“The great resignation”, “quiet quitting”, “career coasting”, and “boundary balancing” are terms and practices that have crept into the workplace. These trends have had both a positive and negative impact. The change in work environments because of covid, remote work, and the gig economy, has caused millions in the workforce to reflect, reassess, and rebalance the role and priority, work plays up against the rest of life.

Many have made decisions concerning their careers that place work in a much more balanced role, by setting and enforcing boundaries. They no longer habitually work 12+ hours a day, after hours or on weekends. They don’t respond to texts or emails on days off and aren’t willing to be available 24/7 in order to retain a job or land that promotion. Much of this reassessment and recalibration has been extremely healthy as workers strive for greater balance by not allowing work or careers to dominate their lives.

However, I would like to drill down on the notion of “quiet quitting”.  There seems to be two definitions. One I understand, the other I strongly question. One concept of “quiet quitting” is more along the lines discussed in the previous paragraph.

The other aspect of “quiet quitting” is quite disturbing to me. In this context, workers are not happy with their job or employer and believe they are underappreciated and underpaid, (which may be true.) They disengage from work, so that they are only doing enough to get by, the bare minimum, putting forth the least amount of effort possible to keep their paychecks. These workers deliberately delay tasks, or responses to communications and assignments to do as little as possible each day. I think this behavior is highly irresponsible. If getting away with as little work and effort as possible at your place of employment is your goal, then I submit that as a follower of Jesus, your values regarding work are skewed and misguided. If you are prone to this type of “quiet quitting”, I believe you are stealing from and robbing your employer and dishonoring God.

If you have been hired to do a job, you owe it to your employer to do it to the best of your ability. If the issue is wages, then ask for a raise or pursue another position that pays more. You knew what the salary was when you accepted it. If you feel undervalued or underappreciated, that’s understandable, but that doesn’t give you permission or the right to do the least amount of work possible.  At least not if you are a follower of Jesus.

I’m willing to bet that Jesus the carpenter before He began His public ministry, put in a full day, and worked hard, with excellence in all He did. Jesus would have never performed shoddy work. I can’t imagine Jesus “quiet quitting”, doing as little as possible. I picture Jesus with the strongest of work ethics.

Colossians 3:22-24 says, “Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service, as men pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.”

 By all means find the balance between the role of work and the other parts of your life. By no means though, should your aim be to do the bare minimum or just enough to get by.

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