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Comment by rhubarbtree | Hacker News Reader

I suspect there is an unspoken factor here, which is that business leaders are not impressed by the WFH silent quitting attitude of junior staff, they’re happy to replace them with AI, and they don’t have sympathy because “yet another thing is hard.”

I’ve seen the silent quitting attitude in a workplace and it is toxic. OTOH young people have had a lot to deal with, and social media is damaging their mental health. OTOOH quit social media and try to address some of the issues you have. It’s very hard to know where the balance between sympathetic arm-round-the-shoulder and tough-love-develop-some-grit should lie.

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I believe that most people naturally want to work, to contribute and build in groups. They want to do it and should expect to do it with reasonable boundaries and benefits for their labor. Silent quitting is a response to ever increasingly extractive work relationships for fewer and fewer benefits and increasingly irrationally low levels of compensation.

Not sure I agree. People seem to lose sight of what the default is, and how fortunate they are.

There are many systemic problems in society, but it’s rarely your direct employer’s fault.

I think Silent Quitting is some chattering class concoction feels-wrapping the observation that most workers have the incentive to work as little as possible.[1] Just like employers have the incentive squeeze as much productivity from their commodities (labor).

What was the first instinct of the venerable business leaders (spoken a bit too publicly)? Great, we can get rid of labor. Do they need any excuse or reason beyond maximizing profit? They don’t. It’s just incentives.

[1] And some workers can genuinely benefit from doing more than that, even as wage workers. “Some people have jobs; others have careers” as Chris Rock paraphrasedly said.

This reads like an avocado toast critique. Businesses which respect their staff, particularly junior staff, are few and far in between. Why should anyone not “silently quit” when the attitude of their employer is to extract as much value for the lowest cost before a round of layoffs?

because they do it even when they have a good job with ample pay and respect

Certainly true in this case.

Well, the workplace I referred to was very kind and supportive of staff. Even people who left later sent messages saying it was the best treatment they’d ever had.

So not the reason in this case.

And I personally know another company that seems similar.

It would be toxic in that environment but I’ve never personally been lucky enough to work at an outfit like that, so I find it difficult to believe the reactive version isn’t more common than the spontaneous you describe

>> "we used AI to readout and some names were missed. We will not redo and you will not see your name on stage"

This is .. not quiet, but extremely noisy, quitting of the bargain by the management/authority class.

This is how we get the low trust dystopia where all the remaining human workers have to put up with a camera watching them at all times (backed by AI, of course) doing Taylorism on their eye movements.

Why do you assume it’s the juniors who are silent quitting?

Yeah, the general trend I’ve seen is people becoming more cynical about the workplace the older they get.

Was in the case I was referring to, and in similar cases I am familiar with.

OTOOOH its very naive to think that "quitting social media" is the solution.

The earth is rotting from us leeching from it, there is no future for these juniors, and we're on the verge of more war and destruction, fascism, et cetera.

There is nothing for them to build towards, other than the typical House, wife and kids, which will be in the same boat.

Knowing this, if someone comes up to you and says "yeah, well, you should just accept it", obviously people are not going to support this

Also, it's not enough to quit on your own: all the voters and CEOs around you will still be on social media, making decisions it influences. Just like quitting alcohol won't prevent you being killed by a drunk driver.

that attitude is a direct result of having your neuroticism farmed by social media

Catastrophising for sure, and unhelpful in that it obscures some of the more real issues young people face: unaffordable housing, student debt, employment market shifts, mental health problems caused by social media.

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