Diaries Of A Gen Z: Quiet Quitting In The Gig World
Fatmah K. Content Writer Intern
In the previous article, I asked managers and hirers for their thoughts with respect to Gen Zs in the workplace, and explored how they can attract and engage Gen Zs at work. With that, I also started wondering about this one other industry- the Gig Industry, and the tremendous allure it seemed to hold for fellow Gen Zs!
With this in mind, I signed up for an Out Of Office Conversation that was held by Friendzone. I must admit that joining a Friendzone event was on my bucket list of events I’d like to attend, hence this was a personal check for me!
In thinking about the Gig Industry, Foodpanda riders and Grab drivers were the first thing that came to my mind. However, at the event, I met a much wider range of young people who identified with doing gig work. For example, I was surprised to find that there were people who were freelancing in areas from teaching to personal care.
The session began with a mingle where we were all in the middle, and we constantly milled around as we played a game that looked like the Ikigai diagram, teasing out what we liked, disliked and hoped to have as freelancers. I noticed that for most of us youth participants, we were genuinely curious about asking one another ‘how did you get into (this industry)’ instead of ‘why did you choose (a gig job in that particular industry)?’ To me, it signified that for us, being in the gig industry was not so much an unusual life choice that needed an explainer, but rather, just one other option among many other equally good ones.
After the mingle, we went back to our tables and started playing the Friendzone Prompter Cards, where through a series of questions, we somehow landed on the topic of Quiet Quitting. Over the past month, the term has shown up in multiple feeds and news articles, referring to the trend of an employee not wanting to give their best anymore, arguably this could be labelled a “slacker”, a term that may be more familiar among Millennials.
The topic of quiet quitting seemed to resonate with the other youths in my group, and we delved deeper into what it looked like and meant for each of us.
One other participant, Regina, shared of the time she was holding a part-time job in the arts industry, ‘I remember being a quiet quitter myself, it saved me from the awkwardness of talking to my boss about me wanting to quit and having to listen to whatever he says.’ For her, she felt that the company had no place for her overachieving self, but since she was afraid to bring it up, she simply completed her work to her boss’ standards. Yet when her time with the company came to an end, she believed she was a quiet quitter since her work was not up to par in her own eyes.
It made me realise that as a freelancer or gig worker, we get to set and own our own standards of what ‘good’ means. Instead of conforming to standards set by our company or our boss, we get to set and push ourselves to the standards that we want to establish for ourselves. And there is a certain satisfaction in that. This struck me as a Gen Z, like many of my peers, I always set high internal standards for myself. Like Regina, I felt the burn of it as sometimes, I would just be submitting work that is not even close to the bar I had set for myself, just for it to be done or to others’ standards.
Another participant at my table, Avanthika shared that work is not everything. Gig work works for her, because it gives her the flexibility to do her volunteer work and pursue her hobby, classical Indian dance.
As a Gen Z, work is not necessarily the centre point of life to us. We do not necessarily make it our main priority to achieve our goals in a work setting, but more importantly, I think of work in terms of how it could add value in my life. Questions that we would ask ourselves are, ‘Does it help me gain experience that I can use outside of work? Do the work mission and values resonate with me? Will I have the freedom of leaving if the job does not work for me?’ This could be different for Millennials where oftentimes, a job is taken with a view to the pay, progression and status it can offer, which may dissuade them from participating in the gig industry.
It seemed to me, that the gig work sits well with the desires and temperament of fellow Gen Z like me, and that it is a trend that will only grow rather than subside with time.
The question that remains then, is not why choose gig work, but if we choose gig work, then how do we make the best of it for ourselves and our future?
My fellow Bold writer Nabilah had a few tips she gleaned from interviews with gig and contract workers, that she wrote up in this article here. As I read the article, a few words came up for me: ownership and self-management, and the importance of intentionality.
#1 I see being a gig worker as akin to being an “entrepreneur of me”. Instead of drifting from one assignment to another, I want to be able to actively manage my own development and “gig career path”, seeking out opportunities that pave the way to where I want to go next. This requires much more self-management, than being an employee of a company for which certain paths may be planned for and laid out.
#2 As such, I need to go into each new job and assignment with a clear intention of what I hope to get out of it. Do I want to try out a new area of work, to see if it is something I would like to do more of? Am I taking on this gig because it allows me to exercise creativity and innovation? Or am I looking to deepen my skill-set in one specific area? Being intentional, allows me to own my story, of the path I have chosen, instead of it appearing to be a random series of dots that do not connect.
Identifying what we want out of being gig workers is the first step, and knowing that should allow us to ‘quit loudly!’ At the event, being in the company of fellow ‘seekers’, who are each exploring and creating our paths as we go along, gave us all comfort, as we felt encouraged by one another, that we have what it takes to thrive even as we navigate spaces of uncertainty in a fast-changing world.
#BeBoldAtWork is a Design Your Workplace series that seeks to cover practical tips, stories and tools that would serve employees and employers to better design how you choose to think, feel and show up in workplaces so as to improve the performances of not only your organisations but also the lives of the people you work with.
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