Like some disgruntled folk in the workplace, I hear our society has evolved to create quiet quitting for bloggers. Is it worth looking into?
The term quiet quitting has become popular in today’s culture, particularly among younger people. Unfortunately, it appears there may be a movement to include quiet quitting for bloggers.
Though quiet quitting in the workplace may have different meanings to different people, one common meaning is doing the bare minimum required. If your job description includes five tasks every day, a quiet quitter completes those five tasks as instructed. They don’t go the extra mile. They don’t put in any additional effort. Instead, they do what is required and only what is required.
No more.
My take on quiet quitting is that the worker is only punishing himself with such foolishness. Doing the job you’re paid to do isn’t “quitting.” It’s doing what you’re hired to do. It isn’t punishing your employer; they’re getting exactly what they’re paying for.
True, they’re not getting more than they’re paying for — and we’d all like to get more than we pay for. But they’re getting what they are paying for.
So people who claim to be quiet quitters may take some kind of bizarre pleasure in branding themselves as such. But they’re not accomplishing much else.
So what does the blogging version of quiet quitting look like?
In an article called “Bloggers Are Quietly Quitting, Too,” Christopher Kokoski writes that it’s doesn’t mean you shut down your blog. It also isn’t publishing “sub-par work.”
It’s not shutting down your blog and walking away.
“It’s not quitting quality, coherence, or commitment to your blog,” Kokoski writes.
Instead, it’s about setting boundaries when it comes to the time and effort set blogging. He acknowledges that blogging can be draining mentally and emotionally.
“As a blogger, it’s tempting to want to work on your blog 24/7,” he writes. “But it only takes a few sleepless nights to realize that going 100 miles per hour is not sustainable. You’re going to run out of gas eventually or destroy your engine.”
He lists several reasons bloggers might legitimately need to take such steps. His article is worth a read.
The way Kokoski describes it, it’s about protecting your health — emotional, mental and physical.
You see, I don’t call that quiet quitting at all.
For a few years, I posted something every single day on this site. Every. Single. Day. I was putting all this pressure on myself to crank out new content every day of the year. When you produce that much content, some of it is just bound to be mediocre, no matter how committed you might be to make every post a gem.
Every post isn’t going to be a gem…especially when one goes up every day.
That’s why I adjusted my posting schedule. Five years ago, I knew I needed to stop with the daily posting. But I didn’t want to stop. I felt like that was somehow admitting defeat.
I finally talked myself into making the change. If I hadn’t, I might have had to stop it altogether. I would have burned myself out. I didn’t feel guilty about the chance once I embraced it. It was exactly what I needed to do.
There are some days I still struggle to flesh out a post the way I’d like it to be. But four posts a week are far easier than seven!
That’s not quitting. That’s maintaining your health and the health of your blog. And, it’s also making the experience on your site better for your readers.
That’s exactly what a blogger should always be doing!