようになった。
　「休暇で旅先に向かう飛行機の中でも、私が採点をしている写真があります。その頃の私にはワークライフバランスなんてありませんでした」と、パーキンズさんは動画投稿アプリ「ティックトック」の動画で振り返っている。
　パーキンズさんは博士号の取得を目指して退職したが、教師仲間のために勤務時間内に仕事を終わらせる実用的なヒントを動画やポッドキャストで紹介している。
　当時、クワイエット・クイッティングという言葉はまだなかったが、「ポイントは、（仕事のオンとオフで）きっちり線を引くことです。そうすることで、給料をもらう分だけ働き、その後は家に帰って家族と過ごしながら人間らしい生活が送れるようになります」とＡＦＰに話した。

■５０万近い「いいね」

　クワイエット・クイッティングというフレーズがティックトックに初めて登場したのは今年７月。
　「＠ｚａｉｄｌｅｐｐｅｌｉｎ」というアカウント名を持つユーザーが、「仕事をいきなりやめなくても、規定以上に働かないようにしたらどうだろう。やるべき仕事はちゃんとこなすけれど、仕事イコール人生みたいな『ハッスル（がむしゃらに働く）文化』のメンタリティーに染まらないようにすればいい」と提案した。
　この投稿は拡散され、５０万近い「いいね」が付いた。同じような思いを持つ人々からのコメントが殺到。さまざまな新聞のコラムでも取り上げられ、たちまち議論が沸き起こった。

■ただの「サボり」なのか

　クワイエット・クイッティングを唱える多くの人々は、バリバリ働く気は十分あるが、必要以上の時間は働かないと主張している。「働くのは給料がもらえる分だけ」をモットーとしている。
　一方の否定派からは、「クワイエット・クイッティングという言葉は目新しいが、要は単に仕事をサボりたいだけなのではないか」、「燃え尽き症候群寸前の人はすぐに仕事をやめた方がいいのでは」、「どの職場にも時計ばかり見てやる気のない従業員や責任逃れをする従業員がいる」といったさまざまな意見や批判が上がっている。
　中でも手厳しいのは、米ニュースサイト「ハフィントン・ポスト」の創業者、アリアナ・ハフィントン氏だ。クワイエット・クイッティングは「人生をやめる第一歩だ」とまでこき下ろした。
　だが、経済学者で元労働長官のロバート・ライシュ氏は説得力のある一言で反論している。「働く人々は『静かに仕事をやめている』わけではない。労働力を搾取されるのを拒否しているのだ」 【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/09/12-14:43）

They are drawing a line at the 40-hour work week, limiting after-hours calls and emails and generally, if softly, saying no more often -- some American workers are embracing the concept of quiet quitting as they push back against what some see as the stifling trap of constant connectivity.
Maggie Perkins -- who lives in Athens, Georgia -- was racking up 60-hour weeks as a matter of course in her job as a teacher, but the 30-year-old realized after her first child was born that something was wrong.
There's pictures of me grading papers on an airplane on the way to vacation. I did not have a work-life balance, Perkins explains in a TikTok video about how she chose -- though she did not have a name for it back then -- to begin quiet quitting.
Perkins told AFP she eventually left her job to pursue a PhD, but remains an advocate for her former colleagues -- producing videos and podcasts with practical tips on making their workload fit inside their workday.
Adopting this 'quiet quitting' mindset really just means that you are establishing a boundary that helps you to do your job when you are paid to do it -- and then you can leave that, and go home and be a human with your family, she says.
- Work-life balance or slacking? -
The buzzword seems to have first surfaced in a July TikTok post.
In the words of user @zaidleppelin, You're not outright quitting your job but you're quitting the idea of going above and beyond. You're still performing your duties but you're no longer subscribing to the hustle culture mentality that work has to be your life.
That post went viral, drawing nearly a half-million likes. Responses bubbled over with a sense of shared resentment -- and newspaper columnists spilled ink all summer trying to decipher the phenomenon.
For the debate soon erupted: Are quiet quitters merely trying to draw boundaries in pursuit of a reasonable work-life balance, more associated with a European lifestyle than with always-on US work culture?
Are they slackers with a trendy new name? Or are they people at genuine risk of burnout -- who would do best to quit outright?
Data suggests the need for greater balance is real.
On-the-job stress rose from 38 percent of those polled in 2019 to 43 percent the following year as Covid-19 upended the world of work, Gallup found, with women in the United States and Canada facing the most pressure.
Similar dynamics helped fuel the Great Resignation -- the surge in employees leaving or switching jobs amid pandemic-related pressures.
Many quiet quitters say they are perfectly willing to work hard, but only for the hours the job is meant to entail. Their motto: act your wage.
Some observers are skeptical, of course, contending that offices have always had their share of clock-watchers and prickly workers claiming certain tasks are not their responsibility.
Going further, Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post, panned the phenomenon as a step toward quitting on life.
But former US labor secretary Robert Reich summed up the -- forceful -- counterargument, saying Workers aren't 'quiet quitting.' They're refusing to be exploited for their labor.
- 'Six months of dread' -
A case in point: the experience of Bess, who asked not to be identified by her real name, illustrates how Covid allowed some jobs to spill far outside their normal boundaries.
She was hired shortly before the pandemic in a job originally meant to involve regular trips to Germany.
But, she told AFP, Covid left her stuck in her New York apartment, having to take phone calls as early as 3:00 am due to the time difference.
Out of self-preservation, she began to dial back her efforts -- which her American friends had trouble understanding.
There is that stigma -- you put your blood, sweat and tears into your job in the US, and if you don't work, you don't deserve to be here, she said.
After six months of dread, Bess explains, she simply stopped answering emails for several weeks -- and ultimately parted ways with her company.
Philip Oreopoulos, a labor economist at the University of Toronto, said one solution is better communications to clarify employer expectations before accepting a job.
If you need to be on call at home, then they should clearly state that, he said.
And if things do get out of hand -- and quiet quitting won't fix the problem -- aggrieved workers do have one asset to fall back on: a historically low unemployment rate.
Come to an employer and say, 'I have an opportunity with another firm and I'm thinking of taking it,' Oreopoulos said. It's a good time in general to be asking for a raise.