Quiet quitting isn’t so quiet anymore.
Quiet quitters are employees who do the minimum required work and are psychologically detached from their jobs, according to Gallup, a workplace consulting and research agency. Those employees make up a majority of the current workforce.
A 2022 Gallup poll found that quiet quitters make up at least 50% of the United States workforce, while engaged workers – those who are involved in and enthusiastic about their work – make up 32% of the workforce. Actively disengaged workers, employees who have their workplace needs unmet and spread their dissatisfaction, comprise the last 18%.
The concept has gained traction online worldwide, as content creators discuss the movement. A TikTok video by Zaid Lepplin (@zaidlepplin) about quiet quitting went viral in July 2022 and has since logged more than 3.5 million views.
Hunter Kaimi (@hunterkaimi) gave his take on the topic in a TikTok video that has logged more than 1.3 million views.
“We are working at jobs where they don’t care about us as people,” Kaimi said. “I’m not going to work a 60-hour workweek for a job that does not care about me as a person.”
The idea of quiet quitting reflects employees “not willing to do extra work without extra compensation,” said Mark Rubinfeld, professor and co-chair for the Department of Sociology at Westminster College.
Companies are asking more of their employees today than in the past, Rubinfeld said, as the digital world does not adhere to their scheduled workplace hours. Work now follows employees on evenings, weekends and holidays.
“The employee is now saying, ‘I’m not going to give you less than my all, but I’m going to give you my all that you hired me to do.’ They are cutting back on all the extras that have been added to the equation,” Rubinfeld said.
Management is asking themselves if there is anything they can do to prevent quiet quitting, said investigative reporter Craig Harris in an August opinion piece for USA Today.
“The question management needs to ask is, ‘what is it that motivates your workforce?’ If they don’t ask this question, it will ultimately affect the [company’s] bottom line,” Harris said.
Candice Edie, who has worked in management for years and now is a staffing agency branch manager, said culture and effective management are key in fostering a healthy, happy and productive work environment for employees.
“This falls back on management,” Edie said. “Management can cultivate culture and empathy to the employee. We [as] leaders need to be a lot more engaged with employees.”
Rubinfeld said that much of job dissatisfaction comes from management not communicating with their staff.
“Some of this is management not getting to know their employees,” he said. “There used to be a lot more lines of communication and more shared governance.”
With more communication, Rubinfeld said, solutions to provide a better work environment can be found.
