Quiet Quitting - Causes and Techniques to Prevent it

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In the past few weeks, ‘Quiet Quitting’ has garnered a lot of attention. According to Gallup, “quiet quitters” comprise at least 50 percent of the U.S. workforce and possibly more.

During the second quarter of 2022, employee engagement in the United States further declined. The percentage of engaged employees hovered around 32% but the percentage of actively disengaged employees rose to 18%. It’s been over a decade since we’ve seen an engagement-to-disengagement ratio as low as 1.8 to 1.

Not surprisingly, there have been debates and arguments on various social media platforms, and different views have been opinionated by experts from different industries on blogs regarding the Quiet Quitting process.

Oftentimes, the experts’ viewpoints on TV, blogs, and social media platforms are opposed to one another. Yet everyone may agree that ‘Quiet Quitting’ seems to indicate a communication and connection gap – an essential aspect that cannot be ignored.

In this blog, we shall understand what Quiet Quitting is; explore the reasons behind it; and what strategies can be adopted by companies to stop it.

What is Quiet Quitting?

Quiet Quitting refers to the situation wherein employees slowly start to develop an attitude of doing only the bare minimum volume of work or begin to disengage from the job gradually.

Thus, the practice of Quiet Quitting is also known as “employee disengagement.” Generally, during this period, employees significantly reduce the usual level of productivity which is expected from them or stop making extra effort to succeed in their position. Instead, typically, these kinds of employees refuse to do additional work outside their job definitions.

Reports point out that just a handful of people, about 32%, are actively involved with their job roles while actively disengaged employees stand at 18%. These latter individuals are referred to as “loud quitters.” Dissatisfied employees, whose workplace requirements are not being addressed, are the ones who have been the most vociferous in TikTok postings that have received millions of views and comments.

Besides these, some individuals psychologically resign from their work owing to significant burnout and merely wait for the appropriate moment to hand in their resignation. Interestingly, these individuals do the minimum amount of work necessary to avoid termination.

Quiet Quitting is also followed by employees who want to achieve a good work-life balance, that is, stay away from those facets of the job that lead to stress and burnout. These aspects of the job include working late every day and/or constantly attending work calls at home. In this case, assisting these individuals in being happier and less stressed can increase their work output and efficiency.

Why are workers embracing the practice of “Quiet Quitting”?

Despite its increasing popularity on TikTok, in various news sources, and among theorists, quiet quitting is not a novel notion. Although some believe this is an issue with the younger generations and now it is widespread across.

Given below are some of the most common explanations that lead to Quiet Quitting:

Employees feel under-appreciated as they feel that they are not being heard.
In the absence of a healthy work-life balance, employees feel stifled at their workplace.
A hectic work environment can be psychologically damaging for some employees due to which they feel exhausted.
Employees may find some employment responsibilities overwhelming, or their tasks aren’t matched up with their abilities.
Certain employees feel that they are not being compensated fairly for the hard work they put in to complete their work.

Let’s look at the statistics

Given below are some stats indicating what factors are young professionals finding discouraging and how their job satisfaction is falling with time.

Younger employees who feel someone cares about them, encourages their progress, and gives learning and improvement opportunities have reduced by at least 10%.
The percentage of fully remote and hybrid young professionals who are strongly in agreement that someone helps their growth fell by 12 points.
Gallup reports points that there has been a fall in engagement and employer satisfaction among Gen Z and younger millennials who are under 35 years old.
From 2019 to 2022, the percentage of employee engagement under the age of 35 decreased by six percent.

Quiet Quitting – signs and indications

Signs of a quiet quitting or silent resignation can take numerous forms, depending on the motivation of employees for switching jobs. If an employee is dissatisfied, the indicators may be far more obvious than talking about the work-life balance.

Silent resignation can be identified by the following indicators.

An employee may not be interested in attending meetings
Arriving or departing late or early
A drop in productivity with time
Less participation in team initiatives
Lack of excitement or emotion when appreciated or with any form of success to the company

What does Quite Quitting convey?

Companies lose up to $1.5 trillion annually due to Quiet Quitting. Interestingly, employees’ tendency to quit silently may be beneficial or detrimental to your organization. When such scenarios become a regularity, you as a company should start thinking about ways to minimize it.

Given below are the possible scenarios wherein the employees clearly exhibit what they are expecting from you. If you can understand them at an early stage, Quiet quitting can be prevented.

Quiet Quitting may indicate a change required within an organization

Check for signs, notice their behavior, do you see any sign of repulsion? Reach out to your employees and find out whether they have been trying to discuss or if they want to. The hopeful, silent quitters realize that something must change for them to be able to manage their emotions of burnout and are optimistic that things may get better. For instance, a person may “leave” a fifty-hour work week for a forty-hour.

However, this does not imply that the individual is doing less labor. To achieve his deadlines with less time, an individual may develop strategies to be more focused and do work more effectively. It has been reported that 79% of employees may not opt for quiet quitting if they received more recognition.

The individuals who establish good work-life boundaries may spend less time at the office but may have more to give the organization than ever before. The support of their supervisor or manager can assist them in achieving the necessary balance and lessen the existential emotions associated causing burnout.

Quitting in despair

This kind of resignation indicates individuals who think there is nothing they can do to improve their working conditions.

Their feeling of burnout is mostly the result of external causes, yes, this can be formal but informal too, such as zero bonding with the team, being left out at lunch, becoming invisible in front of their managers, their point of views may not have been respected or even a casual catchup in between office hours.

Sometimes, not being considered for a completion of a certain project can reciprocate to this scenario even if they know that they don’t have an expertise for it. All that’s required is a personal communication from their manager regarding what’s happening.

In most cases, an unhealthy work environment becomes one of the most striking causes of this kind of behavior such as, managers arguing with them in front of the whole team or even burdening them with an uncalled deadline.

These kinds of behavioral responses at work can definitely give rise to quitting, leaving employees feeling as if this isn’t what they need.

How to address the problem of Quiet Quitting?

Identify and fix the problem of wage disparities in your workplace: Begin by assessing payment concerns among employees.

Nearly 70% of respondents in a poll conducted by Paychex, one of the largest payroll software companies, cited a low wage as the main reason they had left or would quit a job.

With rampant inflation, salaries have become crucial in motivating and retaining employees, particularly those in entry-level positions; thus, strive to bring salaries in line with market standards.

There may also be a situation wherein individuals may not be hesitant to do more labor, but rather that they believe the potential benefits are not worth the additional effort. To elaborate, managers may promise a raise that never materializes, or worse, they may refuse to recognize the additional work or discuss remuneration, urging staff to “live with it” or “be a team player.”

Thus, it is essential to maintain remuneration competitive with market rates and current living standards and to increase pay in response to exceptional effort or outcomes. Consider that non-monetary remuneration might take the shape of recognition and flexibility in working hours. However, if you underpay your employees, your argument for further remuneration will be less persuasive.

An increase in workload should be temporary

In an ideal world, a workforce would have consistent and predictable responsibilities. Nevertheless, a work environment can be chaotic at times, and overtime may be the need of the hour but it should be for the particular hour, not an ongoing practice.

Working continuously at or over maximum capacity is not sustainable in the long run. Employees need time off to recuperate and psychologically detach, as well as to be with their families. When this willingness is misused and a favor becomes a regular occurrence, issues develop.

Know that you are altering the memorandum of understanding if you ask employees to take on additional duties. The increase should be temporary and hopefully voluntary. If the employee must accept these new responsibilities forever, the greater burden should be accompanied by an official promotion or additional compensation. Otherwise, you’re taking away their choice and forcing them into a position that’s different from what they signed up for.

Assign a mentor for each employee and invest in their development

Businesses should take employees’ feedback seriously and put money into their development. For the same, senior management or managers can act as mentors for the employees. When employees feel guided and supported by their managers, they are more inclined to go an additional mile. And that’s where Mentoring Complete comes into the picture.

The Mentoring Complete platform can also be used to train employees on new processes and the inner workings of the business. These initiatives also contribute to the establishment of an open, embracing a culture that encourages employees to share their suggestions for increasing efficiency.

Helping your employees for the long run is all what it takes to be a great leader. Using this platform can help your organization solve one of the biggest challenges when it comes to managing your workforce. Additionally, this mentoring platform gives leaders a way to send a message to their employees that they are being heard. Since it gets next to impossible for leaders to give time to their employees as their population slowly grows, this platform helps you assign program managers who can overlook hundreds of mentoring sessions and learn about the breakage if any.

Also Read: What does a Mentoring Program Manager do?

The platform uses an AI-powered algorithm to match the workforce with the most suitable mentor. The more the percentage there comes a possibility of a match. Your employees will be the driving force for the mentoring sessions to happen as they can message their mentors and ask them about organizing a session apart from their set working timelines, or even add their own goals so that each mentoring session has some objective to look up to.

Also Read: What is Mentoring Software And How Does it Work?

A workforce that participates in a successful mentoring program has more career satisfaction, better earnings, greater productivity, and greater workplace dedication. They have improved physical health, a higher sense of self-worth, and better interpersonal ties. Hence, over 70 percent of Fortune 500 organizations offer mentorship for their employees. 25% of small and medium-sized businesses too are opting for a mentorship program. It’s about time for you!

Summing up

Help your workforce grow and develop their skills, parallelly, keeping their pay scale up to what their role’s actual demand in the market is. Giving your workforce a mentor comes next in the picture as they will be their guiding principle. It’ll keep them motivated, decrease their burden and eventually, it will reflect in their performance. Such decisions become a breakthrough for organizations like yours as mentoring sessions extend your reachability towards your employees. Now even if you have 500 people working in your organization or maybe 1000, it won’t be a fuss anymore.

This helps build a transformational relationship with your employees, and Quite Quitting? Well, that’ll eventually quit your organization for good!

Quiet Quitting – Causes and Techniques to Prevent it