Quiet Quitting: The labor market’s silent killer
Quiet Quitting: The labor market’s silent killer
From workers doing the bare minimum through to those seeking other employment without leaving: Meet “Quiet Quitting,” the greatest threat to the labor. New data reveals that, since the Covid pandemic, 50% of workers don’t feel committed to their workplace, keep a low profile, but aren’t resigning. Employers are struggling to address this trend that’s severely damaging productivity. The good news is that there are ways to stop it before it’s too late
As the labor market is still licking its wounds from the crisis brought about by the Covid pandemic and trying to deal with wars that broke out afterwards, a quiet earthquake is occurring right under employers’ noses. “Quiet Quitting,” a movement that kicked off following the global pandemic and gained momentum as a viral on-line trend, has become a nightmare for HR managers and employers across the globe.
What is quiet quitting?
It’s a covert plague of workers deciding to do the bare necessary minimum without putting in any extra effort or feeling committed to their workplace while, at the same time, not leaving. This results in severe downturn in productivity, a blow to morale, and a new challenge threatening the very future of the labor market.
“Quiet quitting kicked off as a widescale trend after Covid” says Jonathan Pietra of Great Place to Work Israel. “People were at home and they started rethinking their priorities and the amount of time they were spending at work and on the road.”
Thoughts running through people’s minds during lockdown have turned into something serious
What started out as thoughts running through the minds of workers across the globe during lockdown, has turned into an actual movement in the real world. The idea gained momentum via social media postings that have gleaned millions of views, and have evoked the sense that something in the labor market has fundamentally changed.
Psychologist Samantha Stein explains in a 2023 Psychology Today article that quiet quitting is articulated by employees doing the bare required minimum, making no additional effort. Employees avoid putting in extra hours, taking part in meetings that are not compulsory, or taking on projects beyond the essential minimum.
Opinions vary as to the ramifications of this phenomenon. Some regard it as a necessary correction of an overly demanding work culture, viewing it as a positive trend of employees setting boundaries and taking care of their own health. Others perceive it as “Gen Z’s lazy workers” who feel less committed to a workplace and don’t want too work hard.
Meanwhile, the numbers speak for themselves: According to a 2023 Gallup poll, 32% of employees are “not engaged” in their workplace, i.e., do nothing beyond the bare required minimum. Furthermore, 17% of employees are “not actively engaged,” i.e. are looking for work. This means that 50% of employees do not feel committed to their workplace.
“This is a considerable share of the workforce” says Pietra. “Employers must take notice and try thinking about how to prevent it. It doesn’t matter whether or not the reasons for quiet quitting are justified. At the end of the day, half of all employees don’t feel committed to their place of work, and this dramatically affects productivity.”
The situation in Israel isn’t much different. A Great Place To Work study from last May, polling 30 thousand employees across 21 countries (including 1,500 Israeli employees), shows that 44% of employees in Israel don’t want to remain long in their current jobs. Furthermore, 47% of employees in Israel said they weren’t willing to give beyond what was required to do their job.
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Altar'd State company employees in a voluntary activity
(courtesy: Great Place To Work)
Companies showing its employees by example to its employees how to be “Rosh Gadol” (doing more)
What lies behind quiet quitting? Pietra says that, in addition to employees’ feeling of lack of work-life balance, a further reason for the quiet quitting gaining momentum is the lack of a sense of purpose. “In the end, we put in 40-60 hours a week. You can’t say ‘I only do what I have to and then go home’, and live a rich life of self fulfilment that doesn’t make work the source of any meaning.”
What can be done to address quiet quitting?
Pietra offers a number of solutions:
Firstly, employers must strive to impart a sense of purpose to their workers. “Great Place to Work studies show that with a greater sense of purpose, employees 2.2 times more likely to stay longer at a workplace.”
Pietra cites the example of American fashion company, Atar’d State, that donates 10% of its takings to charity, and encourages its employees to volunteer. The company holds “Mission Mondays” when all company employees volunteer at charitable organizations. “Following this step, 96% of company employees said they felt good about how they were contributing to the community” says Pietra.
He further says that, by its deeds, the company demonstrates, “The antithesis of employees doing the bare minimum and quiet quitting. The company is setting an example to its workers of how to do more, and do things even when they don’t have to. And this is reflected in performance.”
Gifts Banks
Another step that employees can take to impart a sense of purpose to their workers and encourage them to do more, is shining the spotlight good things in the workplace. Pietra explains that IT company, Atlassian, has created an admirable culture of gratitude and recognition.
Each employee receives a “gift bank” that they can utilize throughout the year to thank other employees for the work they’ve done. He says, “Each employee has 10-15 gifts a year that they can send their team-mates. It might be a book, a gift-card or a bottle of wine.” The goal is to create a culture in which the employees themselves expect good things at the workplace and encourages pride and mutual appreciation. “As soon as you do this, you make everyone see the good things that happen, rather than focusing on the negative things” explains Pietra.
Employees should also consider flexibility for their workers and let them take some time off when needed: Amdocs announced in February 2022 that its workers can take as much vacation as they want.
“At Atlassian, 90% of employees reported that they can take time off whenever they want” says Pietra. “As employers, we can preemptively avert burn-out, and we don’t have to wait for an employee to leave or conduct quiet quitting” says Pietra. “Knowing that you can take time off when you need, without it becoming a problem is wonderful.”
Managers gauged on making employees feel meaningful
A further important step to avert quiet quitting, Pietra suggests, is setting an index gauging the extent to which to managers of organizations make their employees feel they’re an important part of those organizations.
“Atlassian gauges whether its managers are making all their employees feel important” says Pietra. “It’s one of management’s goals. If a one year, only 50% of employees feel important, next year’s target is 60%.”
Pietra says that, at the end of the day, quiet quitting can be managed. “It’s not cast in stone. Like anything, it can be addressed “he says. “But you have to be proactive. As employers, we can’t be waiting for people to feel burnt out.” That said, Pietra explains that responsibility cuts both ways. “The employee’s responsibility is to be more self-aware and understand what they want to do, where they feel a greater sense of purpose” he says. “But it can’t just be the employee’s responsibility. Workers often don’t have the tools to find the job that’s right for them.”
In the changing labor market, quiet quitting constitutes a serious challenge for employers. However, correctly understanding the phenomenon, and taking appropriate steps, creating a working environment where employees feel connected and appreciated along with a sense of purpose, can turn this challenge into an opportunity. Any organization seeking success in this new era in the work world now faces this task
Great Place to Work is an international organization founded 30 years ago and operating across 170 countries that award global quality scores to exceptional workplaces based on methodology using 60 parameters. Best Workplaces flagship list is published annually in Fortune and People magazines. Over the last two decades, the companies that make up the list of the greatest places to work have experienced spikes in their share prices four times greater compared to the Russell 1000 Index, which includes the largest publicly traded corporations in the US, and also compared to comparable stock indices in other places around the world.
