If you’ve spent more than 5 minutes working for a large company, you’ll hear talk of something called ‘best practices.’ Companies love doing things according to best practices. In theory, this means they look at what other companies do, figure out which practices work the most effectively, and then they do those things.

Is this how it actually happens? Well, no. In the actual world of work, when companies perform ‘best practices’ they just do what everyone else does. They look at what most other companies do, and then they do it, too. They do it when it works effectively, and they do it when it doesn’t work effectively.

But why does it go like this? Lots of companies don’t want to take risks. Plus, they put many of these decisions into the hands of HR, which is traditionally a bastion of unoriginal thinking within large companies.

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Every now and then, the business press lifts up a new term. Sometimes with insight, but often without it. The new term usually falls under the broad heading ‘workers who won’t work as hard as bosses want them to work.’ If nothing else, ‘quiet quitting’ slots comfortably within this framework.

And why shouldn’t the business press play it this way? Who reads the business press? Not just the bourgeoisie (though, of course, the bourgeoisie). Middle managers, project managers, and various elements aspiring to that status also read it. Collectively, they fear and loathe nothing more than the worker who won’t work as hard as bosses want them to work.

The business press plays to this fear and loathing. When workers are quiet quitting, then by gum, they’d better write an article about it! Even if they aren’t quiet quitting, maybe they’d better write an article about it anyway. After all, they could do so in the future.

And the aforementioned eyeballs will turn to the page.

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