Maybe you used to care a lot about this job.
You had ideas. You volunteered. You stayed late because the work mattered, and then maybe staying late became the thing everyone expected you to do.
Or maybe the job was never good. Maybe you're unhappy, being mistreated, burned out, or staying because you need the paycheck and don't have another option yet.
Whatever brought you here, you're thinking about quiet quitting. But before we get to the list, I’m here to tell you: you can quiet quit right now. Full stop. You don't owe anyone ten more attempts to make an unreasonable job reasonable.
What you can try before quiet quitting
If there's a part of you wondering whether something could help before you check out, here are ten things to try. Pick what seems useful. Skip what you've already done or can't safely do.
The only thing you have to promise me is this: Please don't turn this blog into more unpaid work.
1. Figure out what you're hoping will change
What are you hoping quiet quitting will give you?
More time? Less dread? A way to stop feeling responsible for every problem? Some distance from a manager who treats every request like an emergency?
Get as specific as you can. “I hate this job” can be accurate, but it doesn't tell you much about what to do next.
Try: “I like the work, but I can't keep doing it at this volume.” Or: “I don't trust my manager, and another conversation isn't going to fix that.”
Those are different problems. You're allowed to choose different responses.
2. Compare your actual job with the one you accepted
Pull out your job description. Seriously.
Which responsibilities are yours? Which arrived when someone left? Which were supposed to be temporary but apparently live with you now?
Some changes are ordinary. Jobs evolve. But it's worth noticing when the work expands and the pay, time, authority, and support stay exactly the same.
Make a rough list. Include the work that doesn't show up neatly in a project plan: training people, coordinating schedules, answering everyone else's questions, remembering what would otherwise get forgotten.
You may find that you're quite willing to do your job. It's the additional jobs that are the problem.
And if you don’t have a job description? Do whatever you need to do to get one.
3. Ask what should move when something new arrives
A new request takes time. Your calendar doesn't automatically get bigger because someone needs a thing by Friday.
If you can, make that tradeoff visible: “I can work on this, but I'll need to move the report or the training prep. Which should come first?”
You don't have to present it as a confrontation. You're asking for a decision about work.
If everything is still declared urgent, ask which deadline can change, what can be simplified, or who can help. Keep track of the answer. “Do all of it” tells you something, too.
4. Try one boundary you can maintain
It might be taking lunch away from your desk. It might be giving an accurate turnaround time instead of promising tomorrow. It might be turning off notifications when your working day ends.
Choose something realistic for your role and circumstances. Some jobs have scheduled on-call duties. Some workplaces punish boundaries. You know more about your situation than a list on the internet does.
My point is that you can start small. You don't need to announce that you've become an entirely different person.
And if being available all the time has become expected, that doesn't mean you were wrong to be helpful. It means the expectation may need to change.
5. Make one specific request, if it's safe
A manager may not understand the problem. A manager may also understand it perfectly and be choosing not to address it.
If you haven't asked directly and it feels safe to do so, talk to your supervisor and make the request concrete:
“I have three projects due this month. I can complete two at the agreed quality within my working hours. Can we change the third deadline or find additional support?”
Then pay attention to what happens.
A sympathetic conversation followed by the same workload isn't the same as a change. You don't have to keep explaining yourself forever to prove you tried hard enough.
6. Stop doing a little work that doesn't need to happen
Is there a meeting nobody uses? A report that duplicates another report? A recurring task whose original purpose has disappeared?
Where you have discretion, simplify it. Where you don't, ask whether it can stop or become smaller. I say this to my friends all the time when they’re feeling overwhelmed at work. Ask yourself, what would happen if you did less? What are you doing that does need to be done (or maybe just not done by you).
Be careful here: this can easily become another project in which you redesign the entire organization so you can survive your own job. You are not required to spend your remaining energy becoming the unpaid director of fixing everything.
Look for one useful change, not a second full-time job.
7. Take actual time off, if you have access to it
When did you last take a break that didn't involve checking your email?
If you have available leave and can use it, take it. Arrange coverage where that's part of your role, then give yourself a chance to be away. Mental health is health, so while you’re at it, take your sick leave too. You should never feel guilty for taking time off and being unreachable (if you’re able to do so) while you’re out of office. You aren’t lazy for taking time off work.
Rest won't fix mistreatment, understaffing, or a job you no longer want. It can give you some distance while you decide what you need.
And if time off isn't accessible right now, please don't read this as one more thing you're failing to do. Work with the choices you have.
8. Ask whether a different version of the job is possible
Would a different supervisor help? A narrower scope? A predictable schedule? Fewer responsibilities you're good at but don't actually want?
Consider what would make the role worth keeping. Then ask whether that arrangement is available—not just imaginable.
If a change has been promised repeatedly and never happened, include that history in your decision. You don't have to build your plans around the most hopeful interpretation.
9. Make room for a part of your life that work doesn't get
What would you like to have energy for when the day ends?
A friend. Your garden. A book. Nothing, for a while.
For me, writing poetry is part of that non-work life. It also comes with its own temptation to turn everything into a goal or a number—which I've written about in my poetry submissions essay.
The point is, whatever you choose doesn't have to become an accomplishment or monetized, even if you’re good at it. And if the thing you’re looking forward to the most is peace, quiet, and rest, but that doesn’t go as planned either. That’s ok. You don't need to be impressive at resting, either. I encourage you to try to set that boundary and see how you feel when you protect that space that work never touches.
This won't repair the workplace. But remembering what you want your time for may help you decide where to draw the line.
10. Choose when you'll reassess
If you try a change, give yourself a point at which to look at what happened. Once you decide that, put in on your calendar. When the time comes ask yourself the following questions:
Did the workload change? Did the boundary hold? Did someone follow through? Do you want to keep trying?
You might decide to stay and work differently. You might quietly begin looking elsewhere. You might decide that doing the job you've agreed to do, without the extra work you've been absorbing, is the arrangement you can sustain.
You can also decide you have enough information already.
You don't have to earn the right to pull back
You don't need to complete all ten suggestions before you're “allowed” to protect your time. You don't need to leave just because the job is imperfect. And you don't need to stay because the mission matters.
I care about the difference between work you choose to give and work you've come to feel you have no choice about giving.
If something here helps you get a little more choice back, use it. If you've already tried and the answer is still no, believe that answer.
