(Not Quite) Quiet Quitting

Management theories suggest there are three types of employees – Actively Engaged, Not Engaged and Actively Disengaged. Various surveys show that over half the employees anywhere in the world (and as is always the case, in the Indian context, maybe more!) fall in the middle category viz. not engaged. This has been and will remain the universal truth and reality for and of life. So, what’s changed? Well, the terminology has. Now everyone (and especially the IT world) is (q)cutely calling it ‘Quiet Quitting’ (QQ). Is it really a new phenomenon? Or its like day labourers and contract workers are not called ‘gig’ workers! Isn’t it the same thing?

More importantly, why are over half the employees anywhere and everywhere just coasting as its often called? At the core, in my view it has to be the culture, the work environment and the work ethic at any workplace. There are offices where you are (informally) not allowed to leave before your boss leaves, there are offices where it is (an unwritten) norm to work late hours (else be labelled as clock-watcher) and on the other side of the spectrum, have seen offices where they forcefully shut the lights and the air conditioning one hour beyond normal office hours so employees don’t stay back too late!

We all know the famous normal curve. Going by that 50-55% is quite good then! If (for no business reason) your normal official timing is till 9pm what can you expect? If there is no ‘emotional contract’ with your employees, what else will happen? If for over 5 years (pre-Covid) there have been no appraisals and hence MIs and promotions, what else will happen? If the work environment is not safe and hygienic, what else will happen? There will be many more reasons to this list – abusive bosses, profanity at work, no encouragement, negativity, no recognition, etc.

Let’s quickly see how we have now been trained to think and believe that only excellence matters. All of us who have used Ola and Uber services, have been asked to rate the driver / driving experience. The moment we don’t put 5 stars, we are asked for a reason! Why? Why should every ride be a 5-star experience? Even in our corporate world of a 5-point rating have we forgotten that 3 is ‘meets expectations’? What’s wrong with a 3 rating? Isn’t that what the normal part of the normal curve is? Driver’s job is take me from my pick up point to my destination in a safe and secure way. If he does that, shouldn’t that be a 3 rating?

Few weeks ago, couple of high-profile CEOs of startups went on record about working hard and long hours as a requirement at an early stage of one’s career. Unfortunately, both of them were trolled heavily, although what they said was true and reality in the Indian context.

So questions that I want to raise and have a discussion are:

1.??????What’s wrong with ‘quiet quitting’? Why is it being touted as being something bad and undesirable?

2.??????Why should and more importantly can everyone really work ABCD (above and beyond call of duty)?

3.??????Can any organization realistically have a majority of their employees actively engaged?

Happy to start a debate on this important and burning topic of QQ. Welcoming your comments and views!