How many ‘quiet quitting’ stories do we need?

Plenty of loud noise about nothing

Aug 25, 2022

While the words "quiet quitting" are loaded, evoking images of a slacker for some, others say that the approach frees up time to spend with family and friends, or to take care of oneself.

cbc.caWhat is ‘quiet quitting,’ and why is everybody talking about it? | CBC NewsEmployees want to be fairly compensated for additional time and work, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbates occupational burnout and mental health issues. The ball is squarely in the court of employers, managers and executives, experts say.

Somehow, a melancholy TikTok video mutated into an unavoidable topic for news media in August, as information-based employment annoyances started weighing more heavily ahead of Labour Day. Yet it’s not quite clear what “quiet quitting” stands for—beyond that it was bound to draw a backlash from experts advising against it, if it’s even happening at all.

The tweet that took some time

Justin Trudeau @JustinTrudeau

The pattern of harassment of journalists is incredibly alarming and completely unacceptable. This type of behaviour has no place in our society. No journalist should ever be threatened for doing their job.

The prime ministerial account weighed in with words about the most recent wave of vile harassment directed at journalists, some of whom shared the threats on social media. But words from Justin Trudeau can’t possibly solve this issue, particularly in a week when the federal government had its own scandal due to funding a vile tweeter to run media seminars.

Ana Poilievre has entered the chat. Pierre’s wife tweeting a link to “7 times Trudeau met with pedophiles, terrorists and extremists” led prominent Liberals to decry this as disturbing behaviour from the spouse of a likely Conservative leader. Ana previously clapped back at a CBC reporter who suggested she was the beneficiary of nepotism in Ottawa.

Standards get violated by advice

Three months after Ellie Tesher announced her daughter Lisi is now the co-writer of her longtime Toronto Star advice column, a reply to a letter got wider attention than usual. Their response said a woman whose boyfriend was pointing a gun at her was at fault due to her past infidelity. What made it into print was excised online and replaced by a disclaimer:

Toronto Star @TorontoStar

The Toronto Star has deleted a tweet of an advice column that inappropriately suggested a letter-writer shared the blame for her abuse. The content did not reflect our editorial standards. We regret that the article was published and shared in its original form.

Gerald Potterton dead at 91. One of the pioneers of animation at the National Film Board of Canada after moving from London, England, to Montreal in 1954, he quit the NFB to work on the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine. Later, he directed the big-screen Heavy Metal. Potterton was also the focus of a documentary about his life and career, The Flying Animator.

Finally, a taste of machinations

Doug and the Slugs and Me is a documentary about filmmaker Teresa Alfeld’s pursuit of information about her childhood best friend’s dad, goofy Canadian rock star Doug Bennett, who died in 2004 at age 52. It’s soon getting screen time at the Vancouver International Film Festival, with a talking-heads cast that includes former area journalist Bob Geldof: