I can see from where I say, “So how do you help?” and reference teachers no longer going above and beyond that I have unintentionally led people astray. It appears that I am supporting the premise of “How do we get teachers to return to doing uncompensated work.” That is most definitely not my point.

My intended point was to answer the question, “What do you do when you suspect a teacher is quietly quitting?” As a former educator I empathize with a teacher’s feelings of being stuck so they quit: sometimes all at once and sometimes little by little. As they disengage, then you as leader feel stuck. That’s when it is important to become curious and check your narrative. Be open to other’s perspectives and genuinely explore contributing factors. The Six-Source model is a framework to explore all possible causes – including those you as a leader may be doing, the stresses the role and the system place on teachers, as well as incentives or lack thereof.

As leaders it is our responsibility to support the people we lead. The best way to do that is to make the undiscussables discussable and addressable. All of this with the intent to help teachers find meaning and purpose in a field with lots of meaning and purpose.

Because of your willingness to share, I can use your feedback to improve and be better next time. Thanks again for being partners in this process as we all strive to improve.

As a manager I will not expect anyone on the team to participate in this false “do whatever it takes to get the job done” attitude and have made it clear to my superiors. My first response is and will continue to be “What tasks are you OK with NOT being completed?”

Don’t commit to the work if you lack the resources to get it done under normal circumstances. When exceptions arise try to pull the team together to work out a solution on company time.

Same for what appears to be a “False Dichotomy” between “Work-to-Rule” and “Rules of Work”, presented in the article. Traditional union “Work-to-Rule” events include insisting on time-consuming time-wasting rule conformance that is not normally done under normal working conditions. That is not at all comparable to failing to voluntarily work a heavy load of unpaid overtime work.

Let’s assume that the work agreement is to show up for some given hours of work and perform a reasonably effective professional job of the work. Then an expectation that employees must perform far above and beyond that, to be considered “reasonable performance” is an entirely unreasonable expectation.

“Setting Boundaries” for “Reasonable Work-Life Balance” *within* the framework of the actual work agreement seems often to be labeled as “Quite Quitting” by some.

First we need a reasonable and largely unbiased “framing” of the situation before we can really consider who’s expectations and performance are reasonable, and within the bounds of the work agreement, or not.