Last year, the “Great Resignation” movement dominated economic news. In the second half of 2022, it looks like a “Quiet Quitting trend” is gaining momentum. Quiet quitting describes a revolt against the hustle and bustle of going beyond what a job requires. Zaid Khan, 24, an engineer from New York, popularized this trend with his viral Tiktok video in July. Quiet quitting simply means viewing your job as just a job.
The most obvious signs are as follows: not attending the meetings, not being able to meet the deadlines, arriving late to the meetings, leaving the meetings early, not providing support in the planning part, not covering for absent or unavailable colleagues, not volunteering for additional tasks, not generating new ideas, customer dissatisfaction, lack of passion or enthusiasm, not checking or replying to e-mails before 9 a.m. or after 5 p.m.
However, quiet quitting could also be a sign that an employee is dissatisfied with their position or is experiencing burnout. According to Asana’s 2022 Business Anatomy report, 7 out of 10 employees experienced burnout in the last year. Now people not only quietly resign from their positions, they also want to limit their workload.
Wage growth policies may also play a large part in why people don’t want to put everything into their careers. Employees actually earn less money due to the changing economic dynamics with the pandemic, and this causes them to question why they should work so hard.
The overall decline in employee productivity can also be caused by a feeling of being underestimated, not valued, particularly the employer’s unclear expectations, the lack of learning and growth opportunities for employees. Experts state that these reasons weaken or even break the connection of employees with the mission and purpose of the institution they work for.
Gallup finds a decline in engagement and employer satisfaction among remote Gen Z and younger millennials — those below age 35. Since the pandemic, young workers’ satisfaction with their managers, feeling cared for and having opportunities to grow, has declined significantly. This raises the question of whether the quiet quitting is a symptom of mismanagement.
Managers need to establish accountability for individual performance, team collaboration, and customer value, and employees need to see how their work contributes to the organization’s purpose. Another psychological fact is that every employee needs a corporate culture in which they belong and see themselves as a part of it.
First of all, do you think manager commitment should be considered, because according to surveys, only one out of every three managers is active and committed to their job. If that’s the case, we should address manager engagement. Only one in three managers are engaged at work. In the new hybrid environment, senior leadership needs to retrain managers to win the employees who are under 35.
Gallup finds the best habit to develop for successful managers is having one meaningful conversation per week with each team member — 15-30 minutes.
They have to make sure that the employee’s workload goals are realistic and that appropriate boundaries are set to maintain work-life balance. Talking to the employee about their career path and helping them achieve their ultimate goals with clear, functional tasks can prove to be very beneficial in the short run.
Experts draw attention to the fact that in addition to quiet quitting, quiet firing has been there for years. Employees from all age groups have been exposed to it, but especially in line with the changing dynamics after the pandemic, the employees under the age of 35 and the Z generation resist this bothering approach, and that this may be one of the reasons for the quiet quitting.
LinkedIn News has recently conducted a poll asking if quiet firing was something people experienced. Forty-eight percent of those surveyed say that they’ve seen quiet firing at work. An additional 38 percent say that “It’s real, and I’ve faced it.” Only 13 percent said the quiet firing “is not a thing.”
In fact, quiet quitting and quiet firing are based on assumptions. Managers assume that team members are not doing their jobs properly and adequately, while employees assume that their managers will notify them when they are unhappy with their work. In order to be away from assumptions, perhaps the biggest deficiency that needs to be completed is to be able to talk to each other about career prospects with courage and transparency.
