Quiet quitting has become a hot topic in the workplace in recent months, but it isn’t as extreme as it sounds. This term refers to employees who intentionally refrain from going above and beyond in their role. A 2022 Gallup survey suggests that nearly 50% of the United States workforce is composed of “quiet quitters.” This trendy new term has provided a label for the employees who evade tasks outside of their defined work duties. While this disengagement can be interpreted in many ways, we are here to provide some points to consider when your employees are disengaging or if you are an employee who feels led to “quiet quit” in your workplace.
What to do if you see employees actively disengaging from work as an employer:
If you notice employees not participating as actively in work, try to refrain from immediate alarm. Review the employee’s work and ensure the expectations have been met in terms of scope of work. Have a conversation with this employee to see what is causing them to take a step back from participating more actively in the workplace. Chances are the employee may have external stressors or have a cause of miscommunication or dissatisfaction with their role.
Causes for dissatisfaction in the workplace can be attributed to the following:
- Not feeling like they have a voice or a say in workplace decisions.
- Not feeling as if there is room for improvement or advancement.
- Not feeling like they are being compensated fairly for the work they do.
- Not having clarification on their role and responsibilities.
External stressors such as significant life changes can also lower an individual’s capacity to perform additional tasks at work. Try to manage any areas of dissatisfaction within your team by having frequent check-ins and ensuring that their quiet quitting doesn’t turn into just plain quitting.
Ultimately, if you see an employee quiet quitting and can’t pinpoint what has caused the employee to disengage, try to examine the workplace culture. As a manager, there may be room for improvement in the company and within your immediate team.
How to avoid quiet-quitting as an employee in the workplace:
To avoid quietly quitting a few months or years into a role where you have previously been engaged or contributing a lot of additional hours, try creating healthy boundaries. This can mean outliningclear expectations with your team or your managers about what you can or will not be able to do.
Having good boundaries at work can look like communicating with your manager when any of the following things happen:
- Feeling like workload to compensation ratio is unfairly matched.
- Having life changes that make it difficult to contribute more.
- Being overwhelmed with tasks or having too many tasks placed on you.
- Being unsatisfied with management in your workplace.
If any of the above have been weighing heavily on you and are the basis of the decision to put the brakes on your work performance, consider chatting with your employer about these stressors. If it is outside factors, your workplace may be willing to make adjustments to help you. If it is a matter of interpersonal workplace stressors, consider reaching out to management with your concerns. Communicating with your workplace managers or HR will be the best way to create workplace culture changes.
When addressing quiet quitting as an employer or an employee, it is good to practice introspection and ensure that you are doing everything you can in terms of communication. Ultimately, when it comes to quiet quitting, the responsibility lies with both parties to ensure they work together to define and communicate workplace expectations and any areas for improvement.