Metaphors at work: the silent battle of quiet quitters

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, people had the opportunity to pause and re-evaluate their jobs in terms of personal satisfaction, economic and health benefits (Ravenelle and Kowalski, 2023). Many workers realised that their job was not satisfying them and decided to resign giving rise to the Great Resignation and to the quiet quitting trends. Unlike traditional resignees, quiet quitters continue to fulfil their duties but reject the idea that their lives should be dominated by work. Since its emergence, this trend has been defined negatively using metaphors (e.g. Quiet quitting is a virus, a silent killer) because this trend can damage the economy. To investigate the role and nature of metaphors used on the internet to depict the quiet quitting trend, metaphorical headlines in online news and HR media articles were identified and analysed. Results suggest that the metaphors used in headlines concerning quiet quitting are mainly health and conflict metaphors casting quiet quitting in a negative light, comparing it to an enemy or a disease and evoking harmful associations from the COVID-19 pandemic, potentially stigmatising quiet quitters or rather conveying a negative image of them.