Something pushes you to coast. Very often, a feeling of having been cheated of something. It is the outcome of a game theory negative system. Your job starts exacting more than its bargain. You want to check out of the game, so you do.
But coasting hurts you more than you realize. You spend a large chunk of your time being mentally checked out. You become reactive. In lax systems, which is more companies than we would admit, things genuinely ease up. Your colleagues start taking their problems elsewhere. You start getting fewer mentions, fewer meeting invites. Someone picks up your slack. Usually someone green. Things fall into a natural rhythm, relieving you of pressure and some hours.
But the quality of the baseline amount of time you spend at work deteriorates rapidly. You drag yourself to work. Neutral as you may try to be, your energy is a net negative on the place. Every day, you let life pass by as you alternate between watching your notifications and the clock. Your grip on your work slips, and with it your pride. Your reputation tanks. Your skills start to atrophy. Learning ceases. Unless you are strongly motivated (in the present tense), the coasting will spill into personal endeavours too. You’re not really in it, you tell yourself. This is not you. That you in the past is you. This is just justice-you, here to collect.
But is there really that much debt? Does it come with an end date?
You may not know what else to do. You do not want to keep exchanging your time for less than what it is worth. But overwork is a pendulum. When the prize of that work disappoints, the pendulum swings with a vengeance into the coasting zone. You must resist its momentum. Rest, but do not swing that other way.
Growth and prestige are important yet secondary outcomes of a job. They are primary to your career, not to your job. Think about how you can get what you want and take measures. Your job still gives you money. It grants you stability. Maybe even a title, bits of identity? Pay it back.
You are depriving yourself of attention. You are “bearing” the hours. Without attention, your life shrinks. Each year can be a milestone on the path of where you want to be. When you coast, each year is a bitter reminder of settling. Being less than what you can be.
Coasting stalls this for you. Let each year find you in motion, not adrift in an arbitrary justice game.