When job resignation becomes a hype.
"Actually, I've already checked out mentally, but I'm not telling you." That's the attitude towards work currently blowing up on social media. 72.7 million times the hashtag #quietquitting has been used on TikTok.
"Quiet Quitting" stands for a lifestyle that clearly decouples work and life, yet goes far beyond the well-known "work-life balance." It means doing exactly what is in the job description at work, and nothing more. Not a single extra step, not a second longer.
When a person decides to "quiet quit," it means a complete emotional detachment from their profession and job: from the employer, the team, the activity itself, their own responsibility, creative opportunities, or perspectives. Work is performed with the least possible effort and is merely a means to an end. Everything that is "life" takes place after work hours.
Quiet quitters neither consciously want to harm the company nor lose their job. They do what is required of them – with maximum indifference and always just enough to fulfill their duties.
The term "quiet quitting" originally emerged in the context of burnout prevention – as a counter-model to excessive self-sacrifice on the job. In such cases, it can certainly make sense to gain a little emotional distance from work and refocus on oneself and one's own needs. However, when such a concept turns into a "hype," it can be assumed that not only people on the verge of burnout feel addressed, but also very many who were never willing to go the famous extra mile anyway. Who never burned for a job. Who not only find a justification for their lack of engagement in this mindset, but can also feel hip and trendy while doing so.
Standoff situation for employers, colleagues, and customers
Such behavior is egocentric and unfair to employers and colleagues. It is damaging to business when it comes to production activities, for example, and a catastrophe when people are involved. As soon as empathy, care, and compassion are required on the job, quiet quitting means disaster. Teachers, nurses, paramedics, … It is unthinkable if all of them were to do their work only mechanically. You really wouldn't wish on anyone to end up with a doctor in an emergency who shares this mindset.
The damage caused by "quiet quitting" is enormous, far-reaching, and irreversible.
How can this happen?
The employment contract specifies what employees have to do within what framework. The "what" can be defined relatively clearly, but the "how" finds no place in any contract or job description. It is rooted in the company culture, team interaction, and shared values. Yet this is precisely what matters and what makes companies successful – or not.
All of this falls under the "psychological contract": benefits and expectations that are mutually assumed without needing to be explicitly and detailedly recorded in writing.
"If you are committed to your career and feel an emotional connection to the organization or your career, then an event that violates the psychological contract—the unwritten expectations—shatters our sense of whether we can trust the organization," says Dr. Ashley Weinberg, work psychologist at the University of Salford.
If expectations are disappointed over a longer period of time, this is perceived as a serious breach of trust—even if these expectations were never explicitly addressed.
Keeping an eye on the psychological contract can help prevent frustration.
When employees decide to stay silent, it is already too late for surveys and employee retention programs. In the worst-case scenario, this mood rubs off on others, or they too become increasingly frustrated as they have to compensate for their colleagues' shortcomings. Therefore: Ask before problems become visible. Do so even—or especially—when the answers might be angry, desperate, and loud, because at that stage you can still intervene.
PERSENTIS is the only employee survey that breaks down the psychological contract: The results show how needs and expectations are weighted and to what extent they are met in the job. In addition, it illustrates the gap between satisfaction and engagement: an optimal quiet quitting early-warning system.
#quietquitting #psychologicalcontract #innerresignation
