As an employer what scares you the most? Turnover intention? Employees leaving? Sure, but there is one more thing that should scare you the most, it is when your employees do not quit physically but mentally! This is the single most important thing that would be enough to bring your organization to shambles if not taken care of. This is known as quiet quitting. When employees lose any interest in working for you but are still continuing to work at your organization, bring you nothing, and only damage your organization due to several factors.
Is Quiet Quitting A Real Thing?
Quiet quitting is not something that everyone is aware of and they may ask, ‘Is quiet quitting real?’ Then you must be surprised to hear that quiet quitting is, in fact, very real, and no matter how much you deny it, its significance cannot be ignored.
Since quiet quitting is a rather uncommon idea, we will spend some time discussing what it is, what are the signs of quiet quitting, what are the impacts, and how can it be prevented.
What is Quiet Quitting
Quiet quitting is when employees lose interest, motivation, and willingness to do their tasks and stop working actively toward the organizational goals.
As we have already defined what it is, it is also important to note that it is worse than the real thing: quitting! Now, why would we say that? It’s fairly easy to explain that when employees are not satisfied with their jobs they simply quit in search of better opportunities. But when employees quiet quit, they don’t actually leave, yet, they don’t work up to their maximum capacity, and then become a burden on the employer instead.
There may be several signs that indicate quiet quitting by the employees of an organization and many reasons as to why they do so.
Signs of Quiet Quitting
1. Lack of Proactivity
Employees when stop taking initiative and coming up with innovative ideas, it means they have mentally disengaged themselves from the job. They may continue doing the assigned tasks but will not be interested in investing time and energy into something new.
2. Reduced Productivity
Employees’ productivity levels drop significantly when they are not interested in the job anymore. You may notice their poor performance from the frequency and number of completed tasks and feedback from the supervisors.
3. Fall in Quality
When the completed tasks are not up to the mark and show a sign of little to no interest in the given responsibilities, it becomes one of the signs of quiet quitting. There might be mistakes in their work, showing that the quality of their work is not their priority anymore.
4. Indifference toward the Workplace
When employees are disengaged from work, they are no longer interested in showing up for work meetings or have little to no interest in fulfilling the organizational goals.
5. Less to No Effort
Employees start putting less effort into tasks assigned to them and may not want to take any additional responsibility or go out of the way to benefit the employer. This is also a sign of quiet quitting.
6. Display of Negativity/Annoyance
One of the major signs of quiet quitting is when employees start badmouthing their employer and show annoyance toward the workplace and the environment, practices, and policies followed by the employer.
7. Absenteeism
Employees who start taking frequent days off also show a sign of quiet quitting and disengagement from work.
8. Laziness/ Laidback Attitude
Laziness and a laidback attitude are other signs of quiet quitting that employees often exhibit when they are no longer interested in their jobs.
9. Little to no Interest in Professional Development
Another major and one of the important signs of quiet quitting is when employees stop appearing for professional development sessions organized by their employers.
10. Loss of Interest in Recreational Activities 
Employees losing interest in the fun parts of the job is also alarming as it shows that they have removed their association with the employer.
If you happen to notice any or all of these signs in your employees then it’s time to try and find the reason for that.
Reasons For Quiet Quitting
1. Lack of Job Security
When employees fear losing their jobs any second, due to any reason, they may mentally disassociate from their work.
2. No Job Satisfaction
Losing the sense of satisfaction from the work one is doing if the work is unfulfilling, boring, or simply repetitive, can also lead to this phenomenon of quiet quitting.
3. Less or No Chances of Growth
When employees keep working at one point in their careers and see no growth or opportunities for promotion in the future, this naturally causes them to disengage themselves from an organization that doesn’t even care about them.
4. Poor Workplace Environment
When you see signs of quiet quitting, observe the workplace culture and you will probably find the reason why employees are not interested in working efficiently anymore. Toxic workplaces, where there is favoritism, stereotyping, racism, or discrimination against employees for any reason, fail to retain their employees and many might quiet quit a long time prior to them actually resigning.
5. Mismanagement/Lack of Caring Leadership
When the employer shows no signs of care for the employees who are working for them day and night, the employees also stop caring for the organization. If you still have the same question ‘Is quiet quitting real?’ then this is one of the reasons why it happens most often.
6. Undefined Responsibilities
If job responsibilities are not clearly defined and employees are working on so many things and none of them seem to fit the actual role they have in the organization, they might want to stop putting their heart and soul into work.
7. No Work-Life Balance
The amount of work exceeding the limits and causing an imbalance in the work and life of the employees is another major reason for quiet quitting.
8. Lack Of Resources
When employees are working in poor conditions with little to no resources from the employer and the expectation of producing extraordinary results is worrying them, they end up disengaging from work.
9. Employers’ Ignorance
If employees don’t feel heard and seen by their leaders, they may feel unwanted and un-welcomed. Such a feeling will cause them to not care about their work either. If you are still wondering ‘Is quiet quitting real?’ This is the answer to that; quiet quitting is real and way more common than we would like to think.
10. Personal Challenges 
Employees may feel a lack of interest and motivation toward their responsibilities due to their personal problems as well.
Why Employees Don’t Really Quit
There must be several reasons why employees don’t immediately leave an organization even after quiet quitting.
- Familial Pressure
If employees’ families cannot let them lose their jobs, this might force them to keep working even after quiet quitting.
2. Financial Restraints
Due to rising inflation, many employees stay in their jobs and keep working for financial stability despite quiet quitting.
3. No Better Job Opportunities
If an employee fails to find other good opportunities that becomes another reason why they are forced to continue working at a workplace they no longer connect with.
4. Reluctance to Change
Many people have a fear of changing their environment and workplaces due to high levels of anxiety and they become comfortable with doing the bare minimum at their current workplaces. This is another reason why they choose to continue working in the organization they have disengaged from.
5. Self-Doubt & Insecurity
Due to a lack of appreciation and encouragement from the employer, many employees their confidence in their abilities and skills and do not feel they are capable enough to secure other better jobs.
How to Prevent Quiet Quitting
If you are genuinely concerned about your employees and feel that there is something you should do to prevent them from feeling burnt out and less motivated, and you don’t know where to start, the following 5 things can be your point to start.
- Implementation of Care Leadership
Start by implementing caring leadership in your organization and have the leaders think about ways in which employees can be understood and facilitated where they need it. Everything that comes after this, is only possible if caring leadership is being practiced by the employers.
2. Appreciation & Encouragement
Start appreciating your employees’ efforts and see them wanting to do more good work to meet the organizational goals. Small acts of encouragement: fun activities, excursions, employee of the month awards, and other things like that can be very good ways to make the employees feel seen and needed.
3. Opportunities for Professional Development & Growth
Offer ample opportunities for employees to upskill so they can advance themselves and move forward in their careers.
4. Inclusive Workplace Environment
Make the workplace a safe space where employees get equal opportunities for development and growth as this is one of the major reasons why employees quiet quit.
5. Clearly Defined Job Description
Give employees well-defined and structured job descriptions to help them align themselves according to the requirements of their roles. Any additional responsibility must be compensated appropriately.
These were the definition, signs of quiet quitting, reasons, and ways to prevent employees from quiet quitting. It is with certainty that your question ‘Is quiet quitting real?’ is now answered sufficiently!
The key takeaway from this read would be to implement caring leadership in your organization to give a major boost of energy to your employees and have them work with you to reach your mutual goals!
