First detected on 20 January 2026 at a depth of approximately 2.1 CAU, the Quiet Quitting Reversal registered initially as a diffuse counter-signal across professional networking substrates and mid-tier newsletter commentary. The phenomenon consists of an explicit, often performative re-embrace of professional ambition — long hours, visible dedication, stated careerism — positioned rhetorically as a corrective to the quiet quitting discourse cycle that dominated the Limbic Basin from mid-2022 through late 2024. Station officers will note this follows the standard counter-cycle template catalogued in ATD Discourse Cycles Series: a prior phenomenon ebbs fully, enters the beached phase, and its residual cultural legibility becomes the surface against which a reactive formation builds. The Reversal does not represent a novel attitudinal shift so much as the discursive repackaging of ambition as transgressive position, borrowing energy from the prior cycle's decay.
Assuming no further mainstream incursion events within the next fourteen days, the phenomenon is projected to reach true peak between 6.2 and 7.0 CAU in the window of 28 February to 12 March 2026. Ebb rate following peak is estimated at 0.4 to 0.6 CAU per week, consistent with counter-cycle events in the Discourse Cycles series, which tend to ebb somewhat faster than their originating phenomena due to thinner independent substrate. A second mainstream incursion during or shortly after peak would steepen this rate to approximately 0.9 CAU per week and trigger Protocol 7.3 terminal ebb monitoring. Probability of a recursive micro-surge — a brief secondary rise of 0.8 CAU or greater following initial ebb — is assessed at 34 percent, most likely in the event that the quiet quitting discourse itself experiences a sympathetic reactivation, as counter-cycle pairs occasionally produce coupled oscillation in the intertidal phase.
Return to ambient levels below 0.2 CAU is estimated for 19 May 2026 under the standard ebb scenario, or 28 April 2026 if a second mainstream incursion accelerates terminal decay. Should the recursive micro-surge materialise, the ambient return date extends to approximately 8 June 2026. Monitoring frequency may be reduced from daily to twice-weekly station passes once readings fall below 1.0 CAU on three consecutive observations, per standard ATD draw-down procedure. Until that threshold is met, daily cadence is to be maintained without exception. Officers are reminded that the sub-threshold data series does not exempt this phenomenon from full reporting obligations under Series standing orders.