Quiet Quitting
Etymology
A transparent compound of "quiet" and "quitting" — you have not quit, you have only stopped over-functioning. The phrase went viral in mid-2022 through a TikTok video by the engineer Zaid Khan, though isolated earlier uses of the words together exist in unrelated senses. The paradox is deliberate: it is quitting that involves no resignation at all.
noun phrase · /KWY-ut KWIT-ing/
Doing exactly what your job requires and no more — declining the extra hours, hustle, and emotional investment that go unrewarded.
What it names
A handle for the difference between actually leaving a job and simply withdrawing the discretionary effort employers quietly rely on; reach for it when someone mistakes disengagement for laziness.
Example
After the third year without a raise she started quiet quitting — inbox closed at five, no more weekend heroics.
Related idea
Presenteeism is showing up while too sick or checked-out to be productive; quiet quitting is a deliberate, healthy-boundaried refusal of unpaid extra effort.