Quiet quitting: what is it and how can I manage it?
/Around a week ago, the latest hot topic in the employment sector went viral on TikTok. ‘Quiet quitting’ is all the rage on the video-led social media channel as burned-out workers begin to tacitly disengage from their working environment.
It’s a topic that is now featuring large in the thinking of HR managers and teams, and it’s a problem that may become worse as the cost of living crisis really starts to bite, and workers question the real value that is to be gained from investing more time in an employer than they are financially or emotionally rewarded for.
So, what is quiet quitting?
Quiet quitting happens when employees begin to withdraw their goodwill from the organisation they work for, doing only what is necessary during the working day to comply with the terms of their employment contract.
A generation or two back, we might have called this ‘working to rule’ (although strictly speaking work to rule is a formal and usually union-led protest related to pay, benefits, and working conditions – but the principles are the same).
In reality there are many reasons why people may decide that they are no longer prepared to go beyond the contractual minimum during their working day, and often these reasons are driven by the actions (or, perhaps, inaction) of the organisation itself.
The two most common reasons for a worker to check out of their relationship with their employer are around reciprocity (where effort or commitment is rewarded with recognition) and reward
Lack of reciprocity: The worker feels the ‘above and beyond’ elements of their daily performance aren’t recognised – either at all or, more often, enough. Things like staying late to get something over the line or to support a snowed-under colleague, taking on tasks beyond their job description or level of responsibility, or being ‘always on’ to respond to calls or emails.
Lack of reward: Here, the employee feels they are not receiving adequate compensation for the investment of their time or energy. This is not always about their salary or other remuneration. More often, in fact, it’s related to development and progression.
Reward is particularly likely to be an issue for employees in an economic downturn – and especially so right now as spiralling energy bills and the cost of living crisis threaten to engulf those on lower incomes and highlight the shortfall between their pay packet and their outgoings.
Why should all of us working in HR care about this?
One theory around the recent emergence of quiet quitting is that it has been driven by a perfect storm of external factors.
First, the pandemic prompted most of us to re-evaluate our lives and priorities. In a lot of cases, people have simply realised that there’s more to life than their job and they want to reset their work-life balance.
Now, the economic fallout of the pandemic, Brexit and the war in Ukraine has given people a sense of justification in deciding to reconsider their priorities in practical and meaningful ways – and the result is a reduced sense of obligation to their employer.
It’s an issue for business – and therefore for those of us working in the HR space – because the net consequence of quiet quitting is the risk of a negative impact on the bottom line.
We may begin to see worker productivity fall below that contractually required of them. They may be late to meetings or into the office – or may not turn up at all. They may maintain task-related work but withdraw active contribution from team projects and processes.
Worse, while some behaviours associated with quiet quitting may still leave an employee operating within the strict terms of their contract – e.g. leaving work not a second earlier or later than their contracted finish time – they are still interpreted as being negative and will be noticed by colleagues.
The risk here is that even in passive ways the quiet quitters will begin to breed toxicity.
How do we address the issue of quiet quitting?
As with all good management practice, addressing quiet quitting – or, better still, preventing it from becoming an issue in the first place – begins with communication.
By talking to your employees and finding out how they believe their organisation can help them to feel more valued and better supported, businesses will begin to understand how their own processes, policies and actions can be reworked to focus more specifically on protecting and maintaining positive workplace culture.
It’s also important to ensure that people are engaged in the work they’re doing and that this work has purpose and meaning. So, if a member of staff is asked to do something, the business must find a way to show the practical value of that piece of work.
Creating realistic demands and workloads that are allied to realistic expectations is also important, while clear and effective individual development plans will serve to give employees a clear sense of the path they’re on, and how the business will support them to achieve their personal goals in the process of delivering organisational goals.
How do we manage quiet quitters?
It shouldn’t be hard to spot the quiet quitter in your business, but when you do be careful not to immediately assume the issue to be tackled is one of conduct.
It is more productive to concede that there may be operational factors that are contribution to the individual’s behaviour and that the problem may lie with the business and not the worker.
Talking to the individual informally to try to understand why they feel as they do is an important first step.
But if, having explored the issue, you feel it is something that requires the individual to modify their attitude and/or behaviour, then work to set clear goal setting and monitoring processes to manage the situation.
If this fails, then it may be the time to accept the individual and the organisation are no longer aligned, and to set a formal disciplinary process in motion.
If you’d like to find out more about how Constantia Consulting can help you or your HR team to deal with quiet quitting in your business, please get in touch for an informal chat.
