Joseph Fung is a Recurring Founder and Startup Investor CEO of Uvarowhere he launches sales careers and grows high-performing sales teams.
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Since 2020, employers around the world have experienced what the world may remember forever as the Great Layoff. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, as many as 4 million Americans quit their jobs by June 2021 alone. Even in this current year, companies continue to be laid off as employees voluntarily leave their jobs to pursue alternative careers, either to find work more in line with their values or as a result of burnout. .
The fear of stopping silently began to mount as headline after headline hit our news feeds. Faster than you can say “low involvement,” the frenzy of worry began. Employee engagement experts and leadership teams gathered to ask how they could avert this crisis, improve engagement, and ensure their teams were there to stay. Quietly stopping, it seemed, was a nightmare waiting to happen.
But with Review of GallupI that “silent quitters” are the ones who “don’t go beyond their job and just live up to their job description,” I’m tempted to ask if we’ve all fallen through the mirror. If employees are doing the work they were hired to do, isn’t that the point?
Boundaries are the key to happiness.
According to some experts Covid-19 burnout could be the cause for the “start” of this so-called pandemic of silent shutdown. Since the first layoffs occurred in early to mid-2020, the workers who stayed may have felt happy or even relieved that they were still employed. Some took on extra work and piled their proverbial plates higher and higher. When the shift to work from home came about, it was widely reported that employees found it more difficult to establish the line between work and home, especially when the two had become one. The World Health Organization (WHO) even stated that working from home is a “blurring boundaries.”
In addition, the weight of additional responsibilities for employees who stayed after layoffs and stuck during The Great Resignation may be catching up.
The busy culture is problematic.
With rising costs and inflation, many workers have turned to crowds and other gigs to meet their financial needs, further straining the boundaries between work and home and even violating company time.
A Bankrate survey found that: 41% of employees relying on an afterthought to support their finances and help them pay bills amid rapidly rising living costs. For some employers, this may seem like a ‘quiet stop’ as employees may seem unengaged or tired due to their secondary work life.
Stopping quietly isn’t necessarily the problem.
While talking to fellow CEOs and leaders, I heard a common theme: so-called “quiet stopping” really isn’t the problem. It is a translation error between what employees demand and what leadership provides. People want to be recognized for their talent, passion and hard work. They want meaningful work and boundaries. Is that so wrong? The headlines read, “Nobody wants to work,” but what they should say is, “People want to be paid for their efforts, even if they’re passionate about the job.”
But as with any problem, there are solutions. Here are four steps you can apply with your team.
1. Help your employees set boundaries and stick to them.
Many services allow your employees to set customizable working hours. Provided that your employees are not tied to certain hours of service required for their position, you can let them choose the working hours that suit them best. Keep those hours in mind, narrow the range accordingly, and keep a close eye on meeting times. Then make sure you stick to those limits and give employees the opportunity to do the same.
2. Promote healthy engagement over the busy culture.
Hustle culture has been made sexy thanks to social media and media coverage, but we shouldn’t be competing to see who has worked the longest hours or has the busiest schedule. Healthy engagement means your employees can balance their work responsibilities against what it takes to live their healthiest and most positive lives.
3. Ask for feedback regularly and act on it.
Contact your employees regularly, but not as a performance measure. Take their feedback and put it into action. If you’re not sure what your employees are asking for, seek clarity. By connecting with your teams and building stronger relationships, you are more likely to improve retention and help your employees achieve their goals for success.
4. Don’t lose sight of the real issues.
No one is advocating that people stop doing their job, but we should all advocates for people who do the work they were hired to do and expect to be paid accordingly. If you expect all your employees to stomp themselves into the ground every day to go ‘above and beyond’, you lose good employees. The toxic busy culture mentality is not beneficial to anyone, not even your shareholders.
The problem with buzzword-filled ideas like “quiet stop” is that they create the illusion that there is a problem that isn’t there—often by hiding the real problem. Doing the “absolute minimum” at work doesn’t mean your employees plan to fly the coop; often the ‘absolute minimum’ is exactly what is needed for their role. If you’re concerned that your employees aren’t doing their jobs, have metrics in place so you can understand what’s going on and intervene, provide support, and build relationships with employees to better prepare them for the future. good luck.
Career success should be more than just an idea. By respecting boundaries and avoiding a toxic busy culture, you can empower your employees and company to focus on living their values every day. This enables them to drive the business forward and better support their teams day in and day out.
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