That one 'quiet quitting' term that made me waste 2 hours explaining my job

I was on a call last week with a new client who kept saying I was 'quiet quitting' because I didn't reply to an email at 9 PM. Turns out they thought it meant literally quitting silently, not just doing the bare minimum. I spent 45 minutes Googling memes and articles to prove my point, then another hour in a meeting clearing it up. The whole thing took over 2 hours because of a buzzword that blew up on TikTok. Has anyone else had to explain slang to someone who totally missed the meaning?

2 comments

2 Comments

seanlee1mo ago

Three cups of coffee later and I realized buzzwords are just the modern version of horoscopes.

tara_jones941mo ago

Oh wow, you really had me at "three cups of coffee" because that's basically the exact state of mind you need to figure this stuff out... Like, buzzwords sound deep and meaningful until you actually think about them for more than five minutes. They just float around and make people feel smart without saying anything real, kind of like how horoscopes work. It's wild how we all nod along to "synergy" and "disruptive" like they're magic words that solve problems. Honestly, I'm a little shook that I never put that together before now...