3 Things Gen Z Teaches Us About Quiet Quitting

Gen Z doesn’t “quiet quit” because they’re lazy. But they’ll keep their best to themselves, unless our workplaces give them flexibility, resilience, and trust.

Quiet quitting isn’t just a Gen Z phenomenon, but they do own it. In Gallup’s 2023 State of the Global Workplace, Gen Z and young Millennial?engagement with work dropped four points?from 2019 and 2022. meQ’s internal research reports similarly stark findings: 60% of Gen Z agree with “only doing the work they’re paid for.”

It’s not because they are lazy, burned out, or spoiled.

What about the dynamics of work isn’t working for this new generation? How are they helping us clarify new requirements for engagement in the workforce across generations? (After all, according to Gallup, 59% of the world’s?workforce is quiet quitting.)

Gen Z has embraced “non-grind” at work for three fundamental reasons. Understanding these will help us engage younger workers, as well as every other generation in the workforce today.

1. Flexibility is the new normal.

Gen Z’ers are extremely open to change because they have grown up with one crisis after another. Having embraced flexibility by necessity, they have a hard time going back to a non-flexible routine.

As many of them reject the daily-grind culture of work, they have also become super entrepreneurial: they made the side hustle mainstream. A survey by Bank of America found that?72% of Gen Z respondents reported having a side hustle, with the majority earning between $500 and $1000 per month.

These patterns around flexibility can be a strength for businesses, not a threat. They demonstrate Gen Z’s unrivaled agility, openness to change, innovation, and creativity. Gen Z is also perhaps the first generation to be fully comfortable with constantly changing systems and technologies.

Takeway: The horse is out of the barn on flexibility for Gen Z — and for most other generations as well. While the majority of the workforce grew up working a 9-5 day on-site, people have learned to embrace the flexibility the pandemic thrust them into. We as leaders will cause widespread retention issues if we do not address the need for flexibility.

2. Stress is the workplace epidemic of today.

Gen Z is extremely stressed. According to Gallup, younger workers are 30% more stressed than workers over 40. This outsize stress burden makes sense, as they have come of age through the war on terror, the financial meltdown, school gun violence, the pandemic, climate change, and rapidly evolving technology. In general, Gen Z hasn’t had the opportunity to gain the skills to address their reactions to stress. As a result, their focus and engagement diminish, which leads to burnout.

Burnout, however, isn’t the useful point. It’s the lack of skills. meQ data suggest that?highly agile people often do not have the skills of resilience?that help them manage the accompanying stress.

Agility?refers to the ability of an employee to react and adapt to changes quickly and appropriately and take advantage of new opportunities.?Resilience?represents the ability to rebound productively in challenging situations, positive or negative.

Takeaway:?The data is clear:?The flip side of highly agile behaviors can be high stress. Resilience — the ability to focus, think critically, and manage one’s impulses and emotions — can be a powerful safeguard against burnout for agile people. The fast-changing world of work, with constant, accelerated shifts in systems, technologies, and work environments, requires the resilience to cope, remain steady, and adapt. Gen Z’ers, and others in the workforce, need support to gain these essential skills.

3. Creating trust is a management priority.

I think of Gen Z as Strivers, brimming with untapped potential. They have a growth mindset, are open to innovation and risk, and are excited to learn.

Their quiet quitting is, per research from?Harvard Business Review, “usually less about an employee’s willingness to work harder and more creatively, and more about a manager’s ability to build a relationship with their employees where they are not counting the minutes until quitting time.”

The research shows that this necessary trust is linked to three behaviors: positive relationships between managers and direct reports, consistency, and expertise.

To engage and empower all generations in the workforce, leaders must prioritize?creating an environment?in which workers feel safe speaking up, in which they believe that the organization cares about them, and in which they can have confidence that leadership will hear and address their concerns. Gen Z shows us that just people have increasingly more tolerance and appreciation for flexibility, it is increasingly important to create a positive, safe, and caring environment.

Takeaway:?Leaders must make the workplace not only challenging and fun, but safe and caring. When younger workers are involved, we have to extend this effort as far as possible, as?meQ’s internal research has found that employees ages 18 to 29 are 14% less likely than their older co-workers to feel their team supports their mental well-being.

It’s difficult to overstate the impact of manager support for mental well-being on employee outcomes. Additional meQ research finds that?well-supported employees are 25% less likely to struggle?with somatic symptoms of stress (39.7% vs 30%), 33% less likely to have a hard time getting motivated in the morning, and 56% less likely to have high work stress. The prevalence of burnout is 58% lower among employees who enjoy strong manager support for mental well-being.

The key to unlocking the passion and potential of this growing percentage of our workforce lies in supporting them, protecting them, and engaging them. Perhaps this is how we end quiet quitting, regardless of generation or demographic.