“I do the equivalent of a maximum of full part-time,” says Alba*, but I pay for 35 hours of work per week. It was the health crisis that changed the young woman’s relationship with the work she does in the book industry. In 2020, she moved to the south of France and negotiated full-time telecommuting with her employer. “Although I wasn’t deeply passionate about this job, I found it fun and exhilarating at first,” she explains. “But little by little, it became a job to make circles… A hiding place.”
Today he does not hide his lack of interest in his work: “in short, I don’t care what I do and I do the minimum”.
Like 37% of the people questioned by Ifop for the site the creatorsAlba and Gaspard consider themselves in a situation of quiet resignation, which can be translated into French as a “silent resignation”. This term, coined and used for the first time on the TikTok social network, refers to a kind of mental resignation of employees who continue to come to work doing the minimum necessary to avoid being fired. A phenomenon difficult to quantify in which many employees in France seem to recognize themselves.
For Alba, the health crisis has undoubtedly marked the turning point. “The work has become incidental, the priorities have taken a different direction,” she explains. The realization and the personal life of the young woman then come to the fore. A change in perception that Gaspard also experienced. “I have a private life, a family… The crisis has given them more importance,” said the 28-year-old who suddenly wants to make the most of his loved ones.
After several months of overinvestment, teleworking and lockdowns are helping Amanda* to distance herself. “It was the job of my dreams”, describes the young psychologist. For months, alone in this position in the structure that hires her, she is overwhelmed by the patients and the administrative tasks that she must manage.
So much so that the health crisis offers him a moment of pause. “I was doing my reports from home and I enjoyed having this way of life,” she says. After that, she doesn’t get involved in her work and goes into what she considers a silent resignation.
Denial of an execution order
A questioning of the workplace found in the content shared on social networks that have popularized the notion of quit smoking quietly. “Your job is not your life,” says a certain Zaid K in a video posted on TikTok.
“You don’t just quit your job, you give up the idea of going beyond expectations at work,” he also explains, before summarizing: “Your value is not defined by your productivity.” The impression that he is constantly being asked to do more is also strong for Gaspard. “With the company you always do more, but never less”, he gets angry.
According to Benoît Serre, vice president of the National Association of Human Resources Directors (ANDRH), this trend exists and can be observed in companies. “But it dates from before the health crisis that simply acted as an accelerator,” he judges. “Some of the new generation seem structurally less interested in moving up the ranks,” he develops.
An increase in suffering at work
Faced with the sometimes disproportionate demands of companies or organizations, the quit smoking quietly It can also be an expression of real suffering at work and a deterioration in relations between employees and employers, believes Me Rocheblave, a lawyer specializing in employment law. According to wave 10 of the employee psychological health barometer, 41% say they are in a situation of psychological discomfort.
And the younger employees seem even more affected. According to a study by Malakoff Humanis, 23% of employees under 30 years of age judge their mental health negatively. They are 48% to report poor sleep, 42% to say they are stressed, and 34% to feel emotionally drained. However, among them, 44% accuse the professional context, in particular the intensity and working time (67%), as well as degraded social relationships (47%).
A situation Amanda knew all too well. By dint of working tirelessly, the young woman’s mental health is increasingly affected. “She had physical symptoms,” she recalls. After a few months, she decides to withdraw from her job to protect herself from her.
“There are tools available to the employee when they consider themselves in overdrive,” however, recalls Me Karine Audouze, a lawyer specializing in labor law. “He can discuss his workload with his employer during interviews.” “The distribution between the workload and personal life, for example of executives on a day-to-day basis, is part of the organization of annual interviews,” she adds.
Amanda will not be able to take this path since conflicts with her hierarchy are added to the exhaustion that seizes her. Result: she remains for a year and a half in a situation of quit smoking quietly.
According to Me Rocheblave, another reality is behind the phenomenon: the use of labor courts, the main tool available to the employee in case of dispute, has been undermined over the years. “Prud’homales referrals have more than halved in the last ten years,” she notes. According to him, this trend stems from a series of legislative options, such as limiting severance pay or making access to labor courts more complex, which has made it difficult for workers to access justice.
A desire for freedom and flexibility.
“The same causes that lead to the Big Quit (Great Renunciation, in French), on the other side of the Atlantic, we find them here, in France”, affirms Benoît Serre. But resignations remain limited in France, unlike in the United States.
In question, a less flexible and more protective French labor market. “The CDI comes with so many protections,” she adds. This is often what prevents employees from quitting. Like Alba, who considers the position he occupies as a safety net, despite the fatigue he has felt every day for two years.
“Despite this, the fact that the market is very active encourages employees to look elsewhere,” he said. “Nose to the window, some stay in their business doing the minimum, and hoping to find something better.”
And in this “better” many employees put more freedom and flexibility.
A desire for flexibility that we find particularly among executives. According to the latest study by Cadremploi and Ifop, 49% of them cite teleworking among the measures that would encourage them to stay in a company or join one.
This freedom for a time gained during the health crisis has often been painfully taken away from employees and you can participate in their divestment. This is how Amanda felt when she had to return to full-time in-person work. “I couldn’t take it anymore, I worked my hours but I didn’t have another minute left,” she says. The same story for Gaspard, who finds it hard to bear theopen space despite a friendly work environment and friendly colleagues. “I feel watched and have trouble concentrating,” she explains.
More than telecommuting, many executives want more flexible work hours. According to the work of Cadrempoi and Ifop, the adaptation of the time slots is thus acclaimed by 52% of those surveyed. They are even 65% to decide in favor of the establishment of a week to four days with unchanged salary level.
A phenomenon at the crossroads of many factors
But giving employees more flexibility and autonomy doesn’t always prevent silent resignation. This is even what precipitated it in the case of Alba. When the 30-year-old moves to the south of France and asks to telecommute full time, her employer accepts from her and decides to fully trust her. And this, while no one else benefits from it in the structure. “I was the one who set my guidelines and my pace of work in this configuration that didn’t exist,” she recalls.
“At the beginning I was very disciplined, she says. I imposed rituals on myself so as not to stray.” But little by little, her motivation fades. Full-time remote work becomes detrimental, particularly by never seeing her colleagues. The work becomes very abstract, even unreal for the young woman. So much so that she admits to having sometimes regretted an intervention by her employer to remobilize her.
Gaspard also says that he had difficulties, from the beginning of his professional experience, due to a lack of training and supervision. “He didn’t understand what he was doing,” he admits. From the beginning of his contract, he felt uncomfortable in his position and the cries for help that he tried to send to his hierarchy remained a dead letter.
Today, he even questions the choice of his professional orientation. If Alba, for her part, wants to continue in the same line of business, she is currently aiming for a new position with more human contact and meaning for her. She even decided to be transparent with her employer about her desire to leave.
Fatigue, lack of interest in one’s own work, desire for flexibility or, on the contrary, the need to be more “framed”… The quit smoking quietly it is at the crossroads of several factors and therefore intersects with many realities depending on the professional situations and the personalities of the employees.
However, the phenomenon must be understood and taken into account by employers. “When the job market is good, people want to leave,” says Benoît Serre. “Therefore, it is up to companies to find new sources of motivation for their employees,” he concludes.
*Names have been changed
Source: BFM TV
