September 23rd marked the first day of Autumn, also known as Fall.
Autumn has become synonymous with temperatures dropping, the start of nights getting longer and days getting shorter, but most of all, leaves begin to turn orange, red, and brown, and begin to fall.
To some, this is just science and nature at work but to others, there is meaning and symbolism behind this process.
Autumn can be seen as the season of letting go. A season that serves as the penultimate ending before a long period of slumber arrives. In between there is not only a moment of pause but a moment of reflection as well as a moment of ending.
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During the height of the 2020 COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic, the subject of ‘quiet quitting’ started to emerge. As the pandemic shifted many people’s focus, especially on their relationship between work and life, ‘quiet quitting’ started to transform into a trending topic in the coming years of 2021 and 2022.
Writers Anthony Klotz and Mark Bolino, in their 2022 article for the Harvard Business Review, “When Quiet Quitting Is Worse Than the Real Thing”, write, “While much has been written about the Great Resignation, a new term has emerged to describe an increasingly common alternative to resigning: ‘quiet quitting’…quiet quitting refers to opting out of tasks beyond one’s assigned duties and/or becoming less psychologically invested in work. Quiet quitters continue to fulfill their primary responsibilities, but they’re less willing to engage in activities known as citizenship behaviors: no more staying late, showing up early, or attending non-mandatory meetings.”
As trends in the workforce have continued to fluctuate, a salient theme that has emerged is many people see quiet quitting as a means to rethink, recalibrate, and redefine the role work serves. In a culture where overachieving has gone from an anomaly to a requirement, employees have begun to feel an inequitable balance in their relationships with the employers, prompting them to set boundaries that ironically still allows them to fulfill their obligations outlined in their work contracts while also making room for things outside of work.
What does quiet quitting have to do with the season of Autumn? In the season of letting go, the act of quiet quitting finds a place in the air of endings and pauses. Quiet quitting is not about stopping living life altogether or abruptly disengaging from life altogether. On the contrary, it is about reflection. Much like the season of Autumn is also about reflection. In the last few months before winter, an opportunity to reflect on what has happened, what didn’t happen, and maybe what could have happened arrives. This then also prompts the idea to allocate time in the upcoming year for what was missed.
Most of all, quiet quitting can be synonymous with Autumn because it’s about letting go of expectations and embracing what remains. Work is never something that is enjoyable all the time. Life is never something that is enjoyable all the time. But in the process of letting go, some things do remain and the things that do teach a valuable lesson about what is important.
