QUIET QUITTERS

QUIET QUITTING, IS THIS A REAL THING?

When I first heard the term “quiet quitting”, I thought I immediately knew exactly what it meant. t’s all the people who just disappear. They start working and just quit and don’t say anything! Everything is fine one day, then it’s not fine the next day, and this is almost always the people who can do EVERYTHING. UNTIL…. they start working then the car breaks down, Grandma dies, or the earth is flat, and they simply fall off the end never to be heard from again.

But it’s deeper than that. All that is part of it. But there is a much chilling side. In facet, Gallop says, 50% of the entire workforce is quiet quitting. I think it’s more than 50% for sure!

WHAT IS QUIET QUITTING?

Gallop defines Quiet Quitting as:

“…an approach to work in which individuals meet the minimum requirements of their job description but nothing more – no discretionary effort, no going above and beyond.”

This is a big problem because many jobs, especially retail and restaurant, It’s essential to have urgency and effort to connect with coworkers and meet customers’ needs. This trend of quiet quitting is viral on social media.  Yes folks VIRAL!  Millions of workers are bragging, posting videos of them NOT going above and beyond, and making fun of the disengagement.  Even worse, we are seeing theft, fooling around, destruction and other shenanigans being pulled while business owners foot the bill.

This is costing companies tens of millions of dollars in lost customers, waste, theft and massive amounts of unproductive time. There is stress and pressure when performing coworkers have to pick up the slack for the weak, poor performers who are disengaged. Ultimately, the customer pays through increased pricing for goods and services being driven upwards.

The working society is broken up into 3 categories. 

• Engaged, 

• Not Engaged and 

• Actively Disengaged 

Quiet Quitters fall into the category of “not engaged”.  This means they are not present to their work or with the company, they simply trade time for money and not energy or passion into their work.

Right now:

• 50% of the workers are not engaged
• 20% of the workers are actively disengaged
• 30% of the workers are engaged

We have always known there was a problem, but the numbers are staggering. This means 3 out of 4 employees are not engaged or actively disengaged.

THIS IS NOT GREAT NEWS FOR EMPLOYERS

Company owners and operators get big time anxiety when they hear terms like this. If 3 out of 4 employees are not engaged, 20% are actively disengaged and not even really there. What is the impact to the company in dollars and cents? 

We know it’s a lot but identifying it is hard, many of the results of the lack of engagement are hidden on a P & L statement. Buried into multiple categories, while others have less of a quantitative value but massive personal and family ramifications. Where does your health fall on a P & L statement? Where do missing school events for your kids fall on a P & L statement? Nowhere!

Quiet quitting creates anxiety for business owners that they don’t get the production that they pay for, especially today when they are paying more for labor than ever before and feel they get less for it.

So business owners naturally create stories in their mind, building pressure.

• How much am I being taken advantage of?
• How do we make any money with these people being on our floor?
•  Employees have an expectation when they are the customer and get irritated when treated poorly, but then they work here and become that person. Doesn’t that make them hypocrites?
• What do I have to be prepared for when they upset off the wrong customer who is vocal about it, or worse writes a bad review?
• What’s the domino effect when people aren’t showing up?
• Are people stealing?
• Do our workers execute our products correctly and consistently?
• Do they over-portion, give away, and erode our bottom line?
• Are our people present and taking care of our guests, or does each interaction irritate a guest to choose not to return?
•  If a restaurant, what are the food safety issues that will arise when people don’t care, will they make someone sick?
• What’s the domino effect when the work isn’t done and the impact on others?
• What’s the domino effect on costs and profitability?
• Will I be able to pay the expenses and keep going?

And the pressure builds and builds and so on…

WHAT FUELS QUIET QUITTING

There are a number of horrible bosses out there, burnt-out leaders who have become disengaged themselves. If the leader is not engaged, things can only spiral down from there.

But let’s talk for a minute about some employee toxic behaviors that have very little to do with the company and lead to quiet quitting:

• Keeping you guessing about which version of them you actually get
• Victim Projecting
• Selfish immature behavior
• Always a crisis
• Leave conversations unfinished
• Do not respond to a message, but expect you to respond instantly
•  Lack of being able to problem-solve
• Bring irrelevant details into a conversation
• Exaggerate
• Taking on too much and then hitting a wall
• Make conversations about the way you’re talking, rather than what you are talking about
•  Displacing anger and blame

“Hustle Culture”

The “hustle” culture today is where people feel they always have to talk about how much they do. It’s a keeping up with the Jones mentality. A constant measuring of how much people have to do and always an excuse of why they couldn’t do what they were supposed to do. 

“I had to do this list of things today and because of it I didn’t get any sleep…..” Then the other person waits to one-up them on the laundry list of things they did and excuses of why they couldn’t do X,Y or Z. This psychological exhaustion then spills over into the workplace, and the workplace many times becomes the target of the frustration.

Could this be a form of burnout, mainly self-induced by the employee, then a spillover to the employer?

Leadership and Management lack of focus

•  The lack of understanding an employee has about what they have to do and why they have to do it. What’s expected of them and the things that are vital and crucial to the company’s success.
• A misalignment and feeling that the company is expecting too much from them or flip it, do employees offer too little which inhibits their compensation?
• Can they advance, do they ever receive meaningful recognition and any appreciation of the work they do?  Do they get a roadmap to additional pay and their contribution to a higher purpose?

So many business owners know this information and talk about it to other leadership, but the delivery of this information to their team is not consistent and is outright flaccid. There is no “one size” fits all reasoning behind this heavy issue.

CAN WE SOLVE QUIET QUITTING?

We can sure give it a try!

The solution can be found with better management, and being a better boss. Yep- we have to own that s&$t! What I have found is managers need to relearn how to have conversations to help reduce disengagement. Managers are in a unique position being in direct contact with their team to know their employees as individuals, the systems, and drivers of their quiet quitting, their life situations, strengths, and goals. 

Do not confuse this with following their life drama, Facebook posts, etc.

When was the last time you had a meaningful coaching conversation with one of your employees?

Are you aware of how people are feeling? Do you ever ask what’s going on? What positions and roles do they like best or want to try?

Great Managers “unblock” people, engage and motivate them and have patience:

•  Line up with employees and their goals and priorities, there is a connection between work and what people want to do.
• Remove barriers
• Coach and provide frequent feedback
• Check in constantly to see how employees are doing and feel about their work
• Give meaningful wholehearted recognition for quality work and performance
• Development and accountability
• Say, “Thank You”

Unfortunately, many managers do the exact opposite of what great managers do and forgo the best practices. Many times because they have burnt out themselves because their lack of standards and commitment to best practices had slowly eroded their employee pool and concentrated the disengaged and actively disengaged.

What matters the most is that you make the time, you create the time, and are always keeping your finger on the pulse, eliminating problems before they even arise. Creating genuine human connections is the way to reduce or eliminate quiet quitting.

IN THE END

At the end of the day, this issue can’t be solved unless we “leaders” think differently. If we aren’t able to be real and vulnerable, then how will our team ever be vulnerable and grow? If we want people to be engaged and care, then we have to be engaged and care also. People do their best work when they run on passion and not when leaders have a “stick”.

However, this door swings both ways. Bosses and companies want happy engaged employees, they actually want their employees to “want” to be happy and productive. But where is the line? When do companies draw the line when the employee is the issue and not the company? When the company does all it can, management works hard to do all the right things and the employee is never happy and remains disengaged. 

To help identify quiet quitting on your team, check out our article “8 Characteristics of Destructive Employees.”

 

For more tips, connect with us and follow us on our social channels  @hirerockstartalent 

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