Articles

Have You Heard of “Quiet Quitting”?

Gary Voigt
September 7, 2022

Psst…Have You Heard of “Quiet Quitting”?

Recently, David heard of the term “quiet quitting” and it piqued his curiosity.

If you’re a new business owner without any employees, you very likely don’t need to worry about it—yet. (Just be sure you’re not burning out.) 

If you’re a business owner with employees, you might want to pay attention. ‘Cuz we’re going to discuss what it is, what it means to you, and how to navigate it.

What Does Quiet Quitting Mean?

Your Dictionary defines quiet quitting as “…not overworking yourself or doing extra things that you won’t get compensated for; you’re not an underachiever but also not an overachiever. It’s doing the tasks involved with your assigned role, no more, no less. Simply put, it’s doing your job without your job taking over your entire life.”

Others describe it as putting boundaries in place and not doing more than asked, or only executing the tasks within the job description—no more, no less.

If you search the term quiet quitting, you’ll see there are various perspectives and definitions of the term.

In a nutshell, our understanding of quiet quitting basically means an employee who does the minimum, just enough so they don’t lose their job. It’s the nemesis to the hustle culture that was more prominent prior to the pandemic.

Really, It Has Always Been Around

When you think about it, quiet quitting has always been around.

There have been, and will evermore be, some people who go above and beyond and others who stay within their job description. The only thing that’s changed is that now there’s a clever term for the latter group.

As a business owner with employees, and ultimately the leader of your organization, when you think of each member of your team, you likely can easily identify those who go above and beyond and those who don’t. 

So, the term itself “quiet quitting” doesn’t necessarily mean anything new to you. 

But…in reflecting over the past few years, it’s possible that you might notice there’s more quiet quitting behavior than there was before.

How do you navigate that?

How Do You Navigate Quiet Quitting?

For those employees who want to go above and beyond, give them extra opportunities to shine. But also compensate and promote them accordingly for their efforts, skills, and abilities.

For those employees you want to stay within the boundaries of their job description—those “quiet quitting” members of your team—work within their preferences because they’re still needed in your business and valuable members.

But for both types of team members, remember this...

Ensure you’re not taking advantage of them by giving them more work than they have the capacity to complete well (and then berating them when they don’t get it done) or making non-urgent requests outside of work hours. 

You want your employees to feel comfortable coming to you to discuss challenging topics, like setting reasonable work and time boundaries. So, keep communication open and transparent.

Because the last thing you want to do is burn out your high achievers…who then may resort to quiet quitting to maintain their sanity.

Based on an excerpt from our BIZ/DEV podcast, Episode 49.

Biz
Culture
Gary Voigt
September 7, 2022
Podcasts

Have You Heard of “Quiet Quitting”?

Gary Voigt
September 7, 2022

Psst…Have You Heard of “Quiet Quitting”?

Recently, David heard of the term “quiet quitting” and it piqued his curiosity.

If you’re a new business owner without any employees, you very likely don’t need to worry about it—yet. (Just be sure you’re not burning out.) 

If you’re a business owner with employees, you might want to pay attention. ‘Cuz we’re going to discuss what it is, what it means to you, and how to navigate it.

What Does Quiet Quitting Mean?

Your Dictionary defines quiet quitting as “…not overworking yourself or doing extra things that you won’t get compensated for; you’re not an underachiever but also not an overachiever. It’s doing the tasks involved with your assigned role, no more, no less. Simply put, it’s doing your job without your job taking over your entire life.”

Others describe it as putting boundaries in place and not doing more than asked, or only executing the tasks within the job description—no more, no less.

If you search the term quiet quitting, you’ll see there are various perspectives and definitions of the term.

In a nutshell, our understanding of quiet quitting basically means an employee who does the minimum, just enough so they don’t lose their job. It’s the nemesis to the hustle culture that was more prominent prior to the pandemic.

Really, It Has Always Been Around

When you think about it, quiet quitting has always been around.

There have been, and will evermore be, some people who go above and beyond and others who stay within their job description. The only thing that’s changed is that now there’s a clever term for the latter group.

As a business owner with employees, and ultimately the leader of your organization, when you think of each member of your team, you likely can easily identify those who go above and beyond and those who don’t. 

So, the term itself “quiet quitting” doesn’t necessarily mean anything new to you. 

But…in reflecting over the past few years, it’s possible that you might notice there’s more quiet quitting behavior than there was before.

How do you navigate that?

How Do You Navigate Quiet Quitting?

For those employees who want to go above and beyond, give them extra opportunities to shine. But also compensate and promote them accordingly for their efforts, skills, and abilities.

For those employees you want to stay within the boundaries of their job description—those “quiet quitting” members of your team—work within their preferences because they’re still needed in your business and valuable members.

But for both types of team members, remember this...

Ensure you’re not taking advantage of them by giving them more work than they have the capacity to complete well (and then berating them when they don’t get it done) or making non-urgent requests outside of work hours. 

You want your employees to feel comfortable coming to you to discuss challenging topics, like setting reasonable work and time boundaries. So, keep communication open and transparent.

Because the last thing you want to do is burn out your high achievers…who then may resort to quiet quitting to maintain their sanity.

Based on an excerpt from our BIZ/DEV podcast, Episode 49.

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