Since the beginning of the pandemic, the phrase “quiet quitting” has been brought into popular media. According to a Gallup poll, nearly “50%” of the workforce includes so-called “quiet quitters.” A quiet quitter is someone who completes their job duties and follows their job description, but does not actively engage to receive additional work beyond their allotted tasks.
Here’s the thing I want to address: quitting is not always quiet. It can be silencing. Demoralizing. Confusing. The process can be anxiety producing, and the need to get your proverbial and professional “ducks in a row” a task in itself. Putting together candidate materials, interviewing, reference checks, and officially resigning—it’s all an intensive process that is cumbersome at best. For others, it can be loud. Resonant. Empowering. It can be a clarification of values. A move toward a more holistic and integrated life.
But at the heart of it, quiet quitting is an act of self-preservation and resistance. It’s a mindful, intentional practice that centers wellness. Not everyone has the privilege of quiet quitting, as racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, classism, and other forms of oppression can magnify the actions of employees with marginalized identities. There are multiple intersections of experiences, circumstances, and historically relevant rationale as to the reasons that employees may begin to disengage.
What Are Some Things to Keep in Mind for Professionals Who Are Navigating Quiet Quitting?
- Assess: Is the job getting done? If so, great! If not, clarify expectations with employees and make sure they’re reasonable for you to be holding.
- Compensate: If you are asking employees to do more work, make sure they are compensated in a reasonable form. Whether bonuses, time off, professional development, or other perks, compensation is the core of people starting to dis- or re-engage.
- Environmental scan: Engage in a scanning work to make sure policies, practices, and position descriptions are in alignment. This will identify if there are any opportunities for capacity building, restructuring, or if any positions should be added to ensure the additional work should be redistributed. There are also ways to identify if workload is appropriate for employees—and if there are roadmaps to advancement within the organization.
- Ongoing feedback: Are there confidential and direct ways that employees can provide feedback regarding engagement, climate, and their ongoing needs? Identify anonymous feedback within your structure so you can continue to identify quality improvement and to better your organizational functions.
- Incorporate wellness into your work: Are employees provided with an adequate health plan? Have you considered adding a health stipend to aid with services such as gym memberships, therapy, or non-Western medical treatments (such as acupuncture, cupping, massage, etc.)? Consider breaks at work, ideation time, and administrative days to help with balancing all the elements that life provides.
- Professional development: Professional development can help employees feel more in tune with their practice and growth. Quiet quitting is also a feedback loop often connected with power dynamics, marginalization, and experiencing a lack of organizational care. Consider reading texts like Rest Is Resistance by Tricia Hersey and engaging in power, privilege, and other diversity/equity/inclusion work to help foster a sense of care and belonging in your workplace. This also can help organizations identify ways to help employees prepare for their next professional role.
- Lastly, acknowledge that quiet quitting is happening: It’s not a bad thing, to be honest. Quiet quitting is a reinforcement of boundaries and clarity of expectations. If there aren’t performance issues, but the organizational morale is waning, then it’s time to get back to the basics. Do you need to lighten workloads? Make processes more streamlined? Try something innovative that an employee has been interested in implementing? Getting a coffee maker or providing a work lunch a couple times a month? Ask your employees what they need, want, and prefer. And if possible, implement them.
Is Quiet Quitting Bad?
Is quiet quitting a bad thing? Not necessarily. The concept of quiet quitting challenges meritocracy within organizations—and additional labor without compensation is not beneficial to retaining employees, especially during the great resignation. Some of the quieter quitters are finding fulfillment outside of work (a millennial mindset), whereas others are still engaged and recognizing the impact of clarified work expectations: do what you can within your role and capacity—nothing more or less, especially if there isn’t opportunity for growth or promotion. In fact, we can replace quiet quitting with “doing your job.” Simple as that.
In solidarity,
hc lou (she/her/hers)
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