Corporate employee quiet quits for 3 months, is continually rewarded on a 'job well done': 'Somehow, I’m still employed and I have no idea why'

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JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor
Apr 11, 2026 10:00 AM EDT

Have you ever heard of quiet quitting?

Quiet quitting is when you just stop doing your job, but you don't tell anyone about it. You're still employed, for all intents and purposes, and you see how long it takes for anyone to notice. Maybe you complete a task here and there just to throw off the scent, but you're not doing nearly as much as you once did. What some workers find when they do this is that nobody notices. Or it takes a lot longer for them than you'd think. Sometimes corporations are bloated with people. They all have jobs, but they don't have any real impact or meaning. They're being compensated, but they're not putting in any effort because their jobs have no material effect. And when workers get burned out, they have no choice but to throw in the towel. 

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  • A businesswoman looks checked out at her desk
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • I Just Stopped Working

    I'm still employed, but I just stopped working. I'd say approximately three months ago. I throw my corporate job a bone every now and then and get sh done just so it looks like I'm working, but I really haven't done sh for like three months. Somehow, I'm still employed and I have no idea why. Every week my boss tells me I'm doing a good job in our one-to-one calls. I've literally never done such a job in my entire life of approximately 30 years of working.
    via briizygirl
  • What an experiment. I'm kind of flabbergasted. Wonder how long this will go on... You can see from my previous post that I just have like zero motivation and don't care anymore for this job. I am working other side jobs that are way more interesting and fun that I have nothing to do with this industry at all. In fact, they are jobs that like anybody could do with no
    via briizygirl
  • qualifications and I'm making way more money doing them in way less time. Now they won't be forever jobs because they don't have insurance, stock, and a W- 2, but they also don't drive me to want to jump off a cliff. Today I got a message from a coworker asking if I can meet and give her some advice on how to do something and it's taking everything and me to not reply
    via briizygirl
  • with, "I really don't give a fl and I would definitely recommend asking someone else." but I bet if I did it wouldn't even matter lol. She'd say OK thanks! For more context, I've been through a brutal divorce over the last four years, been though DV, and had to fight like h I to keep myself and my son safe, which I've managed to do. So ALL of my money has gone into lawyers to
    via briizygirl
  • protect my son and me. That obviously hasn't helped. But it's definitely given me perspective on what I wanna do and where I want to spend my time. Anyway, this is definitely total burnout mode I'm in. I'm not sure how to "snap out of it." No amount of exercise, prescription dr s, or reframing my brain is working at this point. My whole life, I've worked really hard, been a good person, been generous
    via briizygirl
  • with my friends and family, and for what? Where is it actually gotten me. Bankrupt and a slave to the corporate world. Awesome I think with everything going on in the world, I'm just having a super hard time focusing on a job that really doesn't matter and that I know is inevitable to get replaced by Al within a couple of years anyway.
    via briizygirl
  • Anyone in the same boat? Any hacks? What are you doing? It's not like I have a back up plan. I'm just kind of....frozen.
    via briizygirl

  • Burnout is real, and it comes for all of us at one point or another. You know it when you feel it. Your motivation wavers. It's harder to get out of bed in the morning. You don't find any real cache in what you spend your time doing. You're searching for meaning and purpose. You want to spend time on things that you enjoy, but you don't have the energy to do so when it comes down to it. It's not a fun place to be in, and you will do anything you can to get out of it. But you also have to survive. This is where quiet quitting comes in. That's what the employee in this story was feeling after a long, unsatisfying career. Stuff came up in their personal life that brought them down, and they were totally checked out of their work life. But they needed to keep paying the bills, so they needed to keep their job. The solution they came up with wasn't so much a solution as it was the last resort. They were feeling like they couldn't clock in anymore, so they just… didn't. Keep scrolling to read everything that happened here and see what you think about it.

  • Commenters commiserated and shared their experiences.

    Alternative Reso... I once worked for two departments and two bosses. Both bosses barely gave me any work because they thought I was busy with work for the other department. It lasted 3 years. that I didn't really have to do anything. I was praised for my sacrifice of working two jobs lol.
    via AlternativeResort477
  • _Art_Vandela... Quiet quitting paired with not being fired or even recognized as slacking is a jackpot. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, don't overthink it. Just keep cruising.
    via _Art_Vandelay___
  • Drone314 You wake up one day and realize we have the technology level of the Jetsons but the political and social system of Game of Thrones. Reject it. Lay Flat, Quite Quit. Withholding your labor is a great power.
    via Drone314
  • A woman writes something down in an agenda at her desk
    via Unsplash+ (Curated Lifestyle)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Mad_Minotaur_... most days i have maybe 2 hours of work and I usually push that off to another day lol The tedium of it can become unbearable but I know i've got a good thing going here and i do my best to remind myself of that when my coworkers get me close to quitting
    via Mad_Minotaur_of_Mars
  • SpiritTrail Walker It's not just you. I could barely give 2fs right now either.
    via SpiritTrailWalker
  • Just-Seaweed Wow! This whole string of comments has made me feel less alone. I occasionally have huge anxiety that I'm going to get in trouble but I do work enough to help my department function. I just don't care at all. I'm sooo burnt out and spend a
    via Just-Seaweed
  • lot of time working on creative projects, sending work to literary mags, emailing friends, and reading. My life is over halfway over. I need fulfillment.
    via Just-Seaweed
  • Harrigan_Raen I quiet quit for over 10 months. The only reason it ended was because i finally gave up on being fired and just quit.
    via Harrigan_Raen
  • rosesforthemon... I'm right there with you. I've never cared less about a job in my life. I'm not going to quit because it pays well, the schedule is perfect, and they're basically paying me to do nothing all day long. I just got fed up with trying to look busy and cleaning. things that are already clean because I've already cleaned them 20 times in one week.
    via rosesforthemonsters
  • Don't have to worry about getting canned no matter what I do or don't do. The managers don't have the authority to fire anyone and the business owner doesn't fire anyone. He doesn't GAF what goes on there as long as he doesn't have to deal with anything. I've never seen anyone more checked out at work than that guy he was ready to retire 10 years ago. --
    via rosesforthemonsters
  • Lately I've been spending most of my day planted on a chair, waiting for customers to come in to the shop. I really couldn't care less what the manager thinks about that. She told me the other day that I was doing a good job holding down the chair that I was sitting on. I said "thanks" and threw her a wink. Rolled my eyes at her when she walked away, but didn't get up off that chair.
    via rosesforthemonsters
  • Turbulent_Char... I am so there with you. I was a high achiever when I was young, an enthusiastic worker, went above and beyond and wanted to climb the corporate ladder. Now I WFH as an individual contributor and have zero aspirations of doing more.
    via Turbulent_Chart_1074
  • I think my nervous system has been in fight or flight for a decade and I just don't care. Especially when we're inundated daily by threats to "destroy an entire civilization" and the like...like who cares about my stupid projects?
    via Turbulent_Chart_1074
  • Nefilim777 Definitely in the same boat. Completely apathetic about work for the most part. Totally unmotivated. I desperately want to do something more meaningful but I'm the sole income earner in my family and simply can't afford to.
    via Nefilim777
  • m Listen, don't feel bad or guilty. Human beings are not built to sit at a desk for 40 hours a week. This is against everything we are evolved to be and do. It also stifles our potential as individuals and as a species. What follows is my opinion based on
    via m
  • observation so take it with a grain of salt. But I believe this type of work structure was invented by men so they could have somewhere to go and feel important in the post-industrial world while their wives did all the labor at home. But now it appears that the powers that be have realized that this
    via m
  • work structure allows for tight control over human behavior. While co id was horrific for obvious reasons, it also gave people a sense of what might be possible if they weren't forced to commute and waste their lives in an office. Ride the wave and make it work for you.
    via m
  • Edit: I think it's important to add that this is not meant as an attack on men as a whole. Obviously this work structure makes most of us miserable, including the vast majority of men, and it was a very small minority that enjoyed/benefited from it
    via m
  • gravitydoesntlie I bought a mouse mover and started sort of quiet quitting 6 months ago by just not going over and above. anymore...I still run my team, assign work and am available for questions and trouble shooting but I just stopped doing the most and the result was I got promoted
    via gravitydoesntlie
  • BananaJelloXlii Been there. Years ago. I just quit giving a sh. Would show up late, insulted a manager, did everything I could to get fired. I felt at that point, if I quit, they would win. I was in my 20s, 20 something logic. I worked for an employment agency, and it was an hour
    via BananaJelloXlii
  • commute, and they would call at 5am and ask me to come in at 6. It got to the point where if they tried to ask me to come in early, I would report off for that day. Eventually, I just started showing up 4 hours late, refusing to stay over, etc. Surprisingly, I got away with that for about a week before the employment agency terminated my contract with the company I was working at.
    via BananaJelloXlii
  • Starfury_42 At my previous job (8 yrs ago) they outsourced our department. I managed to be one of the people kept on for 2 months to answer questions of the new team. They never called so I ran
    via Starfury_42
  • reports twice a week that took maybe 2 hours out of 40. So I watched Netflix/YouTube and played Skyrim/Guild Wars 2. Then my boss quit and I stopped doing the report. Sat there doing nothing/job hunting and getting paid for it.
    via Starfury_42

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quiet quitting boss antiwork corporate job coworkers working burnout workplace
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