Workers embrace the bare minimum in ‘quiet quitting’ trend

A new phenomenon of “quiet quitting”, where employees do the bare minimum if they feel their jobs are not meaningful, is gripping the workforce, experts have said.

Encouraged by social media, workers who are uninspired are mentally “checking out” but learning to do just enough not to get sacked.

Academics believe that the trend has been fuelled in part by the pandemic, which prompted greater reflection on the meaning of existence and work-life balance.

This has caused people to abandon a “hustle culture mentality” and the long hours that came with it, they said.

However, the experts are warning that embracing a quiet quitting approach may itself be the cause of poor job satisfaction.

It comes as global research for 2022 by Gallup showed that only nine per cent of workers in the UK were engaged or enthusiastic about their work.

That puts Britain 33rd out of 38 countries in Europe.

Worldwide, one in five workers plan to quit their jobs in 2022, according to PWC’s Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey of more than 52,000 workers in 44 countries and territories carried out in March.

‘What should work mean for me?’

Professor Maria Kordowicz, director of the centre for interprofessional education and learning at the University of Nottingham, said: “The search for meaning has become far more apparent.

“There was a sense of our own mortality during the pandemic, something quite existential around people thinking –  ‘What should work mean for me? How can I do a role that’s more aligned to my values?’

“I think this has a link to the elements of quiet quitting that are perhaps more negative: mentally checking out from a job, being exhausted from the volume of work and lack of work-life balance that hit many of us during the pandemic.”

The concept of quiet quitting has become popular on the video-sharing platform TikTok.

Some believe it was inspired by the Chinese social media tag “#TangPing” – which translates to “lying flat” – that is now censored in China, where the country’s shrinking workforce is a growing problem.

Professor Kordowicz added: “I think that can lead to less satisfaction at work, lack of enthusiasm, less engagement.

“So we could juxtapose “quiet quitting” with “the great resignation”. Do we stay put but switch off, or do we move towards something?”

According to the Gallup research, Europe has the lowest regional percentage of engaged employees, yet also the second-lowest percentage of employees who say they are likely to move in the next 12 months, suggesting it is fertile territory for quiet quitting compared to other parts of the world.

Forty-one per cent of Britons included in the survey said they feel stress “a lot of the day”, with 15 per cent experiencing anger as a significant part of their daily emotional package, and 20 per cent sadness.

“Since the pandemic, people’s relationship with work has been studied in many ways, and the literature typically, across the professions, would argue that, yes, people’s way of relating to their work has changed,” said Professor Kordowicz.

Jill Cotton, a trends expert at the recruitment website Glassdoor, said: “Quietly quitting is often a sign that it’s time to move on from your role.

“If you’re reducing your effort to the bare minimum needed to complete tasks, your heart is probably no longer in the job or the company.”