I am seeing this happening on multiple occasions in my career. One: there was this engineer I in my sister team. They put in just enough effort to get by and no

I am seeing this happening on multiple occasions in my career. One: there was this engineer I in my sister team. They put in just enough effort to get by and not to get pipped. They were not incompetent, I would argue the opposite. I thought they were lazy for doing minimal amount of work to get by while I was putting in 200% for the customers. Fast forward a couple of years, I couldn’t get to the promotion I needed the most. They retired and then retreated to a LCL area. Looking back, I would admire them for being conscious about work. Second: current team, there is this employee who has been with the firm for over 18 years. They are in product management, not an engineer. Recently performance review questioned why they stay at that role for so long: was that because of complacency or just incompetence? Their manager answers that they are good of what they’ve been doing for over 15 years, but have no motivation for moving up because they care more about work life balance and family relationships. They were put to pip next quarter. Those two experiences have shaped my perception of work very much. Especially the 2nd one, where I was involved in the performance review. I see all the nasty side of management and stack ranking system designed to screwed employees, albeit they are doing a decent jobs. I’m still pushing for my promotion everyday. But, I no longer am invested emotionally heavily in that rat race. If I am to be promoted next time, it is great. If not, it’s not because I’m incompetent, just quiet quitting. Peace and take care of your health, fellows.