Quiet Quitting: Threat or Opportunity?
What is Quiet Quitting?
“Quiet quitting” is an emerging post-pandemic trend among workers. It describes employees who are no longer doing more than what is required at their job and have stopped allowing ‘hustle culture’ to define their self-worth. Instead of always going above and beyond to get ahead in their career, quiet quitters have opted to seek a greater balance between work and personal life.
Why the Trend towards Quiet Quitting?
Recently Deloitte found that up to 40% of workers have moved towards quiet quitting while staying in their job. There are a number of things contributing to this trend, such as:
increasingly blurred lines between work and personal time;
no longer believing that hustling at work will produce career advancement;
the pandemic reignited an awareness of values and things that are important to us;
people looking for new ways to find fulfillment.
The workforce today increasingly values their ability to develop and grow in their roles and knowledge.
What is the Opportunity?
A lot of the discussion has been about the obvious concerns about how “quiet quitting” may contribute to declining engagement, culture, and customer experience. But business leaders also have a tremendous opportunity to turn this trend into a positive impact, by building new paths to create meaning and encourage development with employees.
Manager Involvement – Leaders need to draw a clear connection between work being done, how it contributes to the company’s value it creates in the world. A survey by PwC suggests we need to help employees remember ‘WHY’ their work has meaning.
Learning and Development Opportunities – Upskilling, reskilling, employees are demanding both professional and personal development as a way to find purpose.
Online e-learning courses are a simple way to help employees find more rewards and meaning in their work environment. Both assigned training as well as voluntary courses are on the rise.
To drive adoption and effectiveness, use a system that is easy for employees to find & get what they need, and can be consumed anytime, anywhere, and on any device to meet employees where they are at.
Quiet Quitting must be viewed as a moment of change, with potential risks to manage but also opportunities to evolve and grow the business.
Combining the two approaches above creates a positive framework for developing great outcomes for our people and our organizations. By cultivating flexible mindsets and nimble changes in actions, Quiet Quitting can be an important pivot point to restructure our world of work.
