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Is Loving Your Job Really that Bad?
Aka: “Quiet Quitting” is stupid.
There has been a lot of adieu in the past few years about managing work-life balance, “Quiet Quitting” and what is a too-broad generalization about Millenials, Gen Z and a lack of desire to dedicate too much of their lives to their work.
I’ve been fortunate to work with plenty of hard working, inspired people younger than me. They’ve contributed magnificently to the productions I’ve been tasked to lead. Alas, I have also met and worked with a few people who have prioritized life away from work to the point where I can’t figure out why they applied for the job in the first place. Until it was given a name, I didn’t know it was “Quiet Quitting”, I just thought they were being jerks.
So let’s talk about how messed up “Quiet Quitting” seems to be, but start with the upside of loving your work.
As a Gen X-er who chose to follow my passion into first, stand-up comedy followed by writing and producing TV, I didn’t give myself a choice but to dedicate a massive chunk of my attention and time to my career. When you work in a feast-or-famine, largely speculative business like entertainment there’s no letting up if you want to be able to feast. Even with all of your best efforts, with the exception of a relative handful of people each generation, the famine days…
