Quiet quitting was a term made up in 2020 or a little earlier. Recently, this theme has been coming up in a lot of conversations and social media posts. The high demands of staff to perform at work, lack of resources, poor recruitment and low pay have now led to even more staff quiet quitting. Quiet quitting is one of the hardest things to uphold at work, no staff member wants to quiet quit, but they are forced to when the company culture, resources, and toxic office politics burden the workforce. Individual skills such as resilience or adaptability will not be the solution for poor company support. Even the best of employees will leave or quiet quit.
So what can we do to feel we are thriving or see work as fulfilling? It’s a complex answer, but there are a couple of things we can do; One can be giving insight to management and the team at large. For example; if you have been in the position for a number of years and you still enjoy the work and the team, it would be good to speak kindly but firmly about the issues within the workforce and that you want to help the department move forward. Therefore, not putting the spotlight on yourself, speak on the challenges and threats to the workforce/department. If you can get a group to support you this would also be positive. Changing the perspective of those that can make a difference is key. The moment you quiet quit and sit back, and don’t take action the longer the feeling of burden can increase. Furthermore, if you see that the changes won’t be a priority, then you may want to move jobs.
I recently read a book called Noise. It’s a brilliant book that gives analytical insight and details into why noise within organisations destroy performance, production and most importantly good decision making. Sometimes, when we quiet quit at work and don’t leave, is due to knowing its systemic and hopefully it will change one day, or the pay is really good, or located near home. These could be really good factors to stay even though we feel emotionally exhausted and stressed at work. If we are looking at what outweighs what at work, but we need to be honest with our fulfilment and purpose at work as opposed to pay and location, etc. 70% of our lives are spent at work, doing bare minimum and not feeling excited about the job can effect us badly over a long period of time. To feel like we are thriving we have to take action and responsibility for where we are in the organisation. Set boundaries, ask for changes and don’t be afraid to be an advocate for health and wellbeing and psychological safety at work. You may not be able to change the bigger issues they are causing you to quiet quit in the first place but you can be strong and firm in your demands for better working conditions.
Sometimes, we may just need to get the courage to leave a job for a new one. Again, being communicative and critical, whether management listen or not is still a step in the right direction for positive change. It also shows you are thinking of the group/work at large. Remember its not what you say to line management, or the board, its how you say it that counts
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