Quelling Quiet Quitting: What is it and how do we reverse it?
Quitting no longer standing up in the middle of a meeting, looking your boss in the eye, and announcing “I QUIT!” Quitting now looks… exactly like working.
Quiet quitting is “resigning” in another sense of the word. Without leaving the role, an employee disengages mentally from their job and commits to doing only the very bare minimum required of them.
Though these employees are performing their duties to the letter of their contract, it have negative consequences that go beyond their own personal stagnation.
Working next to someone who has quietly quit is either frustrating or infectious. It either leaves engaged employees picking up the slack or encouraged to also mentally resign.
Before long, the culture of the department or the overall company suffers. It leaves everyone working for themselves rather then towards a common goal.
Before we discuss how to combat this, we need to understand where it comes from. Without understanding the source, we can only put bandaids on the problem.
Quiet quitting happens when employees become discouraged and disengaged from their jobs. This can be due to frustration with the lack of support and resources they’re given, the lack of work-life balance they are allowed, or a lack of career mobility.
With this in mind, managers have a unique an important opportunity and a responsibility to create an environment and provide the tools to keep employees engaged and working towards common goals.
Here are three quick ways to combat quiet quitting before it starts:
1. Provide meaningful feedback and recognition.
Recognize and appreciate employees for achievements and met goals. Real-time feedback is the most impactful, so don’t wait for quarterly development conversations to give it!
Tools like GetOLi help to give continuous feedback and coaching to employees. GetOLi enhances employee performance by providing personalized AI coaching for each employee.
2. Invest in personal development of employees.
Provide opportunities for employees to develop skills, learn something new related to their job, invest in a mentor relationship. There should be an always-on culture of training and development. Micro-learning, or the bite-sized reinforcement or introduction of skill-building information, can help fortify knowledge and encourage constant creativity.
3. Promote and encourage work-life balance.
Promoting wellness initiatives and keeping an eye out to ensure people are not working significantly more hours than expected are great ways to keep work-life balance as a priority. Not only are employees more productive and less likely to get burnt out when they feel like they can take care of their well-being, but they are more likely to contribute positively to the overall culture of an organization.
By prioritizing employee engagement and taking steps to create a conducive work environment, we can combat quiet quitting. And we can go further than that! We can create a connected, committed, and invested workforce. Engaged employees are happier and more productive and less likely to leave. This combats attrition and helps both the short-term and long-term success of companies.
