Workers who are uncertain and uneasy over a range of concerns, from the economic outlook to job-replacing technology, are increasingly pessimistic about their career prospects. Many react by “quiet quitting’’—doing the minimum required by their jobs, disengaged, and unwilling to put in more than the lowest acceptable level of effort.
The good news is that there are practical steps leaders can take to prevent quiet quitting, or at least recognize it and react effectively. Addressing quiet quitting is vital to maintaining productivity, retaining talent, and generating creative new ideas.
This blog post will cover the causes and signs of quiet quitting and strategies to prevent or deal with it effectively. By being aware and proactive, managers can improve employee engagement and help foster a culture of high performance.
What is Quiet Quitting?
According to HR software provider Personio, “The term ‘quiet quitting’ describes employees who are fulfilling their job requirements but not taking the initiative, working overtime, or volunteering for extra projects or responsibilities.
“Quiet quitting is when employees put in the minimum amount of effort to keep their jobs, but don’t go the extra mile at work. This might mean not speaking up in meetings, not volunteering for tasks, refusing to work overtime,” as well as missing work time.
Per payroll outsourcer Paychex, “Quiet quitting is defined as a disengaged employee doing the bare minimum, eventually leading to their departure. Despite their dissatisfaction, quiet quitters keep collecting a paycheck until they finally leave or are terminated.”
The effects are insidious. As one employee “quiet quits,” their teammates are left to pick up the slack, leading to frustration and resentment. Team dynamics begin to fray; there is less team collaboration and potentially less individual engagement. The decline in productivity on one team can spread to other parts of the organization.
Quiet quitting is distinct from other forms of disengagement and low performance, such as complacency in the workplace (when workers just “go through the motions” of performing their jobs without focus or active engagement, which can lead to quality and safety problems) or more general workplace unhappiness, where workers feel disconnected from their company’s mission and are likely to leave.
Quiet quitting often goes unnoticed because it’s not as overt as actual quitting, complaining, or other visible signs of dissatisfaction. If an employee meets minimum expectations and avoids significant performance issues, their disengagement might not be flagged. In this case, it can easily be misconstrued as average performance.
Root Causes of Quiet Quitting
According to research from LinkedIn, one significant cause of quiet quitting is reduced career confidence, which has reached a new low. Per their reporting:
“American workers are feeling more and more pessimistic about their career prospects, according to LinkedIn’s latest Workforce Confidence survey. Workers’ confidence in their ability to progress in their careers over the next year has fallen by 5 points since the start of the year (from +29 to +24, on a scale from -100 to +100). That’s the lowest level since the survey began in 2020.
“At the height of pandemic-driven workplace shutdowns in 2020, the average career confidence score” was +28. That figure rose steadily, “peaking at +36 in early 2023. Now, career confidence is +24.”
Other factors leading to quiet quitting include burnout, lack of recognition, or bad leadership. When their managers are poorly organized, lack empathy, are unwilling or unable to set clear expectations, or try to lead through fear, employees are more likely to check out emotionally.
It’s counterproductive when a single manager loses the trust of their team, but even worse when it’s a cultural problem within the organization. Companies that fail to invest in leadership training risk creating a culture of ineffective leadership and a lack of trust.
On the other hand, enterprises where top executives model strong leadership qualities and help first-level managers transition from individual contributors to leaders of people mitigate the risks of quiet quitting.
Remote work doesn’t cause quiet quitting but can make it easier for disengaged employees. That’s one reason many organizations plan to implement return-to-office (RTO) policies in the coming year. For organizations that will maintain remote work structures, training on leading virtual teams can help managers build and sustain a high-performing remote team.
Key Signs of Quiet Quitting
The best approach to the problem is to prevent quiet quitting actively through engaged leadership and regular one-on-one coaching and feedback sessions. Nevertheless, the signs of quiet quitting can appear in even the best-run organizations.
Leaders need to understand why there is so much workplace unhappiness so they can take steps to address it. Here are six common signs of quiet quitting to watch for.
Decline in Productivity
A noticeable drop in the output or quality of work can indicate disengagement and may be a sign of quiet quitting. This may show up in manufacturing or logistics environments as reduced throughput or increased mistakes. In services, it may manifest as slower response time, missed deadlines, or even (worst of all) customer complaints.
Disengagement in Meetings
Employees who are quiet quitting will often fail to offer new ideas or suggestions in meetings or participate at any level beyond the most basic communication required. They may appear distracted or look at their phones during team meetings.
Withdrawal from Social Interaction
When workers begin interacting less with colleagues, skipping employee social events, and avoiding casual conversations, that can be a red flag for quiet quitting. Watch for changes in how employees interact with their coworkers, seeming less interested in building or maintaining workplace relationships.
Increased Absenteeism
Frequent unexplained absences or increased use of sick leave / PTO time might signal disengagement. While there can certainly be other explanations, managers need to address these potential signs of quiet quitting with a balance of empathy and firmness (excessive unexplained absences are often cause for termination).
Lack of Initiative
Employees who stop volunteering for new projects or challenging tasks may be quietly quitting. Again, doing the minimum required and showing little interest in suggesting new ideas or participating in new initiatives is a common sign of disengagement.
Minimal Effort in Communication
A reduction in proactive communication and delayed responses to emails or messages can be yet another sign of quiet quitting. Disengaged employees feel little sense of urgency to respond to requests or questions promptly or in any greater detail than is absolutely required.
How to Prevent Quiet Quitting Effectively
Leaders can deploy several strategies and tactics to prevent quiet quitting or address it once it’s been identified. Again, this lack of initiative or extra effort can impact the morale and productivity of the whole team, so it’s imperative to be prepared to deal with it promptly.
Regular one-on-one coaching and communication using active listening skills are essential to get to the root of the problem. In some cases, motivation and commitment can be restored by offering the employee training to learn a new skill. For situations where the immediate supervisor is the cause of the employee’s issues, it’s essential to have alternative communication channels in place through HR or senior management.
Proven Strategies to Prevent Quiet Quitting
The adage that “the best offense is a good defense” has been applied to many fields of endeavor, from sports to military combat to investing. It applies here, too, as the best way to deal with quiet quitting is to prevent it in the first place.
If an employee is showing signs of quiet quitting, you’ll need to deal with that one-on-one. But here are eight proactive strategies that can effectively maintain employee engagement.
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Foster a Positive Work Environment
Encourage practices that create a supportive and inclusive workplace culture, such as mentorship programs, inclusive decision-making, cultural celebrations, and encouraging collaborative work. Open, transparent communication is vital for building trust between managers and employees.
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Provide Clear Career Pathways
Creating and communicating clear and achievable career progression opportunities incentivizes employee performance and helps executive management “build a bench” for succession planning. These can be expressed through HR policies on the corporate intranet, email, one-to-one manager coaching, and employee feedback sessions.
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Implement Regular Check-Ins
Speaking of those one-to-one sessions, regular meetings with individual employees are crucial for managers to help achieve department goals and develop employee skills. Emphasize the importance of frequent one-on-one meetings between managers and employees. Topics and questions typically include:
- reviewing progress on individual goals and team objectives;
- addressing professional development goals and opportunities;
- assuring that employees have the resources they need to be successful; and
- discussing any employee concerns or issues.
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Encourage Professional Development
Providing employees with opportunities for skills development and professional growth is a triple win: the organization gets greater capabilities from its workers, the employees gain valuable knowledge, and employee engagement is enhanced because they see the company investing in them.
There are many ways for enterprises to support continuous learning within the organization through professional development training programs such as:
Igniting Team Performance®: teams progress through a series of progressively more difficult challenges aligned with your group’s goals, then debrief at the end of each stage to turn lessons into action.
Competition to Collaboration®: two teams compete on various challenges, then face an interesting “twist” halfway through the program.
Conflict Resolution Training: workplace disagreements are normal. This program teaches participants proven methods for managing issues and handling disputes respectfully and professionally.
Meeting Management: anyone who plans and leads meetings will benefit from this training on how to create an agenda, prepare for the meeting, manage group dynamics, maximize the group’s energy, and close meetings on a positive note.
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Manage Workloads Appropriately
Assessing and balancing workloads to prevent burnout and ensure employees feel their workloads are fair and manageable can be challenging in a professional office setting where projects are unique. Still, managers can do their best to optimize productivity while enabling employees to balance work and home life through tactics such as:
- Conducting regular weekly check-ins supplemented by periodic employee surveys;
- Defining clear goals and responsibilities;
- Using project management software to track assignments, deadlines, and progress;
- Providing adequate resources such as productivity software that can automate certain tasks;
- Reallocating work when an employee is overburdened or out for an extended period; and
- Prioritizing projects and tasks so employees can focus on activities with fixed deadlines (such as preparing for an all-company meeting or industry trade show).
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Enhance Workplace Culture and Employee Loyalty with Team Building
Maintaining a regular cadence of professional corporate team building events is highly effective at preventing and combating quiet quitting. Team building exercises strengthen employee relationships and collaboration by enhancing collaboration, communication, and problem-solving skills in a fun, stress-free activity.
Team building programs help keep workers actively engaged (the opposite of quiet quitting!), and contribute to employee retention by creating an open and positive work environment.
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Offer Recognition and Rewards
In high-performing organizations, employees are regularly recognized and rewarded for their contributions. Acknowledging employee achievements significantly impacts morale and engagement. Depending upon the contribution’s impact, the recognition may be formal (e.g., presented by senior management at an all-employee gathering, with some sort of plaque or another token of acknowledgment) or informal (e.g., recognition by the manager at a team lunch).
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Promote Work-Life Balance
Encouraging and enabling employees to maintain a healthy work-life balance helps them stay mentally sharp and physically fit. That, in turn, makes them more likely to be engaged at work, more creative, and more collaborative. As Mental Health America notes, “When workers are balanced and happy, they are more productive, take fewer sick days, and are more likely to stay in their jobs.”
Managers can support employers in maintaining this balance by managing workloads appropriately (see above), providing the flexibility to work remotely at least part-time (if possible), encouraging (and providing a comfortable space for) breaks throughout the workday, and fostering open communication.
The Impact of Quiet Quitting on Your Organization
As noted earlier, quiet quitting has corrosive effects on team dynamics and productivity because it affects everyone. In the short term, project deadlines may be delayed, or other workers may have to spend extra time “picking up the slack” when even one employee quietly quits. In the long term, this can potentially lead to team conflict, reduced collaboration, and burnout.
Quiet quitting can lead to higher turnover, and, correspondingly, higher costs for an organization. According to Gallup, “The cost of replacing an individual employee can range from one-half to two times the employee’s annual salary,” based on expenses for hiring and training plus the impact of lost productivity.
As the effects of quiet quitting spread, they can hurt workplace culture and morale. As disengagement leads to lower morale, it can impose significant costs in the form of lower productivity, innovation, and talent retention.
Preventing Quiet Quitting in Your Workplace
Quiet quitting is costly for businesses and damaging to employee morale. Employees are more likely to become disengaged when facing job uncertainty, burnout, or lack of recognition.
However, the biggest underlying cause is poor leadership. Companies can improve their leadership to prevent quiet quitting and improve organizational performance by investing in leadership training at all levels, from first-time managers to those aspiring to roles in the C-suite.
In addition to improving leadership, promoting work-life balance, and recognizing employee achievements, enterprises can enhance their workplace culture and employee loyalty with regular team building activities. Programs that promote fun competition and bonding can reignite excitement and team spirit at work.
To learn more about professional development, training, and team building programs that can help increase employee engagement and prevent quiet quitting, explore the Best Corporate Events site. When you’re ready, contact us for a consultation on customized leadership and team-building solutions.
