Does it seem like your employees are slipping away unnoticed? Do you struggle to retain talent and keep everyone motivated? If the answer is yes, then you might be facing a problem known as "Quiet Quitting". Find out in this article what Quiet Quitting is, why it’s becoming more common, and how to combat it.
What exactly does it mean to "quietly quit?"
The meaning of "Quiet Quitting" is up to interpretation. Some say it doesn´t necessarily mean your employees will actually quit their job, and others say it´s the beginning of the end.
The term itself refers to employees who are:
- Failing to put forth extra effort on the job
- Just putting in their allotted hours and getting their due pay
- Putting limits on themselves and refusing to take on more work or obligations
- Having no interest in adopting a "hustle" attitude in order to advance in their profession
This is a concerning tendency because many accountancy firms rely on employees to work many more hours than they are compensated for during busy season. So employers need to be aware of how this could be causing their employees to disengage. How can you support them during this period? Can you do more to instil a culture of teamwork and self-development?
Unsurprisingly, several firms have found a correlation between the early-career hustle and eventual partner potential. So keeping your employees happy, engaged, and motivated to perform is key.
a
Cause for concern over "Quiet Quitting."
According to one theory, the Great Resignation and Covid-19 inspired the biggest Quiet Quitting movement. Why? Because this phenomenon allows people to regain autonomy over their careers and personal lives after experiencing prolonged job insecurity. There is always the possibility of a "quiet resignation" if an employee doesn't feel they have the freedom to leave for any reason formally, but during times of uncertainty, this can be magnified.
Most quiet quitters tend to be younger
If you have read any articles on "quiet quitting," you might have noticed that most quiet quitters are younger workers who just stop showing up for work or disengage from their jobs. In the subsequent 12-18 months, they will then either find new employment or launch their own business. Although "quiet quitting" might mean different things to different people, it appears to be the initial stage of leaving a position. These findings are consistent with a recent poll conducted by Gallup, where more than half (54%) of workers born after 1989 are disengaged.
Remote working is making this easier
For as long as taxes have been collected, there has always been a certain percentage of workers who can get away with doing the bare minimum. As far as I know, it has always been the case. The rise of remote labour has just made it simpler for low-level workers to avoid detection by upper-level management. It´s no surprise then that resigning in secret is less of a hassle without anyone in upper management noticing.
Read: How to deal with low performers who work remotely
Be careful of the impact on existing employees
Conflict in the workplace can also be caused by people departing quietly. After all, animosity will rapidly grow if everyone in the team isn't doing their part. Be weary of this as it can cause your best employees to become dissatisfied with their current circumstances and seek employment elsewhere.
a
How to combat quiet quitting
To what extent does your company suffer from "quiet departures," and what steps may be taken to prevent them? To determine why employees are leaving quietly, you should start with the company's leadership and culture and ensure you adhere to the following tips:
Don't force them to spend all of their time at the workplace
The most senior employees in your company are often accustomed to putting in long hours behind a desk. It's possible they'll say things like, "Get people back into the office" as a solution to the present problems with employee engagement and morale. While appealing at first, this strategy is likely to cause a significant number of workers to quit.
The applicants placed by our sister organisation, The Accountants' Recruiter, report a strong desire for work-life balance as one of their top priorities. They would like to "have their cake and eat it too." That is, they would like to have the option of coming into an office some days but working remotely on other days. Indeed, several workplace studies corroborate this. Deloitte found that by the year 2020, over half of all professionals placed the highest importance on remote work and flexible work hours. Deloitte Australia conducted a poll in 2022 and discovered that 93 percent of respondents valued their own physical, emotional, and mental health as highly as their own financial compensation. When given the option, 78% of employees would rather work a blended schedule or from home.
Take care of your partners and top earners first
Your leading fee earners and partners typically work long hours. They may have put in as many hours as necessary to get the job done, no matter the cost to their health or personal life. How many of your friends and associates have been divorced? Or make it seem as though they gave up their lives and their waistline for the cause? Do you really think it's any surprise that many of your younger workers are looking up and not aiming to be the next partner in your firm?
In many companies, the culture of a team or office is determined by the example set by partners and top fee earners in terms of work hours and limits. But if junior staff see that their superiors value self-care - for example, by taking real time off on vacations or rarely working on weekends - that example will be set for the rest of the company. Younger workers are less likely to quietly quit if they believe that upper management values their time off.
Allow workers their vacation time
The Quiet Quitters advocate for strict time limits, so that one does not toil away at the office on nights, weekends, or holidays. Therefore, for businesses to prevent quiet resignations, they should reduce the number of times young workers are asked to "pull an all-nighter at work" or dedicate part of their weekends to company business. To avoid having staff respond to urgent emails on the weekend or after hours, scheduling tools should be used. It also entails a scrutiny of the normative demands made on staff members.
Workers are not resources to be overworked, despite the fact that they must be compensated for their time. The business model of any company that habitually expects its workers to charge for more than six hours per day has to be examined closely.
I need more guidance and instructions
Increased productivity is just one of the many advantages of hybrid work arrangements, but the lack of strong management and leadership in an organisation is immediately brought to light. Employees may soon begin to feel demoralised and their work to be meaningless as a result of ineffective management and leadership.
According to Gallup's study, a large percentage of young workers do not see their jobs as meaningful. After all, this is the generation that has discovered that for 2-3 years of their formative career they have been working from home for huge chunks of time. It's no surprise that many of our younger workers are contemplating quitting quietly, given the reality that many tax practices have a matrix structure in which ties between senior managers and their direct subordinates are fragile.
Hybrid work styles necessitate a higher level of planned and deliberate conversation amongst coworkers. Since employees are not constantly present, management-by-walking-around is ineffective. For this reason, an audit of the frequency and timing of internal company communications is necessary. So make sure to look at everything from how upper-level managers talk to their subordinates to how team and project leaders and counselling managers talk to their subordinates. After all, it's tough to go Cold Turkey if you have reason to feel that someone is keeping tabs on your progress.
Read: Leading a virtual team: what needs to be different
a
Look out for the signs
Quiet quitting is a real phenomenon that can have serious consequences for your team’s success. As a manager, it is up to you to recognise the signs of quiet quitting and take steps to address them. By creating an environment that encourages open communication, building strong relationships with your employees and providing clear expectations and feedback, you can help create a workplace where everyone feels valued and motivated. With these strategies in place, you can prevent quiet quitting before it starts or mitigate its effects if it does occur.
Now you´ve retained your best talent, want to get your team to work better together?
Try our free Team Effectiveness Review to pinpoint exactly what you need to work on to improve output 👇
Download now