Getting to the bottom of ‘quiet quitting’

The trend of employees setting strict boundaries around their jobs is growing, but there are ways for employers to get workers back on side.

‘Quiet quitting’ is the latest buzzword to dominate the workplace vernacular and for good reason. The trend, popularised through social media sites including TikTok, has changed the way many employees are engaging with their jobs, and it’s not necessarily for the better. 

The concept of ‘quiet quitting’ refers to workers no longer going above and beyond for their job. While they have not outrightly left their organisation, ‘quiet quitters’ have made the conscious decision to remove themselves from the hustle mentality that work equals life. 

This might include stopping working outside of your paid hours and not looking at emails on the weekend or staying behind to finish a report to impress your boss. It might mean taking the full lunch break you’re awarded or declining tasks that don’t align with your job description. It could even involve taking a proper sick day and actually resting instead of working from home while scoffing down cough medicine.

It’s not a surprise that ‘quiet quitting’ comes as employees continue to feel the ongoing effects of COVID-19, which has created a workplace culture in crisis, coupled with a challenging economic climate that is impacting wages against increasing costs of living.

See more: Employee autonomy key to reducing burnout in the NFP sector

But while the pandemic certainly has a part to play in exacerbating ‘quiet quitting’, founder of Business Alchemist Jeanet Wade explained in Forbes that reducing this behaviour to a fad is a missed opportunity for business leaders to improve productivity and engagement.

Instead, Wade proposes that employers can take ‘quiet quitting’ as a critical sign that the needs of their teams are not being met and make changes to transform workplace culture.

“We can take this time of turmoil and nothing being the way it was before to create cultures that are different from before, and different from the norm around us,” she wrote. 

“If we take steps to rise to the challenge now we can reverse the current trends and create a new, upward-swinging trend of building up even more star players and seeing them shine more brightly than ever before.”

See more: Check the culture before you sign up

If increasing wages is not realistic for your organisation, there are other ways you can stimulate engagement from your employees. Incentivising efforts that increase job satisfaction is key to evoking an emotional value to working. 

If your organisation is driven by profit and KPIs, you could try providing commissions or a proportion of revenue to workers that perform above and beyond. You could also try scheduling regular team catch-ups to bring employees together or encouraging small breaks for guided meditations or short walks to help break up the work day.

If you’re a NFP or work in the social sector, reminding employees of the mission and value of your organisation has proven to be beneficial for perceptions of good leadership and staff retention.

Offering meaningful support, whether through a professional employee counselling service, making one-on-one time with your employee to discuss what is and isn’t working or scheduling reflective team sessions, is sure to go a long way in breathing life back into your workplace.

Whatever you do, take this trend seriously – because behind the buzz of ‘quiet quitting’ is a stream of exhausted workers who don’t feel appreciated or heard and are looking for change.