You know who needs to great resignate and/or quit loudly? The people who come up with these stupid workplace trend buzzwords. Oh well, we’ve got another one for you.
The masters of the poll at Gallup have released their State of the Global Workplace 2023 Report and by quickly skimming it we discover that the majority of the world’s employees are “quiet quitting.” The majority being 59% and quiet quitting defined by Gallup as:
These employees are filling a seat and watching the clock. They put in the minimum effort required, and they are psychologically disconnected from their employer. Although they are minimally productive, they are more likely to be stressed and burnt out than engaged workers because they feel lost and disconnected from their workplace.
As opposed to the mere 23% of employees who are thriving at work:
These employees find their work meaningful and feel connected to the team and their organization. They feel proud of the work they do and take ownership of their performance, going the extra mile for teammates and customers.
Then we get to the 18% of loud quitters. You’d think loud quitting means a PwC auditor telling her soon-to-be former team members “you’re fake important and you stink,” “I can give two shits about your animals, maids, brother,” and “You hate yourself and your job, let’s be honest. Your cat doesn’t care about you so stop caring about it. Stories about your nasty cat are unbearable. Seriously, I can’t even deal. Beyond gross! You’re fake ratchet! I hear you giving weird remarks that are borderline weird….I can definitely hear the twang in your voice” in a 5,000 word farewell email but somehow it doesn’t.
Nor does loud quitting mean this:
No, Gallup says a loud quitter is an employee who is not only actively disengaged with their work (i.e. could not find it within themselves to give a single solitary fuck) but actively engaged in sabotage:
These employees take actions that directly harm the organization, undercutting its goals and opposing its leaders. At some point along the way, the trust between employee and employer was severely broken. Or the employee has been woefully mismatched to a role, causing constant crises.
This situation naturally leads to higher stress in the disengaged, probably because everything pisses them off and all they can think about is that glorious day they get to turn in their laptop.
As far as the office vs. WFH discussion, Gallup analysis finds that engagement has 3.8 times as much influence on employee stress as work location. They say:
In other words, what people experience in their every day work — their feelings of involvement and enthusiasm — matters more in reducing stress than where they are sitting. Leaders need to ask if poor remote work performance or poor hybrid work performance is a location problem or a management problem. No location can *fix* poor management, and the office alone has no magic to create a great organizational culture.
Let’s hope leadership is reading this. The report gives them a little advice:
For leaders and managers, loud quitting can signal major risks within an organization that are important not to ignore. Conversely, quiet quitters are often your greatest opportunity for growth and change. They are waiting for a leader or a manager to have a conversation with them, encourage them, inspire them. A few changes to how they are managed could turn them into productive team members.
I’m curious how many of you reading this would consider yourself quiet quitters and if so, what changes your leaders could implement that might get you engaged at work. More pizza?
State of the Global Workplace: 2023 Report [Gallup]
There is no way 1 out of 5 workers are actively sabotaging their workplace… unless Gallup counts not doing your job as active sabotage