By Yhordan Serpentini | September 9, 2022
What is Quiet Quitting? As a business owner, you might come across the new term “Quiet Quitting” as it has been recently trending in businesses and workplaces. “Quiet Quitting” is a behavior that has been present in the workplace for decades, and can pose as a serious or minor threat to your business and your relationship with your employees; so it is crucial to get familiar with the term, as well as understand why it is so important to your company’s success. So, what exactly does the term mean?
What is Quiet Quitting?
When hearing “Quiet Quitting” for the first time, it’s understandable that you’d instantly assume of your employees secretly quitting, or slacking off on the job. Don’t worry though, the term isn’t literal. There are actually dozens of different interpretations of what the term really means, no thanks to the infinite supply of TikTok and Twitter videos jumbling the term and tossing explanations left and right. In brutal summary, it simply means to do the bare minimum of your designated job description. Whatever you are meant to do, however, you are meant to do it, and when you are supposed to do it–all is done with minimal effort.
How Quiet Quitting Has Affected The Workplace
The pre-pandemic hustle culture that dominated the workplace industry has, as most employees put it, enforced psychological and physical detachment with employees towards their occupations. According to the U.S. statistics in the workplace amid the COVID-19 pandemic, over 50% of the U.S. workforce is made up of “quiet quitters” with plenty more steering towards that path. As of 2021, minimum wage workers and gen-z employees, ranging from age 35 and below, have progressively found dissatisfaction and disengagement with their occupations, most notably towards their relationship with their managers.
“Quiet Quitting” is encouraged among employees for a multitude of reasons. As a small business owner, it is your job to resolve and suppress these reasons from happening or spreading across your workplace. Some of the most common causes of “Quiet Quitters” are:
- Mistreatment
- Poor pay
- Unmanageable workload
- Work is worth more to the given ratio of payment
- Employee burnout
- Lack of motivation
- Lack of opportunities for growth, such as promotions
Its Impact on Start-ups
No entrepreneur, business owner, or manager wants to have employees that slack off or put the bare minimum effort into their expected labor descriptions. “Quiet Quitting” has a great impact on all businesses, as it affects the public’s view since the employees are who they interact with the most—and as a result, will represent your business. Additionally, less work being done will consequently lead to a less efficient, and sometimes even poorly managed, business. During the start-up of your small business, you’ll require the most time, dedication, effort, planning, and communication, as well as any of your employees, will be expected to put in a great amount of effort. So, imagine how devastating of an impact “Quiet Quitting” could have on start-up businesses.
Is Quiet Quitting Fixable?
Although the cause of “Quiet Quitting” may be out of your control for reasons such as personal or character-related issues of an employee, you—as the company owner—are in charge of ensuring such behavior is tamed to its absolute minimum, given that you have certain expectations for your employees beyond their designated job description. So, how do you resolve “Quiet Quitting?” You can either:
- Decrease your expectations for your employees, especially if they are beyond what was asked of them upon applying. Don’t expect your workers to do more than what the job you are hiring them for requires unless you make it clear in the description prior to applications and interviews.
- Balance salary or wage with their workload. If you are making your employees work more beyond the job description, they are expecting you to pay them more for the additional work. Increasing workload but keeping the pay the same will only result in dissatisfied employees, and increase the risk of burnout.
- Give more opportunities for employee growth. This doesn’t necessarily mean to make it easier for employees to be promoted or receive raises, but rather to give them the opportunity for such rewards if they show consistent active engagement and qualities that surpass the job description. This will encourage and motivate your workers to want to put in additional effort. If you expect and/or make your employees work with very few opportunities for growth, they will realize that more or less effort will have the same results.
- Create accountability and engagement for individual performances, any and all collaborations, or even customer satisfaction and evaluations. Addressing when your employees are adding more effort—either by thanking them, congratulating them, or rewarding them—you are building employee engagement and relationships.
- Demand reasonable and manageable workloads for your employees. Acknowledge when the workload becomes too much. This will help reduce burnout for your employees, as well as let them know that you are aware of when the workload becomes overwhelming and overbearing to handle.
Sources:
- Harter, Jim. “Is Quiet Quitting Real?” Gallup.com, Gallup, 7 Sept. 2022, https://www.gallup.com/workplace/398306/quiet-quitting-real.aspx
- Humphreys, Sarah. “Quiet Quitting – How Is It Impacting Startups?” Startups.com, 2 Sept. 2022, https://www.startups.com/library/expert-advice/quiet-quitting-and-startups
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