Ever encountered groupmates who passively attend meetings, do the bare minimum and are regularly uncontactable? Or coworkers who seem disengaged at work? Shhh, they are probably practising Quiet Quitting.
Quiet Quitting is not walking out of the office quietly and promising yourself to never come back. According to Investopedia, “it is an attitude where a person does the minimum requirements of his/her job and puts in no more time, effort, or enthusiasm than absolutely necessary” (Investopedia, 2022). People with this belief usually feel a “loss of connection” to their workplace. Like a cog in the machine, employees go through the motion of performing their assigned tasks without motivation to do better. In 2022, Gallup found that at least 50% of the United States workers were described as “quiet quitters”. Taking a closer look, Singapore Business Review states that 55% of Gen Z Singapore workers are planning to quietly quit. But why has Quiet Quitting become such a prominent phenomenon? Well, we can simply ask ourselves,” Why do I want to quit my job?” Here are three reasons we identified:
1. Burning Out
More often than not, employees these days are terribly overworked. While having to work overtime in the office is nothing new, employees are now expected to bring their work home too. Is it time to come to terms with our new reality? That is – that work never truly ends? Kisi’s 2019 report showed that 73% of Singaporean workers wanted to run away from a 45-hour work week, and 62% felt burnt out. Thus, there was a lack of capacity to continue working with such a high intensity. Apathy towards work had already developed prior to COVID-19, and unfortunately, the pandemic exacerbated this to the extent that numbness became ubiquitous.
2. Salary-Expectation Mismatch
Among those who work competitively, expecting decent financial rewards to support their families, ambitions or materialist desires is a given. However, these expectations are often a pipe dream. In 2022, Indeed stated that 45% of Singaporean workers surveyed were dissatisfied with their salary and were not motivated to continue working hard. The mismatch in salary and expectation reduces their drive to work.
3. Growing Sentiment of Having a Good Work Life Balance
Despite Singaporean workers being competitive and ambitious workers before COVID-19, work from home opportunities during the pandemic have enlightened the majority on the benefits of a good work life balance. As work intensity and work-related stress rises, many feel their personal boundaries encroached and mental state worsened. In fact, Randstad Singapore states that 65% of employees became overwhelmed after the pandemic. To protect their wellbeing, employees take a step back from overworking and turn away from dedicating their lives to work.
What Happens After?
Going back to work in the post-covid period, some employees seem to be less productive and less energetic. Employees also deem it painful to sacrifice their personal and family time for work and are not as eager to work as before. This is very similar to the “Lying Flat” movement in China: Today, the persistent drive to economic prosperity has resulted in unrelenting competition. Being exhausted from this, many over-stressed workers opt out of the hustling workplace and are satisfied with minimum returns. While this may slow down economic development, employees are too desperate for a break to be concerned.
What Employers & Employees Should Do About Quiet Quitting:
Managers are giving mixed reactions to this phenomenon. The tolerant ones are anxious about the tight labour market, which makes it challenging and tedious to find another employee for the position. Others react by either discreetly or blatantly firing employees that appear to be underperforming. However, Quiet Quitting is not a lost cause and there are ways to mitigate it.
In 2022, leadership development consultants Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman advised managers to examine their own behaviour before pushing the blame on their employees. In the Harvard Business Review, they urged managers to first determine the root cause of Quiet Quitting in their workplace. Instead of rushing to hold their employees accountable for this phenomenon, managers should consider that their own performance and leadership abilities should be up for questioning as well.
At the same time, employees facing the dilemma of yielding to workplace competition or prioritising their wellbeing should take initiative to tackle the conflict of interests between managers and themselves. Together, employers and employees can start with having open and honest conversations about the expectations each party has of the other. Building trust should always be the goal to maintain a positive working relationship. When both think in the shoes of the other party and seek concessions, it will be easier to achieve a win-win situation.
Still, whether the voices of employees can be truly heard often depends on the management style, and giving constructive opinions about work productivity may not always work. This puts many into a dilemma: Some are determined to pursue work-life balance at the expense of losing attractive job opportunities, while others give in to the imminent recession shadow and strive to work diligently for a prominent position. It seems like no middle ground can be established.
While Quiet Quitting may not be a bona fide, hopefully this can draw employers’ attention to the large scale of working fatigue and the yearn for work-life balance among employees. Ultimately, can we really fault employees for prioritising their physical and mental wellbeing?
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