Over the past 90 days, Google Trends data has illustrated a 57 percent increase in the search term ‘quiet quitting’ in the UK.
Quiet quitting is a term for when workers only do the job that they are being paid to do, without taking on further tasks or responsibilities. However, recent data has highlighted employees are working on average an additional 3.98 hours a week, opening up the discussion of what employers can do to combat this.
4 signs quiet quitting is happening in your workplace
Performing to the minimum standard – no longer having the passion to excel on targets/KPIs and being happy to settle with hitting the minimum targets that are required.
Self-isolating from fellow colleagues – you may notice they withdraw themselves from their fellow colleagues and begin to grow disconnected from the rest of the team socially.
Disengagement and disinterest in meetings – not speaking up in meetings and sharing their viewpoints could be an indicator of quiet quitting. They only speak in meetings when asked to do so and share the bare minimum.
Colleagues have increased workloads – a great indicator of quiet quitting in the workplace is if fellow colleagues all of a sudden have increased workloads because they are now having to pick up the slack for their fellow colleague who is quietly quitting.
Top 3 tips on combating quiet quitting in the workplace:
1. Employee recognition
Quite quitters often feel under appreciated in their roles if their work goes unnoticed or unpraised, meaning they do not feel they should go above and beyond their work. Employee recognition is really important to help combat quiet quitting in the workplace and help show your staff that you truly appreciate them and all the work that they do.
It can be as simple as a message/email to congratulate them on a project they may have excelled on or challenged themselves to undertake. Why not send a small gift in the post as a token of thanks that you are noticing their efforts or a shoutout message in your team group chat/team meetings.
2. Support employee wellbeing
Showing your employees that you support and care about their wellbeing will go a long way.
Quiet quitting is often framed as someone protecting their personal mental health so as an employer it is paramount in today’s day and age to show that you are implementing practical steps to protect their wellbeing, which will stop them from pulling back professionally. Show your employees that you care about their mental health and you’re putting their needs before the business.
3. Maintain boundaries
Quiet quitting allows employees to set boundaries around employers overstepping on personal time outside of working hours. Before employees feel they need to take the extreme step of quiet quitting, it is important to reinforce those boundaries on employees’ behalf.
Remind staff that answering phone calls/emails after working hours are optional, and put in place a system so you know what emails are urgent compared to the emails that can wait till the following day or after the weekend.
The more vocal you are as a manager about employees’ right to personal time, the less likely for people to overstep those boundaries and your staff will be thankful for you speaking out on their behalf.
Amelia Brand is the Editor for HRreview, and host of the HR in Review podcast series. With a Master’s degree in Legal and Political Theory, her particular interests within HR include employment law, DE&I, and wellbeing within the workplace. Prior to working with HRreview, Amelia was Sub-Editor of a magazine, and Editor of the Environmental Justice Project at University College London, writing and overseeing articles into UCL’s weekly newsletter. Her previous academic work has focused on philosophy, politics and law, with a special focus on how artificial intelligence will feature in the future.
