Quiet Quitting & Athletic Trainers: Does It Apply To Us?

The whole "quiet quitting" trend really just seems to mean people doing what they are contracted to do at work, without emotionally investing,

or going above and beyond.

But if you're an AT like me, it's impossible to NOT be emotionally invested in our work - and we WANT to go above and beyond for our athletes.

In fact, if our work wasn't emotionally meaningful to us, we would probably quit in droves- (and not quietly) - because it's not the hours, pay, or benefits that are keeping us in our job settings! It's also impossible to adhere to scheduled work hours, the way someone in a 9-5 might be able to, or to "leave work at work."

So does the "quiet quitting" phenomenon even apply to us at all?

You may not feel like it applies to our profession, or even agree with it, but to me, it brings up two important points that I feel are relevant to us as Athletic Trainers.

This is a moment for observation and discussion of WHY the expectation is one of 24/7 hustle, and of consistently going above and beyond. At first glance, it might seem that hustle culture is aligned with working in athletics, but rethink that with me.

Let's talk about what we expect from and plan for our athletes - load management, tapers, timed peaks, recovery. We KNOW that if training isn't balanced correctly, it can lead to fatigue, injury, and burnout -

and the same applies to us!

We don't shame athletes for needing recovery days and an off-season, and it's time we gave that same grace and balance to our own profession.

Rather than complete disengagement from hustle culture a la quiet quitting, seasonality in work aligns with our profession and with our ability to perform and excel.

A lot of Athletic Trainers, myself included, have struggled with burnout and/or compassion fatigue. In those times, the emotional disengagement of the quiet quitters we see on social media might seem appealing.

But on the other side of that is compassion satisfaction - the pleasure we get from knowing we did our job well and helping our athletes. If we emotionally disengage from our work, we risk losing that too.

What we can do instead is look at where we can set and hold boundaries at work without compromising our personal work ethic, our passion for what we do, and the level of care we aspire to provide our athletes.

These boundaries may look different based on our work setting, or the season we are in. But they are ours. Setting them helps us get clear on our needs and non-negotiables, and keeping them helps us avoid burnout, compassion fatigue, and the desire to disengage.