Forget Quiet Quitting, Let’s Manage Your Scope

Did you feel overworked last year? Considering quiet quitting as your new year plan?

With all the conversations on this topic, we thought we’d share our take as well.

One might see quiet quitting as a way to detach oneself from excess responsibilities. However, we find that quiet quitting puts you and your colleagues at a disservice. Firstly - what is quiet quitting to us?

Doing the bare minimum, working set hours and not committing to any work-related activities if they exceed what you signed on your employment letter. However, this may not be the most meaningful way to spend two-thirds of your day, every day.

Instead, let’s consider why you might be facing burnout.

Many quiet quitters mention they (silently) throw in the towel due to taking on too many things outside their workload. This is also known as scope-creep.

What Is Scope-Creep?

When changes are made to your scope after your projects have commenced. These changes are usually not agreed upon by your line manager or yourself, stretching you across tasks that you are not responsible for.

This affects resource allocation and completing work goals on time.

Hence, you can try 3 things:

List and Frequently Update Your Scope

At the beginning of the year or each project, establish your Job To Be Done and have a sign-off from your stakeholders.

There will be baseline tasks that need to be ticked off to complete the project, and Extras that can elevate the overall project’s performance if done. Label all these tasks from the start.

Set Up A Scope-Change Process

It is nearly impossible for no scope changes to happen throughout the project. The key is managing such changes.

If you are hearing many “While you’re at it...” and “Could you also help to look at X?"s, take down the additional tasks and request for added resources (manpower, time, information) to complete the tasks more efficiently.

Escalate

Oftentimes, scope-creep manifests into overwork when you are carrying more tasks and your manager is not aware of it. So close this scope change with a sign-off from your manager. You will likely see a change in workload after that.

By managing the expectations of others and establishing clear systems, you can excel at your assigned roles and responsibilities without exhausting yourself. Start understanding and managing your scope!