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Bed Rotting and Loud Quitting
I understand the cautions against leaning into depressive episodes. I also understand how many things that people label “indicators of depression” are also 1) forms of deep rest and 2) general resistance to the idea that every day should be filled with lists of things to do , places to be , productivity to exalt. And as Refinery29 writer Sabdhbh
... See moreAnne Helen Petersen • Bed Rotting and Loud Quitting
The term bedrotting screams the quiet part aloud: when the ability to work is cherished above all else, rest has to be framed as abject.
Anne Helen Petersen • Bed Rotting and Loud Quitting
If you didn’t want to look closely at your own organizational practices, if you felt uncomfortable about what younger works were agitating for, if you feared changed or anything that usurped your understanding of “how business is done” — Quiet Quitting was the easy answer.
Anne Helen Petersen • Bed Rotting and Loud Quitting
The grossness is the point — because, as O’Sullivan argues, it points to the bleak dichotomy of contemporary capitalistic life, in which you are either “an active member of society” or “decaying at home,” and we all know it’s a moral failure to be gross, to decay, to “not get ready,” to “let yourself go.”
Anne Helen Petersen • Bed Rotting and Loud Quitting
The world thinks rest, recovery, and general refusal of work is gross. You can — and should — do it anyway. ●
Anne Helen Petersen • Bed Rotting and Loud Quitting
Sleep is fine (but it has to be “productive” deep sleep, no naps!!); self-care is fine (so long as it also involves buying things, resisting aging, etc. etc.); exercise is great (disciplining and regimenting the body). But truly doing nothing, not even birding, not even gentle walking, not even organizing , where’s the moral value in that?
Anne Helen Petersen • Bed Rotting and Loud Quitting
Which isn’t to say they don’t still work: most of them do. But they don’t necessarily take pleasure in making profits that disproportionately benefit people who are already rich. They’re not super psyched for another day of fucking up the planet in the name of defending big oil interests. They’re not pumped to break down their bodies for Jeff
... See moreAnne Helen Petersen • Bed Rotting and Loud Quitting
“Linguistically, a duvet day feels gentle and generous, while rotting in bed conjures up a sense of decay, of life collapsing in on itself. Bed rotting doesn’t shy away from the sticky experience of staying in the same clothes all day or the lethargy that can come from lying down for hours on end.”
The grossness is the point — because, as O’Sullivan
... See moreAnne Helen Petersen • Bed Rotting and Loud Quitting
That’s what “The Great Resignation” did in 2021: it gave a label to the feeling of take this job and shove it , I’m exhausted , even though we now know that the vast majority of people who actually did resign (and not just feel like resigning) were mothers who couldn’t find childcare, service workers finding better jobs, and older workers retiring.