Why are leaders complaining about quiet quitting?

The labour market has been a veritable manufactory of so many new, cool phrases that I barely know where to start.

The Great Resignation saw over 50 million people quit in America alone, and this year – a talent shortage. We are still trying to make hybrid work really work. Gig working goes mainstream, and in the middle of all this, we are all burning out.

Since the 1980s, we’ve lived frugally off the “war for talent”, so this is the lexiconic equivalent of opening a Willy Wonka factory. The newest treat? Quiet quitting.

At first glance, it sounds like a great idea – people quit their jobs without fuss or friction and sail off smoothly to another opportunity. But apparently, that’s not what it means. Quiet quitting doesn’t refer to quitting a job at all. It means getting your job done without going above and beyond in terms of effort or hours.

Tense reactions

Not go above and beyond, I hear you gasp? How appalling! You may smile, but some leaders are appalled.

“Quiet quitting isn’t just about quitting your job; it’s a step toward quitting on life,” said Arianna Huffington. “This (quiet quitting) is worse than COVID,” said Kevin O. Leary.

Maybe slight exaggerations, but I get it; I really do. How will businesses function without all that discretionary effort? Or, from another perspective, how did we get away with it for this long? Don’t we pay people to do their jobs and to work their hours?

Why do we have an assumption that they will do more than that and not expect to get paid more for that? To expect discretionary effort somewhat undermines the discretionary aspect, doesn’t it? Whatever the reason, it has been a long-held truth that we now expect discretionary effort almost all the time.

As long as quiet quitting isn’t code for “doing less than your job”, I think organisations are going to have to stop complaining about it or risk opening Pandora’s box on how long we’ve been receiving the boon of discretionary effort.

On top of that caveat, it’s a smart response to a number of the negative trends impacting our workforce right now – it may be a solution rather than a problem.

Work/life balance: Quiet quitting is a great way to achieve a healthier work/life balance. Constantly going above and beyond can lead to excessive stress and to burnout, negatively impacting our physical and mental wellbeing and our long-term performance. When individuals start setting boundaries and not overextending themselves, they can prioritise their self-care – which organisations have been keen for them to do since we introduced wellbeing initiatives in 2018. This balance between work and personal life is essential to sustaining high-quality work outputs – especially for knowledge workers who are burning out across the globe.

Setting clear expectations: Re-establishing the expectation of performance is a tricky topic – especially when organisations have so much to lose. So quiet quitting is a tactic of last resort – the fact that we are using it now should be a wake-up call that workloads, standards and expectations have been too unrealistic for too long. By quietly quitting the practice of constantly exceeding expectations and moving it to sometimes or even rarely, individuals can ensure that their efforts align with their agreed job description. It’s a way to reset expectations without having to have a confrontational (and probably unsuccessful) conversation about it.

Equal distribution of work: We know that certain individuals consistently go above and beyond and become the indispensable go-to person on the team that leaders can’t do without. That comes at a great cost to that individual – and often, it doesn’t come with great reward. Instead, it can lead to an uneven distribution of tasks and responsibilities within the team, causing inequality and resentment. When individuals hold back from automatically taking on extra work, it creates room either for others to contribute and grow or for a workload rethink to occur.

Would I love it if my team suddenly decided to do the bare minimum? Of course not! But if I stepped back from that initial emotional response (worse than COVID-19, Kevin, really?) I would like to think that I’d recognise quiet quitting as a last resort tactic that’s telling me I need to have a leadership conversation about expectations, workload and wellbeing.

Because the next step from quiet quitting is very loud quitting – and that just doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it?

By Rebecca Houghton, author of “Impact: 10 Ways to Level up your Leadership” and founder of BoldHR