What Is “Quiet Quitting,” and How Do You Stop Your Employees From Doing It?

Often, when an employee is gearing up to waltz into your office and turn in their resignation letter (or email it in today’s world), you can sense it coming.

You may have had conversations leading up to their resignation that indicated dissatisfaction or their desire to take their career in a different direction. But now, new Gallup research says that almost 50 percent of people are “quiet quitting” instead.

 

⚠️ What is quiet quitting?

This term refers to detaching from your job, so you’re only doing the bare minimum to keep it. Quiet quitters have significantly low levels of collaboration with coworkers and extremely poor engagement in day-to-day responsibilities.

Quiet quitting is a rising trend on social media these days, as people post pictures of themselves doing just about anything but their job on the job. TikTok has all sorts of viral reels on people “working from home,” and by that, we mean doing laundry, cooking, hanging out with friends, and more. A growing body of research even purports that people are busy running errands while on the clock.

In fact, according to the Gallup research, the proportion of actually “engaged” workers sits at only 32% – and the proportion of “actively disengaged” workers has steadily increased to 18%. This means that the ratio of “engaged” to “actively disengaged” employees is just 1.8 to 1, marking the lowest level of engaged workers in nearly a decade.

This significant drop in engagement all started around 2021, during the post-pandemic “Great Resignation.” People cited unclear expectations, not feeling valued, and dwindling opportunities to learn and grow as to why they felt psychologically detached from their remote work. 

Flash forward to now, however, and engagement doesn’t seem to be picking back up. People are just getting quieter about their feelings instead of voicing them as much.

 

⚠️ Why is quiet quitting particularly problematic?

Quiet quitting is problematic for business leaders for a multitude of both obvious and less obvious reasons.

Quiet quitters aren’t putting in all of their effort. So, business leaders are spending the big bucks on employees who aren’t delivering. Over time, the lack of effort will take a toll on business and cost leaders valuable resources like time and money.

Businesses also rack up opportunity losses when they could be working with engaged employees instead.

And, of course, leaders lose talent when their employees quit out of seemingly nowhere – with little to no warning to replace them in a timely manner.

But quiet quitting also suggests that the company culture isn’t quite collaborative; if it was, people would probably feel safer communicating their concerns and doing their work or quitting differently.

So quiet quitting is indicative of a company culture that’s suffering, which can have a whole wealth of negative effects on a company.

 

How can leaders stop employees from quitting?

 

It’s been years since people started feeling significantly less engaged with their work. And it’s time that leaders start doing something about it, which, of course, is easier said than done.

Here are some tips to help prevent people from quietly quitting your company.

 

✅ Set clear expectations.

According to the Gallup study, less than four in 10 young remote or hybrid employees “clearly know what is expected of them at work.”

When you share your expectations, you help ensure that they have what they need to meet them. It may be wise to have regular check-ups with your employees to be confident that you’re consistently on the same page.

 

✅ Create opportunities for growth.

The same research finds that young workers (especially those who are fully remote or hybrid workers) have dropped at least nine points in the percentage of those who “strongly agree that someone cares about them, someone encourages their development, and they have opportunities to learn and grow.”

When you create opportunities for your employees to climb in their careers – whether it be with workshops or mentorship – you help them feel valued, appreciated, and on the right track, which boosts motivation.

 

✅ Get more engaged yourself.

According to the same study, only one in three managers is engaged at work. In order to help others feel more engaged, leadership needs to start setting examples.

Managers can do this by setting up regular accountability calls, which helps them stay connected and helps their employees feel heard.