Skills for Leaders to Prevent Quiet Quitting

You may have heard about the recent phenomenon of quiet quitting. Employees are said to be quiet quitting when they've made a conscious choice to do only the bare minimum to get by at work. The term has a positive spin among those who use it – rather than implying laziness, it connotes a sense of disengagement that's appropriate in the face of bad working conditions and unresponsive employers. Diminished effort becomes the only mechanism by which quality of life can be improved, and these efforts are lauded.

If you're a leader at your company and want to stem the tide of quiet quitting, here are 4 ways to help prevent it.

1. Advocate for Raises and Advancement

Employees aren't getting sufficient raises. Last year, CNBC reported on a recent survey that indicated that over 55% of workers' wages weren't even keeping up with inflation. If employees can't secure better pay or promotion by staying with you, they'll want to do it by going somewhere else. In the current job market, this has proven to be the statistically superior strategy. Job hopping generally outpaces company loyalty in terms of pay increases, sometimes by over 30%. In that environment, it's easy to go to work with one foot already out the door.

If employees at your company aren't seeing their coworkers promoted from within and they're not even being given enough raises to cover the cost of living increases, why should you expect them to try to show that they can take on extra responsibilities? Without a raise or improved title to compensate for this increased work, that amounts to working for free. This makes the employer feel like a thief to the employee, and they may feel justified in reducing their effort.

If you're in a position to promote from within and give regular raises to keep employees' pay at or exceeding their value on the open market, then do so. If you aren't, use your position of leadership to advocate for this wherever you can. Never ask employees to regularly take on additional work without a pay increase or title promotion. This is the single biggest thing you can do to keep employees from quiet quitting – or leaving altogether.

2. Foster Employee Autonomy 

A common workplace complaint involves a lack of autonomy. Employees are micromanaged in an attempt to squeeze every last ounce of productivity out of them.

While this may seem to increase productivity in the short term, employees quickly become dissatisfied in such environments. They soon feel overworked and mistrusted. It also removes the natural incentive to finish one's work (being finished) with a disincentive – more work. If, as we pointed out above, this extra work doesn't even come with increased compensation, this disincentive is doubly egregious.

To avoid this situation, foster a culture of employee autonomy as much as possible, which can increase productivity, engagement, and job satisfaction. Make sure responsibilities are well-defined and that employees are familiar with them, and then allow them to fulfill them in the way they consider best without unnecessary supervision. This includes allowing them to work from home.

Whenever possible, measure employee productivity by their output, not the hours worked – especially in salaried situations, which are designed to make employees accountable for their responsibilities, not the clock. Listen to the needs of your employees and allow them to implement solutions that serve them as they fulfill their responsibilities.

3. Engage With Employees About Career Goals

Without a path to advancement, employees feel their potential is limited, and with time, they'll probably seek to improve their quality of life through the only remaining options – leaving or reducing the effort they put into their current responsibilities.

Don't allow your team to fall into this situation. From day one in your department, engage with those you lead about their career goals. Identify the opportunities to move up within your organization and how they can prepare themselves to make those steps. Even if such opportunities don't exist within your company, do what you can to help them make their time with you a positive step forward in their careers. The more those you lead feel they're working to build not only your company, but their own future, the more they'll give their best without reservation.

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