“I quit!”
Have you heard those two words lately? Did they come from a disengaged employee or from a star performer that left you feeling startled? While The Great Resignation never really ended, enter two more buzzwords to shake up the current HR landscape: Quiet Quitting and Loud Quitting.
Uncovering The Truth Behind The Two
The term Quiet Quitting finds its origin from a TikTok video posted by a corporate recruiter turned career coach named Brian Creely in March 2022. Often touted as the next phase of The Great Resignation, employees enter the Quiet Quitting phase when their contributions at work boil down to doing the bare minimum!
These employees deliver right near the deadlines and do not seem interested in going above and beyond their scope of work. It’s like them saying, ‘I am good! No need to add more to my plate.” It’s a behaviour that silently and quietly seeps into their working style.You won’t see them being openly vocal about their issues or concerns at work. Before you know it, they will have put in their papers!
On the other hand, Loud Quitting has emerged as the “word of the month” for unhappy employees. Here, instead of being silent, the employees indulge in actions that could potentially cause direct harm to an organisation’s reputation. This term was first seen in a recent report by Gallup, which surveyed more than 120,000 employees globally, where nearly one in five employees are ‘loud quitting’ or showing signs of active disengagement.
Loud Quitting involves employees not only expressing their dissatisfaction openly at work, but also going to the extent of posting negative remarks about their organisation on channels including social media!
Do these actions necessarily mean ‘quitting’?
Interestingly, employees may exhibit Quiet Quitting or Loud Quitting behaviours without the intention to quit. According to a Slack report, almost half of the Indian employees surveyed are burnt out. Since the pandemic, Gen-Zers are prioritising their mental health and work-life balance over meeting unrealistic deadlines. As a result, they do not push themselves to go above and beyond at work as often as they did earlier. But they also prefer job stability and simply do what’s expected of them. They may appear to be doing the bare minimum, but might not essentially be quite quitters.
Similarly, employees voicing their opinion out loud could be a consequence of repeated snubs of the leadership to their issues and concerns. All they might be seeking is a resolution to their problems. And in a diverse workplace, some employees are bound to be more expressive than the others. This poses a challenge for leaders to categorise employees as loud or quiet quitters.
A common thread binding the two!
While Quiet Quitting and Loud Quitting may sound like two different terms, the primary cause behind both is either lack of engagement or frustration and discontentment. Instead of labelling your employees as quiet or loud quitters, your focus should be on nurturing an engaging workplace culture that allows employees to express themselves and enjoy what they do.
Doing Your Bit: Being aware of both gives you an opportunity to open your eyes, examine the causes behind a growing problem and look for sustainable solutions. Here are 3 preventive measures:
Find What Makes Them Thrive: While keeping them engaged is a good first step, provide opportunities to your employees to excel at what they do by leveraging their skills.
Scan The Signs: Notice potential patterns of an active employee slipping into disengagement. Encourage open communication for them to share what’s bothering them.
Tell Them Their Work Matters: For employees doing the bare minimum, show them the bigger picture and remind them how their work drives an impact that matters.
Your people at work want to be heard. Being there for them and providing them with avenues for growth will not only make them happier and engaged, but also more loyal to your organisation. And if you can make this happen, you won’t have to worry much about either form of quitting.
Psst! This blog was made with💚 and created after some thought by a real person. #NoGenerativeAI
