Have you read enough about “Quiet Quitting” yet? This recently-coined term seems to have evolved to define a variety of long-practiced solutions for passively dealing with overly-burdensome or dysfunctional work situations.
Originally used to describe an approach to work that seeks to simply meet the requirements of a job rather than going above and beyond to earn a gold star, quiet quitting has been redefined to name the practice of “checking out” - meeting the minimum bar required to keep collecting a paycheck. And sadly, in a year when voluntary job turnover is expected to exceed the pre-pandemic average by nearly 20%, it’s undoubtedly a case-by-case basis for employers when it comes to preferring whether an employee “quiet quit” or simply walk out the door!
How did we get here? The challenges of a changing economy and context for work over the past several years have created a variety of new challenges for both employees and employers. That is certainly true. As pressure is passed down the chain, many employees find themselves frustrated with their experience. While every frustrated worker’s experience is different and every person’s story deserves to be heard, we’d also do well to pause in the midst of the recent attention that discontent at work has been given and acknowledge: In a fallen world, overly demanding bosses, unhealthy desire for gain, and workplaces that prioritize the productivity of people over their wellbeing are not new problems. “Quiet-quitting” may be a new way of describing passive solutions to coping with brokenness at work, but brokenness at work is not a new problem. Read Psalm 73. Truly, there is nothing new under the sun (Eccl. 1:9).
So what should Christians do who find themselves in these kinds of situations, where unhealth and frustration mark their work experience at present?
There is not a singular or simple Christian response to this question, but I do think it is safe to say that “quiet quitting” is not among our wisest responses to the experience of brokenness at work. Why? Because Christians are called to engage the messiness of broken situations as people who hope in God’s redemptive presence among us. We enter in and engage with hope in what God can do, not passively remove ourselves.
In Jeremiah Ch. 29, God speaks to Israelite exiles in Babylon - people who had been plucked from their homes and into forced labor in the land of their enemies - and encourages them in verses 1-9 not to disengage, but “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” The prophet’s words acknowledge both the extreme difficulty of the Israelites' circumstances, but also God’s presence with them and purpose for them in the midst of their experience. God calls them to keep pressing - to live by faith and seek the welfare of the place which he’s positioned them, even in their hardship. No context is beyond his ability to enter in and show his redemptive ability, for his glory and the good of his people.
“However, by God’s grace and through his renewing power at work within us, we are called to live as salt and light that bring health and safety in dark and decaying places.”
For all who have found our hope in Jesus - through identifying ourselves with his ultimate restorative work on our behalf - may you and I be people of hope who faithfully engage with the people and places to which God has sent us. This world is fallen. Institutions are fallen and so are you and I. However, by God’s grace and through his renewing power at work within us, we are called to live as salt and light that bring health and safety in dark and decaying places. We seek health and respect our limits, but we avoid passivity and we don’t check out. This kind of faithfulness is hard, and it will make us uncomfortable. However, we must remember - our God is able to bring life from death. No situation is beyond his redemptive ability. Even in the most broken work situations where our wisest choice may actually be to quit and seek other employment, let’s first engage and do the uncomfortable work of actively seeking solutions to the problems we see and experience.
Let’s respond to the restorative work of Jesus in our own lives and give our best toward making things better and more healthy for all people - for God’s glory and our good.
