Not long ago, I came across the concept of ‘quiet quitting’. After an initial drop in my interest – after all, it wasn’t anything I’d not seen or heard occurring in workplaces – I have to admit, the more I pondered, the more I read, and the more I came to realize that this trend wasn’t typical to where we’d normally see an occurrence of “hiding until retirement”, but instead, a phenomena that was occurring within our younger generations, I have to say it grabbed me.
Workplace performance and engagement has always been a somewhat contentious topic. Not just for managers, but for teams. It was once the organizational restructure that tended to uncover the underperformers. Workers who’d become pieces of furniture, hiding in the dark, unquestioned, or unchallenged because of their tenure or ability to look busy. (Arguably, it still does).
And while the introduction of more formal systems, like performance reviews, designed to support managers (and their people), have been used to manage and track performance, they haven’t always lived up to the desired effect. Not when workplaces are trying to resolve the epidemic of retention and engagement issues, or more recently, the impact of mass job quitting.
Quiet quitting
The introduction of ‘quiet quitting’ – the art of doing the bare minimum, with the potential of finding something better – has now added to the dynamics. And while we could once point the finger and call out the lack of motivation, performance, and engagement to the “seasoned employees”, they’re not the problem. Instead, it’s the younger employees.
As we’ve seen, the Pandemic inspired a new way of thinking about work, including our sense of purpose and meaning. For younger generations, particularly Gen Z, there is still a chronic distaste that’s being felt about the relative position of the world, and perhaps more importantly, how they fit with it all.
What workplaces seem to be facing, is a movement beyond ‘work life integration’ – something that millennials advocated for – but a ‘where do I fit’ complex as Gen Z try to navigate and understand what the current state of work is, what the future will be and what it means for them.
And while Gen Z contemplate these questions, with their answers having impacts on both them and their workplaces, quiet quitting, and its symptoms (i.e., the bare minimum), may continue. The impacts to workplaces, costly.
Is there a solution? For now, it’s safe to assume that contemplation and questioning will continue. In the meantime, my advice for managers, is to check in on your people. Check the health of your teams, find out where they’re at, what they’re feeling and in cases where they are “contemplating”, offer support and guidance. For a lot of employees, it’s still a trying time – and younger gens especially, are carrying the strain. Offering support, matters.
