Effective Leaders Have Fewer Quiet Quitters on their Team

Quiet quitting has been highlighted in recent discussions about our post-COVID workplaces. In case you missed the buzz, this represents the idea that discouraged employees are not actually quitting, but are psychologically detached from their work and not giving their maximum effort.

While today’s employees may be emboldened to act this way, this is hardly a new idea. The Gallup organization has been polling on American worker engagement for more than 20 years, and the results have been discouraging. Employee engagement has peaked at only 36% and is most recently down at 32%. According to Gallup, "quiet quitters" make up at least 50% of the US workforce.

Work is only one aspect of quality of life that includes family, friendships, health, volunteering, hobbies, and spiritual values. However, work is important -- one of the major ways we spend our limited time on this earth. Who wants to just-go-through-the-motions for so many hours of our precious life?

Work should be about more than a pay check, a means for each of us to apply our skills and values as we earn a living.  We are right to expect that work be meaningful.

A key aspect is leadership: how bosses engage, inspire, and manage their direct reports. Managers need to clearly communicate their vision and how employee work contributes to a larger business purpose. The most successful managers take time to get know their employees as people – rather than seeing these interactions as mere business transactions. Benjamin Franklin once observed, ​“No one cares what you know until they know that you care!” 

You can read more in my recent column in the New Hampshire Business Review here.

We each have an extraordinary opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives, including our own. Don’t underestimate your impact!