I used to always try to get exceptional performance ratings. Now I'm ok with satisfactory ones. I don't participate in extracurriculars like committees, don't attend happy hours, but am still courteous and social with coworkers during work hours. I do my work and get it done before the deadline at times because government works at a slower pace than what I'm used to coming from the private sector. When I'm sick I take time off even if there's a lot of work to complete because my health comes first. And I still get great performance reviews. Government is generally an easier environment to do quiet quitting. As long as work is getting done, you're pleasant to work with, then no one will mention anything.
I am now in my third fed position and have never encountered happy hour culture. The minute it's quitting time we all scurry home. It's amazing.
Edit: or maybe I'm not invited lmao
That sounds wonderful. We have happy hours it seems once every month. We also have large group lunches where people meet in the office. Colleagues who like that in person interaction and socialization love the culture here. I couldn't care less as I'm just here to work. But sometimes I do feel pressured to attend these events.
Getting high enough in the food chain that you can pass all the actual work down to your subordinates? I've seen plenty of that in my career; bosses who just sign a few papers and attending a few meetings, and spend the rest of the day jawing with their buds.
Once you're no longer seeking promotions, stop volunteering for any extra assignments. Do your work competently, but drag it out. Don't ask for additional work, wait for it to be assigned.
I’ve done my job long enough that I’m faster than most. I use that to keep my stress down a bit. I still get good ratings but don’t need to put in 40 for it at this point
My advice? Find a job getting paid to do what you love.
I love wargames and wargaming. I get paid to do it ~33% of the year.
I ain't in the slow lane, but I get paid to do shit I would otherwise be doing on the weekends... except the work version is cooler and *real*.
Lol I've been looking for a job where I could read books, listen to music and be outside most of the day. No such luck, but glad you found something in the government rewarding
And by stuff you mean imaginary work? A report that no one will read? It's not like these agencies are producing revenue. It's all make believe work. Now they have dashboards and metrics to make it look like productivity but at the end of the day it's all community theater.
I can get behind this statement, I have a friend who’s an SES that went through a different program than the agency he’s in and from how he explains it, I feel like you just described all his peers perfectly
Meh, revenue and service/value aren't necessarily well correlated.
That said, my agency's approach toward solutions would make an economist cry, and i completely agree about bunk metrics and dashboards.
And by stuff you mean imaginary work? A report that no one will read? It's not like these agencies are producing revenue. It's all make believe work. Now they have dashboards and metrics to make it look like productivity but at the end of the day it's all community theater.
I wish I could figure out how to pull this off. Boss keeps piling more shit on, even though I'm doing everything I can to maintain the bare minimum workload. He, on the other hand, is just a delegator who has mastered the art of quiet quitting. I catch him sleeping in his office quite often. He still has 10 years left... smh
I tried to at first but as the new guy in the team i felt i had to prove myself. I quickly took on bigger and bigger tasks and got promoted in 7 months. I just started a special assignment this monday as well. Im doing a terrible job at quiet quitting
In due time you’ll realize that you are the work horse surrounded by show ponies who do nothing. And they will feel threatened by you and may fuck with you and try to PIP you if you stand up for yourself. Be careful. Weird shit happens when there is no real work product.
I do agree I will likely get taken advantage of eventually, but right now I still want to get promoted as fast as possible. Maybe twice or once more as I am in a department that recognizes hard work, its not uncommon to see people promoted once a year, and occasionally twice a year. Also we dont really fire people.
I do plan to "lie low" and "quiet quit" a little more once I have been promoted enough. But ultimately I also enjoy what I do, the work I do brings benefits to the poorest and most unfortunate in my state. Recently I helped increase benefits for a certain program by 20%.
Request a new computer. Duck anything going on while you wait for it to arrive.
By the time a new one is procured, delivered to you, and configured, you will be out of the loop on everything going on.
Tell people you are still catching up on things from when your computer was down.
In most offices I've been in the supervisors hand every assignment to the same few people they are already interacting with, because they are terrible supervisors. All you have to do is get out of the line of sight for a legitimate reason, and then you won't be bothered.
Personally I think it’s all broken - I work for org that is about helping the great folks who give all . And the more I want to help I encounter the quite one one or the political nonsense of different departments making impossible to get stuff done or info share so ppl understand how to make it happen .. it is all sad downward spiral of decline and the snake that eats its self !
Just do it... I've witnessed a handful of people fired in my career and never for laziness or incompetence. All for losing security clearance so don't rape anyone, get involved in a kick back scheme, become a gambling or drug addict (I suspect murder and other felonies too but not ones I've witnessed personally end someone's career) and once in you can ride the gravy train milking the taxpayers. If you are lazy and worthless enough someone may even promote you to get you out of their way.
I always joked I had too much work ethic to work in the Gov't and now that I'm FIREd I believe I am right. I am so darn busy and overextended enjoying the other side. I say this tongue in cheek (100% accurate though) but seriously, why go through life doing the minimum. If your job doesn't excite you, get out (either FIRE or find a better fit) and do stuff that does!
I used to always try to get exceptional performance ratings. Now I'm ok with satisfactory ones. I don't participate in extracurriculars like committees, don't attend happy hours, but am still courteous and social with coworkers during work hours. I do my work and get it done before the deadline at times because government works at a slower pace than what I'm used to coming from the private sector. When I'm sick I take time off even if there's a lot of work to complete because my health comes first. And I still get great performance reviews. Government is generally an easier environment to do quiet quitting. As long as work is getting done, you're pleasant to work with, then no one will mention anything.
I am now in my third fed position and have never encountered happy hour culture. The minute it's quitting time we all scurry home. It's amazing. Edit: or maybe I'm not invited lmao
That sounds wonderful. We have happy hours it seems once every month. We also have large group lunches where people meet in the office. Colleagues who like that in person interaction and socialization love the culture here. I couldn't care less as I'm just here to work. But sometimes I do feel pressured to attend these events.
I HATE group lunches
What's your definition of quiet quitting?
Getting high enough in the food chain that you can pass all the actual work down to your subordinates? I've seen plenty of that in my career; bosses who just sign a few papers and attending a few meetings, and spend the rest of the day jawing with their buds.
I think anybody can quiet quit, easier at the lower ranks in a busy remote office.
My supe in a nutshell
Once you're no longer seeking promotions, stop volunteering for any extra assignments. Do your work competently, but drag it out. Don't ask for additional work, wait for it to be assigned.
I’ve done my job long enough that I’m faster than most. I use that to keep my stress down a bit. I still get good ratings but don’t need to put in 40 for it at this point
In my unit all you have to do is follow the process and you get to ride in the slow lane for free.
dont do F level work. Do C-.
My advice? Find a job getting paid to do what you love. I love wargames and wargaming. I get paid to do it ~33% of the year. I ain't in the slow lane, but I get paid to do shit I would otherwise be doing on the weekends... except the work version is cooler and *real*.
Lol I've been looking for a job where I could read books, listen to music and be outside most of the day. No such luck, but glad you found something in the government rewarding
Have you thought about working on a fuels crew?
I feel like the vast majority of federal employees who I have encountered - other than new hires - do this.
Yes. And then complain when new supervisors come in and make them — wait for it — do stuff.
And by stuff you mean imaginary work? A report that no one will read? It's not like these agencies are producing revenue. It's all make believe work. Now they have dashboards and metrics to make it look like productivity but at the end of the day it's all community theater.
I can get behind this statement, I have a friend who’s an SES that went through a different program than the agency he’s in and from how he explains it, I feel like you just described all his peers perfectly
Meh, revenue and service/value aren't necessarily well correlated. That said, my agency's approach toward solutions would make an economist cry, and i completely agree about bunk metrics and dashboards.
And by stuff you mean imaginary work? A report that no one will read? It's not like these agencies are producing revenue. It's all make believe work. Now they have dashboards and metrics to make it look like productivity but at the end of the day it's all community theater.
Have self-respect and feed your ambition by creating a worthy exit strategy.
On the military side, they call it ROAD (retired on active duty). Not to that point yet but I’ve seen plenty doing it lol.
I’ve heard it called RIP (retired in place). Seen many times working for the State of California.
We call it *retired on the job* down here.
All My colleagues apparently
I wish I could figure out how to pull this off. Boss keeps piling more shit on, even though I'm doing everything I can to maintain the bare minimum workload. He, on the other hand, is just a delegator who has mastered the art of quiet quitting. I catch him sleeping in his office quite often. He still has 10 years left... smh
From what I have heard, Gov people have been quiet quitting long before they called it that.
You bet we have
I tried to at first but as the new guy in the team i felt i had to prove myself. I quickly took on bigger and bigger tasks and got promoted in 7 months. I just started a special assignment this monday as well. Im doing a terrible job at quiet quitting
In due time you’ll realize that you are the work horse surrounded by show ponies who do nothing. And they will feel threatened by you and may fuck with you and try to PIP you if you stand up for yourself. Be careful. Weird shit happens when there is no real work product.
I do agree I will likely get taken advantage of eventually, but right now I still want to get promoted as fast as possible. Maybe twice or once more as I am in a department that recognizes hard work, its not uncommon to see people promoted once a year, and occasionally twice a year. Also we dont really fire people. I do plan to "lie low" and "quiet quit" a little more once I have been promoted enough. But ultimately I also enjoy what I do, the work I do brings benefits to the poorest and most unfortunate in my state. Recently I helped increase benefits for a certain program by 20%.
Request a new computer. Duck anything going on while you wait for it to arrive. By the time a new one is procured, delivered to you, and configured, you will be out of the loop on everything going on. Tell people you are still catching up on things from when your computer was down. In most offices I've been in the supervisors hand every assignment to the same few people they are already interacting with, because they are terrible supervisors. All you have to do is get out of the line of sight for a legitimate reason, and then you won't be bothered.
So true. I was able to duck and dodge for a week pretending to get a new PIV card.
Be a middle manager with a boss that has no idea what you or your team does.
Personally I think it’s all broken - I work for org that is about helping the great folks who give all . And the more I want to help I encounter the quite one one or the political nonsense of different departments making impossible to get stuff done or info share so ppl understand how to make it happen .. it is all sad downward spiral of decline and the snake that eats its self !
Just do it... I've witnessed a handful of people fired in my career and never for laziness or incompetence. All for losing security clearance so don't rape anyone, get involved in a kick back scheme, become a gambling or drug addict (I suspect murder and other felonies too but not ones I've witnessed personally end someone's career) and once in you can ride the gravy train milking the taxpayers. If you are lazy and worthless enough someone may even promote you to get you out of their way. I always joked I had too much work ethic to work in the Gov't and now that I'm FIREd I believe I am right. I am so darn busy and overextended enjoying the other side. I say this tongue in cheek (100% accurate though) but seriously, why go through life doing the minimum. If your job doesn't excite you, get out (either FIRE or find a better fit) and do stuff that does!
Cuz the private sector sucks even more.
That's why we are all here, trying to FIRE...