Quotes

Good morning everyone, and welcome back to the Breakroom. This week I want to talk about a topic that I have touched upon in the past but have been wanting to devote a piece to for awhile: quiet quitting. When this phrase first came to light, I thought I was going to miss my opportunity in being able to talk about it while it was still fresh. But we are around 3 years in and still this topic continues to come up so let us view if the world still continues to see this as an issue?

What is quiet quitting?

For those unfamiliar with the phrase, you might be thinking it means someone basically just silently quits their job. In reality, quiet quitting is defined as doing the minimum job requirements for your job. Some examples might be not working overtime shifts, only answering emails during work hours, not seeking extra tasks or projects not assigned to them, not attending meetings not mandatory, and not coming in early or staying late1. This phrasing became famous in 2022 when Gen Z employees began posting videos and content on TikTok talking about how they are doing the minimum required of them.

So this is not to say the work is not being completed, simply that employees are doing their assigned tasks in line with their job. You might be wondering where the concern arises from this. The primary belief is that this shows an employee is discontent with their job or company, no longer inspired or motivated to be overachievers at work. The belief is also that when people begin to quiet quit, they will inevitably fully quit or become so lax that they are fired. An article from Gallup chose to argue that quiet quitting is just the beginning because eventually employees begin doing less than their minimum work because every job requires a certain degree of extra work such as collaborating with colleagues or meeting customer needs2.

While many of us thought this might be a silly internet slang that would disappear, it seems to have some pretty strong staying power as it makes the knees of senior leaders quiver.

One of the key reasons leaders and organizations see this as an issue is they feel employees should be ready to prove themselves at work and continue to go above and beyond. As this practice goes on, they can see certain employees not engaging with their colleagues as often or being absent from unnecessary meetings or information events. There is then the concern that this could lead to poor attendance or quitting last minute, thereby causing strain on the remaining staff. Even if they do not quit, management has reservations about continuing to employ and pay someone not doing more than what is expected of them3.

Why do people quiet quit?

Unlike many of the articles I have reviewed, Paychex did go into detail on some of the primary reasons that people choose to become quiet quitters. Their list consists of:

-Lack of recognition
-Frustrations over compensation
-Poor work-life balance
-Lack of growth opportunities
-Toxic work culture

As you can see, many of these issues fall on the employee not having confidence in the future of their career with this company. There is that expression that no one notices when you do your job well but they notice the moment you make a mistake. Perhaps nothing has become more important to quiet quitters than work-life balance. Rather than wanting to work 50 to 60 hours a week, many employees would rather devote that time to family or personal hobbies.

Where Paychex starts to deviate from their informative prowess is their suggestions on how to address possible quiet quitters. Some of their recommendation include making it easier to establish a work-life balance and pay them a fair compensation. The former is what the employee is already doing, and the latter is something your company should already be doing.4

Opinion: Is quiet quitting an issue?

Now I have read a few articles in preparation for this, and I have seen dozens of others over the years and I believe I have come to a conclusion. This is nothing more than the McCarthys of the business world panicking over the fact that employees do not want to break themselves at work when they are seeing no true benefit. As the title of this blog post suggests, quiet quitting is no more a threat to the American way of life is than Communism is.

Every article confirms that quiet quitting is doing the minimum required of your job. That is not being bad at your job, that is literally doing your job. Some of the articles claim that quiet quitters have increased absenteeism, are making more mistakes, and simply are not doing their job to a proper quality. That is not considered quiet quitting, that is simply not doing their job and these two should not be equated to each other.

The purpose behind quiet quitting is still establish clear boundaries between work and life, something that we find baffling in the United States but is the norm everywhere else. The moment I clock out for the day, that is it. I am no longer being paid and work is not even on my radar. I will not do work tasks in the evening, weekend, or on vacation because I am no longer working. It is very easy for corporate executive who makes six or seven figures to criticize those barely making more than minimum wage for wanting to focus on their personal life rather than work. Some people enjoy centering their lives around work, but many people do not and that is okay. We should be encouraged to use our paid time away, spend time with family and friends, or just plain staying in and playing video games.

What about not wanting to go to a happy hour with coworkers after work or get together for a morning huddle to gab about things going on? For many of us, our coworkers truly are coworkers and are not people we would normally socialize with outside of work. So rather than having to spend 10 minutes listening to Susan show pictures of her grandchild, you are allowed to just skip it. And to those leaders out there, this does not mean they are an uninvested employee or someone who is not a team player. They simply want to be colleagues and if you try to say “but I think of us as a family” then that is a red flag and you need to evaluate if you are actually the problem.

So I will not accept anyone trying to explain that quiet quitting is a problem, because it is not. Not every employee should be expected to prioritize work over their personal lives because for many, work is simply a means of affording their hobbies and passions. But I will say, I know plenty of people who might change their tune if they were suddenly being paid that same wage that senior leaders see, so perhaps Paychex does have a point in offering people more money.

If I am being fully honest with everyone, part of me is convinced that promoting the “epidemic” of quiet quitting is simply gaslighting on major scale. We have leaders, executives, and business experts all overpaid and have likely not worked a real job in decades telling us that doing standard requirements of jobs are not good enough. That you are not a good employee unless you work overtime, come in early and stay late, work off the clock, and prioritize work over everything else in your life. You read these articles from experts and I truly felt gaslit into believing I was living in a parallel world and I was the crazy one.

Quiet quitting is not a threat to the American workplace and frankly I am going further to say it is not even real. It is quiet literally just doing one’s job.

  1. Klotz, A. C., & Bolino, M. C. (2022, September 15). When Quiet Quitting Is Worse Than the Real Thing. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved November 13, 2025, from https://hbr.org/2022/09/when-quiet-quitting-is-worse-than-the-real-thing ↩︎
  2. Harter, J. (2022, September 6). Is Quiet Quitting Real? Gallup. Retrieved November 13, 2025, from https://www.gallup.com/workplace/398306/quiet-quitting-real.aspx ↩︎
  3. Masterson, V. (2022, September 2). What is quiet quitting and why is it happening. World Economic Forum. Retrieved November 13, 2025, from https://www.weforum.org/stories/2022/09/quiet-quitting-explained/#:~:text=Quiet%20quitting%20is%20the%20art,Xer%2C%20reports%20the%20LA%20Times. ↩︎
  4. Whitney, H. (2024, May 14). Quiet Quitting: Meaning, Signs, and How To Prevent It. Paychex. Retrieved November 13, 2025, from https://www.paychex.com/articles/human-resources/quiet-quitting ↩︎

Quiet Quitting: The Corporate Red Scare

Quote• Posted on by Nathan Westerberg

Good morning everyone and Happy Monday! I hope you all had a great weekend and ready to hit the week running. We are officially only a week and a half to Thanksgiving so I’m sure many of you are eagerly making preparations for the holidays, I just started stockpiling the necessary ingredients myself for what I am bringing. And some of you might be taking some extra days off for a extra long weekend, I may be taking the Friday after myself to jumpstart my holiday decorating around the house!

For today, as promised, I wanted to do a post all about Michael’s gift baskets but this had me thinking. Instead of a Coffee Break, I decided to do a new category: Party Planning Committee. I felt that if Dunder Mifflin felt party planning was important enough to create a committee for it then it could be a fun piece of Breakroom Breakdown. So this would mean I am officially the head of the Party Planning Committee over here.

So what is a gift basket? It is quite literally a basket full of gifts (or it itself is the gift). A common example we hear of are fruit baskets where the basket is filled with assorted fruits. While I do enjoy fruit, I was a big fan of Michael’s baskets because they included a wide variety of food options. He also opted for sealed items which are more beneficial than fruit since they do not have that tight expiration period. While it is possible to buy gift baskets already put together, I feel there is something special about making them yourself. You really can put your personal spin on them, and can really customize them for the recipient. In the case of Michael, he was insistent on using products from the Scranton area which therefore shows his personal support for the Scranton business community.

Basket
First thing you need is the basket itself because that is the container to hold all of your goodies. Many will use a traditional basket like Michael used, but woven baskets are becoming pretty popular since not only do you have most customizable options such colors, but they usually a bit easier to utilize around the house. I like to think of the physical basket as part of the gift that could be used for storage or decorative purpose. Woven baskets are also typically more cost effective so that would be my recommendation. Additionally, you will also want to consider the necessary ribbon and plastic wrapping for the basket, although you could give the basket as is to save on the waste.

Candy
Candy is a very popular item to throw in because lets be honest, everyone has a bit of a sweet tooth. Michael is a huge fan of chocolate Turtles which is a specific brand, although they are technically pecan clusters and are pretty darn delicious. That being said, you would certainly want to tailor the candy to the unique taste of the recipient, or for the specific purpose of the gift. Like if it is for Christmas you could consider a chocolate orange or candy snowmen. Or you might want put a unique spin on it with non-American candy like the English rhubarb and custard hard candies (some of my favorite) or some classic gummy bears.

Baked Goods
Perhaps the only other snacking food better than cookies to see in a gift basket will be baked goods. And you all know how much I love to bake, so I may be a bit biased in that decision. Michael chose to go with macadamia nut cookies although I am usually more of a fan of Milanos or you could go really out there and throw in some meringue cookies. Now you can absolutely go out and buy cookies, the benefit is they are usually package sealed so they do not have a ticking clock before they go bad. But as the resident baker around here, I often would try to do the baking myself as long as I have the time to do so. Always the planner, I am already toying around with my Christmas cookies I’ll be doing this year.

Jam
Michael also made sure to grab jam and I love this idea too! I don’t personally make my own jam (aside from the quick style to be used in baking) but I do love some good jam and jelly around the house and I feel it is one of those things you often forget at the store. My brand of choice is always the French brand, Bonne Maman and while I usually do the strawberry preserves, the assorted bundle lets you get multiple small jars which is great to throw in more than one basket.

Salty Snacks
Now we have had plenty of sweets mentioned but what about salty snacks? Nuts are always a go to option, in particular cashews offer a certain level of luxury, but you can still put a unique spin on them. I personally have been addicted to dill pickle cashews lately, but you definitely need to like the dill flavor. Aside from nuts then chips are always a good fallback, this offers you a variety of flavors and I am a fan of anything that can come in individual snack sized packaging.

Non-food Gifts
Now this is where you can really go crazy and put in almost anything you want. Michael was throwing in various pieces of merchandise with the Dunder Mifflin logo on it, did you catch the Dunder Mifflin baseball caps? If this is Christmas time then why not put in cool Christmas ornaments or if this is for a baby shower you could include a baby blanket and diapers.

So what did you think of my tips on what to put into a gift basket? If I missed anything then please let me know! What fun and interesting baskets have you done yourself? Feel free to comment and let us know your thoughts!

Party Planning Committee: Gift Baskets

Quote• Posted on by Nathan Westerberg

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! I know that I left you all on a pretty solemn note last week; we are still reeling with the direction of our country but I hope everyone is doing a bit better each day as we come to terms with our future. Feeling slightly more optimistic this week, I am much more willing to see the posts about facing those challenges head on and fighting for our rights. And to help us get back to a bit of normalcy, I am very excited to provide a Breakdown this week, catching us up with what has been happening in the office.

Just a side mention but the other day, Toby in HR actually showed up with girlfriend. This seems innocent enough, except he then proceeded to say goodbye to her with a kiss that was certainly too much for a workplace setting. All of this coming after he sent around a reminder of the company’s PDA policy; I’m sure I am not the only one who sees that Toby has a pretty obvious crush on Pam, right? Apparently I am, but there are pattern’s to his behavior.

On to the main event of the day and that is Michael still trying to prove that older sales practices are the best ones. In order to prove this, he is banking on “the original instant message” which is baskets with food in them. He has collected some of the best snacks and foods that Scranton has to offer and is going to hand deliver these to clients who have dropped them as their supplier and see if they will come back. This really is not a bad idea, as their company’s entire strategy that has set them apart is the level of customer service that they can offer. I think where the flaw comes from is that they are specifically going for clients that have left them recently. I say this because the economy has been struggling so all companies are looking for areas that they can make certain cuts and allow them to save money going forward. When someone drops you for reasons like that, they cannot really be won over with a basket of food and would instead need incentives that can directly benefit their company. I would argue the use of the food could have been better spent on prospective clients in a way of trying to woo them over to Dunder Mifflin. Additionally, I know that they are a paper company but they do also sell some office supplies so I feel a greater push should be on the fact that they can fill all of those various office needs. Again, this was a pretty solid idea, but could have been polished up a bit.

Michael’s plan was that everyone would rally behind him and go off in teams to work on reclaiming these clients, but alas no one else was on board. That is, except Dwight who seems to be on a mission to prove something himself. The rumor is that the girl he was dating, whomever she is, recently broke up with him so I think he wants to impress her. While hesitant, I think Michael realizes it would make more sense to have another set of hands with this project. And with that, they were off with all of the baskets themselves in an effort to prove something to themselves, and the rest of the branch.

While they are off trying to save the company, back here at the office things are just getting a little odd, and they are all centered on Ryan’s return. Turns out, Kelly had revealed to him that she was pregnant and insisted he take her out to dinner to discuss the situation. It was then that she revealed to him she made the whole thing up as some sort of romantic gesture, but Ryan didn’t quite it see it that way. He is bringing his on level of annoyance in that he attempts to brag to everyone about how different his life is now that he has moved to New York City. He goes out at night, runs into celebrities, and even paid $200 for his haircut. Kevin and Andy seemed pretty impressed with all of this, though not all of us were. Especially because when someone would try to agree with him, he pointed out that they don’t truly get what it is like.

For a moment it seemed like Ryan had gotten over himself because he approached Pam and actually asked if she would want to attempt to design the logo for Dunder Mifflin Infinity. I do not have to tell you how big of a deal this was for Pam. She has been seeking some way to use her love of art in work, and if she could design the logo for this website then the entire world could see her work and she is instantly established. And to be asked to design the logo is a huge honor because a brand’s logo is often synonymous with their identity. When it comes to our memory, I feel vision often is more triggering than hearing. We hear the word “apple” and we would most likely think of the fruit; but to show the Apple logo, we instantly will go to the brand and their devices. And that is what a logo should be, something that just by being seen will tie the viewer to the brand itself. And some of the best logos are often the simplest; it is not meant to make you overthink but to be inspired or drawn in. By no means should a company cut corners when it comes to designing and choosing a logo because it a decision you must live with1. Unfortunately, when Ryan comes back later to look at Pam’s ideas, his true intentions are revealed when he invites her out to dinner. Evidently Ryan thought it would be okay to flex his new authority and try dating Pam; but he got to feel embarrassed when Pam revealed that she and Jim are together. I felt he seemed incredibly surprised at this when really, I didn’t think it was that shocking given how close they’ve always been. For the record, if you are in a position of authority you should simply not ask out your staff, especially with how Ryan tried to. He he used a a fake pretense, and then tried to urge her with the “it’s just dinner” line like a sketchy guy would. Do not cave in to these types!

You are pry wondering how Michael and Dwight did with their mission; the answer, not great. People certainly accepted the baskets, although they were very confused why they were being gifted baskets from a company they no longer go through. No one confirmed to coming back, although a couple said they would consider it once the new website was operational and it was more fiscally beneficial. The real drama occurred when Michael drove his car into a lake, and yes you did read that right. Michael was following instructions from his GPS when he was told to “turn right.” The next right took him right into a lake, which he chose to do since that is what the GPS told him to do. For the record, he was by no means the first person to do this and many of these systems do have warnings in place to explain what just because the system tells you to drive into a body of water, does not mean you should. At first he was upset and angry, but in true Michael fashion he was able to turn this into a win. In his mind, technology and the future means that people will be driven into lakes so this simply proves that innovation for the sake of change, is not a good thing.

And that is how the day concluded, winning due to failure.

And that was what happened here at the office! Perhaps not a lot but I think we learned a thing or two about conducting business. If nothing else, you did learn that you should not drive into a lake, even if your GPS is asking you to. Now be prepared for a special coffee break next week, where I might try to help you recreate Michael Scott’s gift basket.

Until then, have a great weekend and I’ll see you around the Breakroom!

  1. Westgarth, A. (2018, November 30). The Importance Of Having The Right Logo. Forbes. Retrieved November 14, 2024, from https://www.forbes.com/councils/theyec/2018/11/30/the-importance-of-having-the-right-logo/ ↩︎

The Office: Season 4, Episode 4 “Dunder Mifflin Infinity, Part 2”

Quote• Posted on by Nathan Westerberg