WATCH: What is quiet quitting?

The phrase “quiet quitting” has entered the workplace conversation.

“I think the term itself is probably mislabeled because people aren't quitting,” Shaun Harper, executive director of the University of Southern California Race and Equity Center, told the PBS NewsHour's Nicole Ellis in a conversation about the new workplace concept.

“Maybe they're quitting the overwork, but they're not quitting their jobs. They're doing what was specified in the job description when they were hired.”

Harper said the term is applicable most often to people in white collar jobs. And he also argues that Black and brown workers aren’t afforded the same luxuries as their white peers.

"One thing that I hear consistently, regardless of the industry, from people of color, is that they have to work twice as hard to get half as far in terms of climbing the corporate ladder," Harper said.

This video was produced by Casey Kuhn, Nicole Ellis, Julia Griffin, and Yasmeen Alamiri. Photos and video courtesy Reuters.

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