quiet quitting

Gradually making an employee's job miserable — no promotion, no growth, no feedback, stripped-down projects — until they quit on their own. Legally safer for the company than firing; emotionally more damaging for the worker. 2023 saw the term become an HR bogeyman.

The deliberately positive flip of quiet quitting, coined in a 2022 Washington Post piece by psychotherapist Lesley Alderman: instead of mentally checking out of a job you can't or won't leave, you make small, intentional adjustments — building a friendship with a colleague, taking real breaks, picking up a more interesting side project, redecorating your desk — that quietly improve your day-to-day experience of work. Quiet thriving is framed as an individual coping strategy rather than a structural fix, and is often promoted by HR and wellbeing teams precisely because it asks the employee, not the employer, to do the work of feeling better.

Resigning with a dramatic, public flourish — LinkedIn post, group-email farewell, a TikTok explaining why. Opposite of quiet quitting. "He loud quit with a five-slide deck critiquing the company. Bold." Most loud-quitters regret the deck within 12 months; the screenshots live forever.

The active or passive neglect of employees in a way that leads to their resignation.