Quiet quitting: why its happening, its impact on companies and employees

While some acknowledge the need to strike a healthy work-life balance through quiet quitting, others consider it to be lazy, disloyal and potentially indicative of an overall downward spiral. As Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post, wrote in a viral LinkedIn post, “quiet quitting isn’t just about quitting on a job, it’s a step towards quitting on life.”

Quiet quitters may have legitimate concerns driving their actions, but according to most workplace experts, although doing less may be tempting in the short-run, in the long term, doing so could harm one’s career and adversely impact company productivity.

Quiet quitting: Why is it happening?

Ranjay Gulati of Harvard Business School argued that the quiet quit should instead be characterised as a “great rethink” in which people evaluate their lives and workplace options.

And, some believe the need for such an evaluation was a long time coming.

After nearly two years of remote or hybrid work, as with the great resignation, work culture has fundamentally changed — for better or for worse.

The pandemic introduced a slate of challenges that both increased what is demanded of employees, and allowed them to reimagine what alternative work systems could look like.

Remote work has fuelled the quiet quitting movement in several ways. For one, it has increased the number of hours employees spend working, thus contributing to increased levels of burnout. According to The New York Times, by April 2020, Americans working from home spent almost three more hours on the job each day, replacing commuting with Zoom meetings and Slack messages.

According to a report by Denver University, employees are further burdened by working from home because although some activities become more convenient, work also becomes potentially all-consuming.

Secondly, while employees have shown varying levels of productivity for decades, consulting firm Korn Ferry argues that remote work has allowed these employees to slack off unnoticed.

Additionally, for some, remote work has introduced novel concepts such as Fridays off, digital meetings, and flexible work hours. After experiencing the benefits of such arrangements, workers may be reluctant to go back to the old way of doing things. Now that many companies are asking their employees to return to the workplace, those employees may react to the lost freedoms by disengaging from their professional responsibilities.

The challenges of the pandemic have also contributed to dissatisfaction among employees who believe their managers have little concern for employee welfare. Only 24 per cent of Americans thought their managers had their best interests at heart, according to a Gallup poll released in March 2022.

Ed Zitron, the CEO of public relations firm EZPR, also argues that in addition to burnout and general dissatisfaction, employees are increasingly disillusioned with the concept of meritocracy. He writes that “working hard does not mean you’ll go far, and going above and beyond rarely, if ever, nets anything other than free work for an uncaring boss.”

So, who are the employees quiet quitting?

Boomers and Gen-X executives have a completely different approach to work than younger generations, according to Deloitte’s 2022 Global Gen Z and Millennial Survey. While older workers tend to favour the ‘rise and grind’ mentality, younger workers are more concerned with a balanced lifestyle and are motivated primarily by finances.

While a survey by ResumeBuilder.com found that 25 per cent of employees across all age groups said they are doing the bare minimum at work, amongst millennials the number increases to 30 per cent. In comparison, only 8 per cent of workers above the age of 54 reported decreased productivity levels.

However, while younger employees are more likely to be quiet quitters (and infinitely more likely to advertise that fact online,) dissatisfaction is prevalent across the workforce. According to the 2022 Wellness at Work study by Employment Hero, 53 per cent of employees say they feel burnt out from work and 52 per cent rate their work-life balance as poor.

Does quiet quitting have an impact on companies?

Employees acting on their dissatisfaction by being disengaged at work cost the global economy $7.8 trillion in lost productivity according to this year’s Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report.

With worries of an impending economic slowdown swirling, productivity levels are a serious concern for employers. In the second quarter of this year, US nonfarm worker productivity fell by 2.5 per cent relative to the same period last year. This represents its steepest annual drop since 1948 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In response to declining overall productivity, companies like Google are signaling that layoffs are imminent. These layoffs are detrimental to both workers and employers with the cost of laying off one employee being equal to 200 per cent of the employee’s salary.

And, the impact on employees?

Slacking off at work can cause rifts between employees as some are left to compensate for others. This in turn fuels a toxic workplace culture that could further exacerbate employee dissatisfaction.

Additionally, according to organisational psychologist Ben Granger, staying in a miserable job and putting in the bare minimum could mean giving up the prospect of moving to a better, more fulfilling job.

Most concerning for quiet quitters, however, is the prospect of being fired. While the great resignation led to there being more jobs relative to experienced workers, a looming recession has changed the calculus in employers’ favour.

A new survey by consulting firm PwC found that half of respondents in the US were planning to reduce their headcount including bemouths like Apple, Peloton and Walmart. In turn, a July report from Joblist found that 60 per cent of job seekers feel more urgency to find a job now before economic conditions deteriorate.

This means that employers have an upper hand over workers and in this climate, quiet quitters, or those doing the bare minimum, could be the first to go.

For minorities, the threat is even more severe. According to HR Queen, an HR platform for minorities on TikTok with over 4.5 million followers, groups of workers who have historically faced hurdles to advancement, like women and people of colour, are at greater risk of termination. For them, the account warns, quiet quitting could have disastrous consequences, both in terms of losing their current jobs, and finding new ones.

In terms of the latter, quiet quitters are also risking their future prospects. With HR services being outsourced and digitalised, underperforming employees could develop a negative reputation that will follow them for the rest of their career.

Quiet quitting may prove to be a short-lived internet sensation but it stems from real challenges that employees face every day. In order to ensure the best outcome for everyone involved, all parties should consider Gulati’s approach to rethinking work culture, both by accepting that there is a problem, and by committing to fix it instead of abandoning it altogether.