Quiet quitting is an application of work-to-rule in which employees work within defined work hours and only engage in work-related activities doing the bare minimum within those hours, even though it is not linked to quitting a job explicitly. Often people are quietly quitting without even realising it. What originally started out as a quiet movement in the workplace among workers has now escalated after 2 years of the covid-19 pandemic. Now more than ever the notion of quiet quitting is on the increase and businesses are battling this every day.
For example, it’s the end of the day and you only have an hour left to go, you have done everything you need to do, answered all your emails and attended your meetings. Do you go the extra mile to get ahead of your workload and complete additional tasks or do you stop working and get away with doing the absolute bare minimum? You may notice this within certain individuals in your team and in this article, we are going to be touching on how you can motivate and support your co-workers’ colleagues when they are starting to feel disengaged and unmotivated.
What is Quiet Quitting?
In recent months, trends have shown that quiet quitting is on the rise within business nationwide. Workers across the country are being spread thinly across long working hours, low wages and the rise in the cost of living. There has been a significant increase in employees quietly quitting as a result of lack of motivation, higher expectations and change in mindset.
The good thing is we’re here to tell you that your business is not alone, and that we are all facing this shift together. The quiet quitting trend suggests that employees are increasingly concerned that this exchange has become unbalanced: Employers are demanding. Whether you are a manager trying to motivate a team member or you’re an employee who feels disengaged and detached from your job. Park City Consulting is here to provide you with some top tips to turn this around.
Why are people quiet quitting?
Some see quiet quitting as a generational downfall, others see it as a natural progression to moving onto the next stage in your career. This highly controversial topic has arisen in recent HR trends on the backend of the pandemic. Since March 2020, our lives have shifted in ways we never thought we possible. Work culture has faced one of the biggest challenges since the pandemic, people have adoapted the mindset of having a healthy work life balance and in return this has begun to reshape work culture and environment.
Quiet quitters believe they do not need to go above and beyond for their employer as it isn’t in their job description, and it isn’t what they are technically paid to do. In this post pandemic world, people have got a taste of hybrid working and a healthy work-life balance, prioritising their mental health, something which they didn’t have before. Now they have had a taste of this, expectations have changed, and work cultures are shifting now more than they’ve ever done before.
How is quiet quitting affecting businesses?
Now we have established the rise in quiet quitting across the country, we want to address the impact this is having on businesses and what you can do to prevent this influencing your co-workers and company culture. As a business owner, leader or manager you may have recently noticed the lack of employee engagement, dissatisfaction, low morale and most importantly – burnout within your team. If this is happening within your business, this strongly indicates that your staff are beginning to step back and disengage from their role.
Having an engaged workforce includes several different factors such as motivation, fulfilment, rewards and enthusiasm of the company’s vision and successes. An employee who is quietly quitting may have some of the elements listed above missing from their role. Have you thought about having a meaningful conversation with your employees to understand how they’re truly feeling at work?
How to identify quiet quitting?
The main cause of quiet quitting ultimately comes from employees feeling overworked, underpaid and underappreciated. Here are some signs to look out for in a quiet quitter:
- Disengagement in meetings
- Isolation from members in the team
- Underperformance and lack of enthusiasm
- Completing the bare minimum work
- Lack of motivation to do work
- Withdrawal from discussions and open conversations
- Poor teamwork
- Although they are physically there, their heart isn’t in it
What is the backlash of quiet quitting?
A similar practice to quiet quitting, quiet firing involves a manager creating a hostile environment in which an employee is forced to resign. You will find this is a symptom of poor management which forces high employee turnover and low retention. This phrase came directly from the phrase quiet quitting as it was a trend which began to rise in the HR industry. Here are some examples of quiet firing:
- Your manager doesn’t acknowledge your successes
- You aren’t being taken into consideration for rises and promotions
- You’re performing really well, yet your performance reviews are negative and don’t reflect on your day-to-day performance
- You’ve had responsibilities gradually stripped from your role without reason or discussion
- You’re given small and tedious tasks to do which don’t challenge your capabilities
- No flexibility around your role for hybrid/remote working when others can
How to promote a positive work culture?
A work culture is a shared set of believes and values which steers your organisation through the delivery of your services and is reflected in the way you treat your employees and clients. Ensuring that your businesses culture is a happy and positive one to be a part of is a significant factor in the success of any business.
First things first, establish your core values and beliefs, this needs to be at the centre of your culture and embedded within your business. From here you need to make the time to deliver your values to your team, so they have a holistic view of the business and your expectations of them. Once you have put together a list of values, take time to really think about the kind of culture you want to create within your company. We suggest considering the layout of your office, internal communications and the time employees spend interacting with each other, whether it is in meetings, emails, or over the phone, from culture, leadership and management skills within the organisation.
Quiet quitting comes down to poor management, lack of fulfilment and accountability, burnout and boredom. When an employee enjoys their role, you will see their productivity, passion and sense of purpose shines through the work they do. These employees are the people who go above and beyond for the sake of the business, instead of doing the bare minimum.
If you have noticed a shift in your workforce, Park City Consulting is here to support you through these changes. We are experienced professionals with extensive knowledge in HR, employee relations, people & culture, helping businesses across the country to deal with the uproar of quiet quitting. For more information, contact Park City Consulting today.
