We’ve heard the term by now. Even if we don’t understand it or cannot define it, it is and has been happening. Leaving but staying. “Quiet quitting refers to a phenomenon where employees disengage from their work and workplace without overtly expressing their dissatisfaction or resigning” (Mahand and Caldwell, 2023). It is a response to workplaces that have little room for growth and improvement, where employees become disillusioned. You would recognize it as burnout, doing the bare minimum or working within your pay grade. Employees of this generation are no longer buying into the idea that they must remain loyal to the firm until retirement. They are often criticized for this. But what their critics fail to realize is that the rewards, economy, standard of living that previous generations were afforded that offset lifelong loyalty, no longer exists in the current workplace.
Quiet quitting is now loud and visible, but it has been happening for a long time as a silent epidemic in the teaching profession. It is just that back then, we called it ‘burnout out”. There’s more than enough research covering the issue as it pertains to teaching (Gabriel and Aguinis, 2022; Wu, et al., 2022 ). It is just that teachers were made to feel ashamed for reacting in a natural manner to conditions that required little to no thanks, inadequate resources and poor rewards. We’ve been complaining about it for so long with nothing being done to remedy the situation in the majority of cases because we continue to do too much with little.
I find that those who question whether quiet quitting is real are usually those out of touch with what’s going on… the managers. Those who know it's real have no need to question because they are in the process of quietly quitting or have done so —it is a matter of experience. And what managers are experiencing are the results of quiet quitting, more specifically its inevitable —the great resignation (See Part 2). They see it when it is too late. Or watch in dismay or denial as their ships sink. They are bewildered or cannot adapt to a new type of employee —one who has options. Others do not deny its existence but express incredulity at a workplace that would allow this to happen without the employee being fired. And that’s just the thing— quiet quitting is like a creeping hazard. You often don’t see it happening until it’s too late.
References
Gabriel, K. P., & Aguinis, H. (2022). How to prevent and combat employee burnout and create healthier workplaces during crises and beyond. Business Horizons, 65(2), 183-192. Mahand, T., & Caldwell, C. (2023). Quiet Quitting—Causes and Opportunities. Business and Management Researches, 12(1), 9-18. Wu, Y., Fu, Q., Akbar, S., Samad, S., Comite, U., Bucurean, M., & Badulescu, A. (2022). Reducing healthcare employees’ burnout through ethical leadership: the role of altruism and motivation. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(20), 13102.
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