Upon further review...
Last week we looked at “Quiet Quitting.” Thanks to a few members, I now know that what we shared was one-sided and didn’t take the employee's perspective into account. It turns out the term “quiet quitting” is bad framing for what is really an effort to avoid overcommitting and burnout. It’s not doing the minimum to not get fired, which is how many of us understood it. With that in mind, let’s dive deeper into quiet quitting from the employee's perspective.
Quiet Quitting... Another Perspective
For many of us, we’ve learned about "quiet quitting" from social and mainstream media. Basically, it goes like this. There’s a labor shortage and employees don’t really care because they can get another job so they just do the bare minimum. That’s what I heard anyway. And because many of us reading this are owners it hit home. In my experience, most leaders are stressed and overworked and worried their team is gonna quit regardless. As a result, this concept caught fire quickly. But let’s take a step back and look at what we’re calling quiet quitting.
Why is this happening?
The idea of quiet quitting isn’t new. Being underpaid, overworked or stuck in a job with limited growth opportunities will make anyone start to fade in their current role while they look for something new. But that’s not what we’re dealing with. Just like the great resignation had folks quitting jobs they didn’t feel passionate about, quiet quitting has folks who may really like their jobs re-evaluating what’s fair. Are they being asked to do more than they were hired for? Do they have to work more hours than was anticipated when they took the job to stay on top of the workload? Well, that may be a result of a lot of things in today's wacky work environment. Regardless, it can either lead to burnout or re-focusing on what they were hired to do. In many ways what we’re calling quiet quitting is self-preservation through adhering to the original expectations of the work agreement. But why is this happening now?
Working remotely is adding to the disconnect
We work differently now, and while there are a lot of positives there is one big negative. We don’t get to see each other. I can’t walk by your desk to see how it’s going. You can’t pop in to let me know you’ve got a challenge or need guidance on competing priorities. In fact, it’s easier than ever to frame our messages because they are almost always written, And when we’re reading a message we create the tone and hear what we expect or even want to hear. When we do get together on a video call, it’s normally scheduled and often with a few folks. This makes it difficult to have an informal catchup with an employee or manager when things feel off. It’s awkward to say, "hey Becky, mind hanging out after everyone logs off? I had something to share," versus just walking over after a meeting and saying “got a minute?” We’re losing these little check-ins that often helped us course correct on a daily or weekly basis. Instead, we’re feeling the tension as our workloads grow with smaller teams and larger projects.
How can we tell if someone is "quiet quitting"?
If you notice someone is late to meetings, not replying to messages, isn’t participating in team activities, is missing deadlines or just seems to have lower energy, they may have realized they need to change their approach to work. Not intentionally do less, but do what’s realistic. And sometimes they have to limit other work activities to make that happen in the confines of the business day.
Let’s get rid of the quiet part of this equation.
Looking back, it struck me that once again the culprit is a lack of clear communication, Most owners I know are very fair. Most employees I know are passionate and hard-working. But as real communication lessens, misunderstandings grow. Culture apps and surveys can trick us into thinking we understand how everyone is doing. But it’s when we connect one on one and have more frequent impromptu conversations that we can really address and resolve some of these core issues. Even if it's on Zoom.