- Sona Movsesian is Conan O'Brien's assistant of 13 years. She's been 'quiet quitting' for over a decade.
- She said she accepts that she's "mediocre" and found ways to do the "minimal amount of work possible."
- She says workers shouldn't have to go above and beyond if they don't want to.
Many millennials have recently embraced quiet quitting, but Sona Movsesian, Conan O'Brien's assistant of 13 years, has been doing it for over a decade.
"I realized very early on, I'm just going to be mediocre," she said on Insider's The Refresh podcast. "And that's totally fine with me. Most people are mediocre."
The newly popular term, which gained traction after Insider published a story on "coasting culture" back in March, describes the idea of establishing work-life boundaries while still collecting a paycheck. Its growing popularity on social media shows how younger generations are pushing back against the expectation that they should be going above and beyond at their jobs.
In Movsesian's book "The World's Worst Assistant," now a New York Times bestseller, she details how she napped on the job, watched movies at her desk, and did "the most minimal amount of work possible."
"Most people would be proactive and find other things to do during those moments of downtime," she said. "I was not that person. I was not, 'Hmm, let me make more work for myself.' I was like, 'Oh I did the work I need to do, so this is my break time. So I'm going to watch 12 episodes of Schitt's Creek."
While Movsesian wrote her book before quiet quitting became a topic of conversation, she says the term resonates with her. She said she loves her job because she feels respected, compensated fairly, and listened to, but she still doesn't feel compelled to work more than she needs to.
She knows many 'quiet quitters' don't have the same love for their employers, however.
"I think that a lot of these people who are 'quietly quitting' are saying, 'I don't need to kill myself for this job,' especially if they're not feeling respect or not feeling like they're properly compensated, or they're feeling like they're not being listened to," Movsesian said. "I think that if you want someone to do something and it's not part of the job description, then you shouldn't expect them to have to go above and beyond if they don't want to."
While some critics have argued quiet quitters are stunting their career growth, Movesian says it is possible to move up in Hollywood by just doing one's job — and not subjecting oneself to dire working conditions.
She's certainly evidence of that.
You can listen to the full interview with Movesian right here.