Are you a quiet quitter?

Stuck in traffic.

The worst moment of the day.

It’s 7:50 PM, and once again, you’ve done over an hour of overtime, postponing that thing you wanted to do for yourself to the weekend. You’re in the midst of a sea of cars. Everyone wants to reach their destination as soon as possible, even if it means speeding through the intersection, leaning on the horn, cursing with their head out the window. You prefer not to contribute to the chaos and content yourself with moving forward a meter at a time.

As you wait for yet another blockage to dissolve, your mind wanders. You think that traffic is the environment where people bring out the worst in themselves. Each person pursues their own personal goal instead of collaborating with others, aiming to reach their very own destination as quickly as possible, even at the cost of leaving behind those who are not helpful to their cause. You begin to feel constrained, lowering the window to seek air because you’ve understood.

Traffic reminds you of the office, of corporate life.

You realize, unbuttoning the top button of your shirt, that you just wanted to escape, but you spend most of your day there. You have the perception of wasting your time and, consequently, your life. It wasn’t a sudden realization, but the accumulation of many small situations where you increasingly thought it wasn’t worth it, that they could go to hell if they preferred not to listen. So, day by day, you minimized your energy consumption, effort, ambition. You learned to go with the flow, without taking initiatives.

You wait, that’s all. Sooner or later, you’ll be home.

This is the only solution you’ve found.

You’ve heard about this “quiet quitting,” a silent abandonment of responsibilities, desires for advancement, and personal growth that employees have been experiencing for some years, which fossilizes companies. You don’t believe you’re a quiet quitter at all; in short, are they telling you that you’ve become that kind of employee?

Assured salary, halved commitment.

Of course not! Yet, you know you’re not giving your best. Because you believe the company doesn’t deserve it. How many times have your proposals gone unheard? How many times have you refrained from speaking up because you didn’t expect to be valued? Yet here you are, it’s 8:09 PM, and the front door is still far away. You’ve spent the day odiously doing a job you don’t love, or rather, you don’t love anymore.

Instead of thinking about who to blame for this standstill, you get lost in imagining a different life. A life where you love getting up early on Mondays and can’t wait to share the new ideas that have come to mind with your work group. Meetings are your favorite moments of the day because you know others will provide stimulating input. Your manager will present initiatives that you’ll be enthusiastic about because they’ll be built around your skills, and you’ll be asked to add your distinctive touch. No crisis scares you because the goal is clear and shared; there will always be a way to reach a solution. You feel lucky to have this job, and every day you can feel the enthusiasm of the first weeks when your company was the most innovative and welcoming in the world, and you wouldn’t have wanted anything different.

Then a honk brings you back to reality. It’s green; it’s time to move.

Is it possible to change your work environment without changing jobs? Yes, and that’s what Shining Bees seeks to do every day through its courses for individuals and corporate managers, with its coaches ready to assist individuals or groups on the path to achieving collective goals.

The alternative to a toxic work environment cannot be to surrender to boredom, grit your teeth and endure until the weekend, holidays, or retirement. It is an inviolable right for everyone to live a fulfilling life in harmony with themselves, in an environment that allows them to express themselves and is a source of stimulation. No silent abandonment, but active and lively communication, useful and reasoned feedback, shared and appropriate efforts.

One can learn to steer a conversation without getting stuck in misunderstandings and conflict, overcoming obstacles without the fear driven by the rush to demonstrate one’s talent. Each in their own way, according to their nature. Some as roaring as a motorcycle, some timidly and softly as an electric bicycle, the important thing is to move forward together.

Shining Bees offers consulting services to individuals and companies to improve communication skills and build sustainable and truly inclusive work environments. Take a look at our services (services page link) and our foundational values (speech page link).