Written by: Fraser Duncumb, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Quiet quitting is the ‘new trend’ threatening to shut down businesses that won’t fight for their employees’ engagement. Read on to find out what the new generation of employees wants from their work, how they’re claiming it by force, and what this means for the wider workplace.
What is quiet quitting?
Quiet quitting is a phenomenon popularised by TikTok wherein employees make the active decision to stop pouring ‘extra’ effort into their work, choosing to complete only mandatory tasks.
Though slacking culture itself is nothing new, discussions around quiet quitting are gaining serious traction, with 82% of Gen Z and Millenials saying the concept appeals to them. For perspective’s sake, these generations already make up 50% of the global workforce, meaning that more than 4/10 of all employees are tempted by quiet quitting.
These conversations are forming a generational battle cry for employers to remedy the disengaging working conditions forcing employees to actively withdraw from their jobs.
Why do people quiet quit?
Based on the online discussion circles around quiet quitting, the stand-out reasons for people to take this path are due to:
Lack of meritocracy – not being rewarded properly for hard work, e.g. being skipped over for promotions/bonuses, general lack of recognition
Poor work/life balance – spending too much time/energy on work
Not feeling challenged by their jobs/feeling generally disengaged
What do they hope to achieve?
People withdraw from work for one of two reasons.
1. Self-Preservation
Those who quiet quit to look after themselves (reclaiming their time/energy or vowing to never work themselves to the bone for zero praise/extra reward) may well achieve their personal goals by choosing themselves over a toxic relationship with work.
2. Protest
Those who are rebelling against their employer by quiet quitting are essentially acting in the same way as the self-preservers, but hoping for knock-on results. Protesting against lack of free time by actively reclaiming it might appear to do nothing more than automatically solving the issue an individual is trying to change, but this decision on a mass scale – combined with the type 1 quiet quitters – is dividing companies into two camps.
Those who work to engage their employees, and those who don’t.
Change on a Larger Scale
Whether employees want to look after themselves or rail against a faulty system, their reaction against the ‘hustle culture’ that’s long dominated the workplace is placing serious pressure on companies to listen –
For example, employees who have a strong work-life balance work 21% harder than those who don’t, meaning that for every 5 employees who achieve this, you’re gaining the work volume of an extra person.
To look at this glass-half-empty, companies who don’t facilitate a good work-life balance are essentially losing one team member for every 6 they have on the payroll – and these stats are before you even factor in the increased hit to productivity of those consciously quiet quitting, rather than just passively disengaging.
Quiet quitters aren’t just a loss to productivity, either. Retention is an increasing problem in all sectors, rising higher with the increasing number of online working opportunities and the declining homeownership rates which all give individuals more mobility to job-hop than ever before.
The Solution
Employees realising the influence they have on the workplace is no bad thing. Those who realise this, and truly embrace it, will be the ones to eradicate quiet quitting in their workplace, and likely poach previous quiet quitters from other ineffective companies.
Organisations who try to snuff out conversations around employee needs and expectations will be left behind at an increasing rate whilst the state of the employment market places more and more power in the hands of jobseekers over employers.
Meanwhile, companies who encourage conversations around employee ideas/concerns, responding with real action, will revolutionise their businesses from the inside out, deepening the divide between engaging and disengaging companies. These forward-thinking companies will recognise this period of change in the workplace as the exciting opportunity it is, rather than the burden it could be.
Want to see how engaged your employees are?
Fraser Duncumb, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Fraser Duncumb is an expert in the employee engagement field. He believes that every person has the ability, enthusiasm, and creativity to excel in their work if only given the right conditions. Fraser is the CEO of Wotter, a platform that empowers companies to make work even better for their team, by tracking the effectiveness of employee engagement initiatives in order to continuously improve them. It’s Fraser’s conviction that the success of individuals is what propels a company, and he is committed to promoting a focus on engagement at this personal level.
