Why employees ‘quiet quit’ and the right way to respond

What another generation might have called “slackers” have emerged in the workplaces of 2023 as “quiet quitters,” discontented employees who do the bare minimum required of them.

Although often presented as part of a new trend that has developed within the last few years, quiet quitters have long been fixtures in workplaces everywhere. Unlike employees who seek to advance by exhibiting a willingness to work overtime or accept extra assignments, quiet quitters make it a point never to stay late, start early, or take work home.

Steven Mintz, who writes the blogs Ethics Sage and Workplace Ethics Advice, said quiet quitters are simply discontented workers who find a way to disengage from their jobs and still collect a paycheck. “[They] may feel overworked, underpaid, underappreciated, lacking support within the organization, or just burned out,” he said.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the term “quiet quitting” was first used by career coach Bryan Creely in a March 2022 video posted on TikTok and YouTube. A decade ago, while speaking at a parish in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Catholic author and business consultant Matthew Kelly applied a different term to those who were still employed but had lost passion and engagement for their jobs. “I call them ‘Q and S people’ because they quit and stay,” said Kelly, “and that’s a problem.” 

Michael Naughton, director of the Center for Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota and board chair of Reell Precision Manufacturing, said people become quiet quitters – those for whom work is “something to be gotten through” – for many reasons. 

“Sometimes it’s mindless work. Sometimes it’s disappointments that they had,” Naughton suggested. “Sometimes it’s their fault and sometimes the fault of others. Sometimes people burn out.” 

Quiet quitters end up undervaluing a part of their lives, Naughton said. “What happens from a theological perspective is it’s really hard for God’s grace to enter into any of this . . . From a human dimension, it’s hard to grow when you have that kind of attitude.” 

A VIRAL PHENOMENON?

Whether “quiet quitting” is an old or new phenomenon, there’s no question it is a hot topic in the business world these days, particularly in the wake of the pandemic shutdowns during which nearly 70 percent of full-time employees worked from home. 

Some employers think the pandemic spawned burnout and trauma, making employees less willing to give their best. Others think those who worked remotely experienced newfound autonomy and are now taking advantage of it or are pushing back against the pressure they felt to take phone calls and answer emails while working at home.

Whatever the cause, a 2022 Gallup survey indicated at least half the U.S. workforce now may consist of quiet quitters. 

Mintz, who also is professor emeritus of accounting specializing in ethics at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, said quiet quitting can be traced in part to younger workers who seek a greater work-life balance. “They value their private lives and don’t want to work 60-plus hours a week to make their employer happy,” he explained.

However, it also can be a behavior engaged in by overextended workers who are trying to juggle the responsibilities of child-rearing with their jobs. 

“Given that in so many cases both parents need to work to make ends meet,” Mintz said, “it is understandable that one or the other parent would more likely be a quiet quitter.” Additionally, he said, the large percentage of single-parent households adds pressure to the one parent who is in charge of the welfare of the children. 

IDENTITY AND CULTURE

Naughton concurred. Many working parents, he said, especially those who do not have extended family to help them, are simply overstretched and so are not putting in the fullness of what they should be contributing at work.

On the other hand, he added, quiet quitting can also show up in younger people who, like many of their peers, are not getting married and having children to the degree previous generations did. 

“So then, the question is, ‘Where is their primary identity?’” Naughton said. “For some, it’s in their work, and when they find out that’s not very satisfying, they go looking for it somewhere else.” That, he said, is when they develop an attitude toward work that can morph into quiet quitting. 

Naughton said the pandemic and the increase in remote work likely exacerbated and intensified quiet quitting. Although working from home enabled some workers to become more efficient with the elimination of commuting, the loss of human contact also took something away. “You can become highly efficient about getting things done because you don’t have to worry about commuting,” he pointed out, “but that high efficiency can sometimes do damage to a community of work.”

Pope St. John Paul II referred to the importance of community in relation to work in his 1981 encyclical Laborem Exercens (On Human Work), Naughton said. “The heart of work is a community because it’s a community of people doing the common good together,” he explained. “When that happens, bonds of communion start to occur.”

That in turn affects the culture of a workplace, he said, propelling people into mission. “What you want to do in an organization is be mission-driven, and if you lose that, it has a massive impact on the culture of an organization.” 

THE EMPLOYER RESPONSE

One way employers can counter quiet quitting, Naughton said, is to apply Catholic social teaching’s principle of subsidiarity, which, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, holds that “a community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of a community of a lower order.” In the workplace, this could mean recognizing the gifts each employee has, drawing them out, and coordinating them with the gifts of other employees. 

“When people have their gifts recognized, something starts to come on,” said Naughton, who was a coordinator of the 2018 Vatican document Vocation of a Business Leader: A Reflection. Employees no longer feel like they are seen as cogs or eight-hour units of efficiency, he said, but that their gifts are affirmed and can be used with those of others for the task and mission at hand. “That creates something really special,” he affirmed. “From a leadership perspective, gift recognition and coordination are critical.” 

Given that so many quiet quitters now occupy the U.S. workforce, Mintz said, for employers to respond by getting rid of them would be impractical and could negatively affect the workplace culture. He said employers can counteract the causes of quiet quitting by building cultures that make people want to stay and in which they feel free to share their ideas, opinions, and concerns without fear of retaliation or penalty. 

“This means supportive managers who care about their employees and their needs,” Mintz advised. “The best way is to listen to the employees. Be responsive to their legitimate concerns, whether it is pay, benefits, excessive workload, growth opportunities, or advancement potential.”

Employees have rights, but responsibilities too. When employees resist becoming “quiet quitters,” it’s often because they are motivated by a strong work ethic that enables them to compensate for feelings related to burnout or less-than-ideal working conditions.

Steven Mintz has tried to instill that in students in his ethics course at California Polytechnic State University by convincing them that they can learn a lot about being successful employees even if they are not 100 percent committed to the job. 

“I tell them they have an ethical responsibility to work hard on every job,” he said. 

However, he said he was surprised to discover that many of his students approach a job from a self-serving point of view and are willing to quit if it doesn’t provide all they expect. “The idea that a responsibility exists to make the most of their opportunity, even if there are barriers to enjoyment, doesn’t register,” he said. 

Likewise, Mintz said, quiet quitters have trouble looking beyond their own interests. 

“From an ethical perspective, [they] should ask: How do my actions affect others in the workplace?” he queried. “The fact is, someone will have to do their job if they quit it in some respect. The ethical value of fairness is instructive here as is the Golden Rule: Treat others the way you would want to be treated.” 

Perhaps, Mintz continued, if quiet quitters asked themselves about this, they would realize that if their co-workers quit on the job, they might have to pick up the slack. “It’s just not fair to those who stick with the job even though they have concerns about it,” he noted.

Michael Naughton of the University of St. Thomas said quiet quitting also can have a cascading effect as one employee begins to exhibit its signs and others start doing the same. “It’s contagious,” he said. “You’re never doing something that doesn’t have a social impact on someone else.“