‘Quiet quitting’ – a new term for an old problem: why so many people are actively disengaged at work.

The phrase ‘quiet quitting’ has been annoying a lot of people recently. Billed as the latest work trend, it’s so new it only got its own Wikipedia page three weeks ago, having gone viral because of this Tik Tok video. The newspapers picked up on it, employers, HR bods and the like criticised it on LinkedIn, while, interestingly, lots of younger people said they were fully on board with it. But is it really something new? Or is it just a new term for something some people have always done? When we were reading about it, it reminded us of another new term that’s come into the HR lexicon this last year: the Great Resignation. Why? Because both describe the consequences of a much bigger problem: the worrying number of people who are actively disengaged at work.

Now we love a pithy term as much as anyone, but only if it accurately sums up what it’s trying to describe. But if you watch @zkchillin’s video, you’ll see he’s not saying, as a lot of people assumed, don’t do your job properly, he’s saying recognise you are more than just your work. Not quite the ‘step towards quitting on life’ one CEO called it and also not really the active disengagement that we, like a lot of other people, would think of as quietly quitting. But that’s how it’s been interpreted, perhaps because that really is a problem, for both individuals and companies, whereas setting boundaries between work and home life isn’t or, at least, shouldn’t be.     

The Great Resignation though is a new term that does accurately describe what’s been happening this last year or so. First coined to define the potential exodus of U.S. workers from their jobs post-pandemic, it’s proven to be a big problem there and a much smaller one here. There has been an increase in people leaving their jobs in the UK – possibly because it wasn’t something many people thought they could do on furlough – but what the most recent data shows is that these people haven’t just quit for a new, gentler pace of life, they’ve tended to make a sideways move within their industry. In sectors like construction, manufacturing, health and food, where there’s been a lot of movement, there were already shortages and it seems people are either being poached or they’ve chosen to move for better pay and conditions because they can.  

What’s really interesting though is that what’s prompted the Great Resignation in the U.S. isn’t so much a desire for a new role or better pay, but improved working conditions. Covid has changed what people want from their employers – flexibility or hybrid-working is expected in many sectors now and there’s a greater desire to work for organisations which give their employees a feeling of purpose. If you’ve got a bad organisational culture people will leave, it’s as simple as that (it’s actually been found to be a massive ten times more powerful than pay in predicting resignation rates).  And if you’re in a sector already suffering shortages that’s only going to make things harder. But in a weird way, that also means it’s good news for anyone working in HR, because it’s within your company’s power to improve recruitment and retention rates.

So, if you sense your staff are really ‘quietly quitting’ or leaving in greater numbers than you’d reasonably expect, you need to reshape your employee experience. If you’re not already doing it, make flexible working your priority; invest in training and upskilling and provide opportunities for lateral jobs moves. Try to find ways to make the types of jobs your staff do more fulfilling, even if it’s just removing unnecessary bureaucracy. We’ve talked about this before, but if you help your employees find something they love about their jobs, you’ll have a happier workforce.  

And one final thought on that video – I can’t help but wonder if we might all learn something from @zkchillin and the other Generation Z commenters supporting his interpretation of ‘quiet quitting.’ I’m as guilty as the next small business owner of always putting work first, of struggling to leave my laptop and phone alone, but having done that on my last holiday (into the wilds of Sweden and Norway on a raft my family and I built with our own hands!) I’ve realised just how important switching off is. There’s been no damage to my business (I did leave it in very capable hands, mind) and the only thing that’s changed is that I’ve come back happier, re-energised and, without a doubt, more productive as a result. Maybe there really is something to this boundary-setting culture after all.