Saying It Loud, “I Quit and I’m Proud!”

A few weeks ago, I returned from a supervisor training and decided to check in on workplace trends I may have missed. I sifted through articles and paused when I saw an article on loud quitting. I thought to myself, “You’ve got to be kidding”. Is this where we’re at now? I became curious about how loud quitting differed from going postal or just being a disgruntled employee who decided to publicize it. It seems that resigning is still a relevant topic with ongoing and emerging variants (no COVID pun intended). The newest variant being loud quitting. At first glance, I dismissed the term as being the opposite of quiet quitting. I wondered if this new term was industry-specific and what its characteristics were. After performing research, I decided that there was more to learn about this phenomenon.?

Research shows that the topic of loud quitting is not new and has been quietly emerging for over 20 years albeit under various terms. According to research loud quitting is also referred to as public quitting. As a matter of fact, public quitting and literature began to emerge in the 1970s and has been steadily growing. I searched in a database using several key terms to explore the relevancy of the topic which produced the following results in the Pro-Quest Psychology database, filtered for year range, 2019-2023, peer-reviewed literature, full-text: Employment and Hedonicism (75), Employment and Eudaimonic (195), and Public Job Quit (5,059), Google Scholar Search using the Boolean search operator AND (5,640), Employee Quitting Job (260), Job Quit Lit (140), peer-reviewed, full-text filtered Loud Quit Lit (152), peer-reviewed, full-text filtered Loud Quitting (14). Non-filtered results using different terms returned the following results: Loud Quitting (583), Employee quitting a job (260).

Given the above search results, loud quitting is of interest and having its moment - again. In 2012 loud quitting public announcements were made by teachers on social media and other outlets which began resonating with society through public engagement (Hollinger, 2021). In fact, Hollinger’s research of quitting literature, also known as “quit lit”, includes data on public quitting called, the Measure of Quit Lit Publicness (2021). This research table depicts the title of the post, author, social media host, engagement totals, and engagement type. There are thousands of public engagement responses via YouTube, Washington Post, personal web pages, and Facebook. Public engagement responses were in the form of comments, shares, likes, and various emoji reactions.

After reflecting on the articles that have recently surfaced on loud quitting and researching its antecedents, I see more clearly how the pandemic changed everything in the world of work, specifically, us. It forced many of us to do something that we would hardly ever do, slow down. We had no choice but to stop and think - think critically about our lives. I believe the behaviors and attitudes that continue to surface in organizations and be publicly displayed are offshoots of those thought processes resulting from those internal conversations about finding one’s purpose and the meaning of life. These events are not so unusual now that I’ve reviewed some history on the topic.?

Recently, there have been a flurry of articles on loud quitting from differing perspectives. For example, one explanation for loud quitting is that? professionals are feeling burned out and blaming their bosses. A way to understand loud quitting is to acknowledge the phenomena which is getting attention in higher education, by creating an event for open discussion. Yet, another way that some have resigned and expressed how they feel about their job is to publicize their resignation on social media like some GenZers have opted to loudquit on TikTok using the hashtag #Quittok. Loud quitting is also viewed by some as a way of supporting work-life balance by announcing that you are done for the day, according to a recent ?LinkedIn survey on loud leaving.

Research shows that loud quitting is not just impacting US workplaces, it's global. While 2023 has seen its share of quitting announcements, it’s also seen its share of loud layoffs. So, with all of these challenges, what can managers do about it? Well, while they may not be able to do much if the employee has already exited the building so, perhaps they can strengthen relationships with those who have chosen grumpy staying and assess what is going on within their organizational culture. In other words, organizations will need to customize their “why”. Yes, that means assessing people, processes, systems, and technologies. While those employees who choose to stay may be grumpy, it won’t shield them from rage applying whenever their boss works their last nerve. The Google Trends Report shows the level of searchers’ interest in the term rage applying. And what else can an organization do? Perhaps, try skills-based mentoring and skills-based hiring?

References

Carbonaro, G. (2023). Forget 'quiet quitting,' 2023 will be all about 'loud layoffs'. Newsweek. Retrieved from https://www.newsweek.com/forget-quiet-quitting-2023-layoffs-1776002.

Cerullo, M. (2023). With #Quittok, GenZers are quitting their jobs. CBS News. Retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/quittok-loud-quitting-tik-tok/.

Dengate, C.(2023). ‘Loud leaving’ has its benefits. LinkedIn. Retrieved from https://www.dhirubhai.net/news/story/loud-leaving-has-its-benefits-5585708.

Elon University (2023). Quiet quitting out loud. Retrieved from https://connect.elon.edu/quiet-quitting-out-loud.

Google Trends Report. (2023). Rage applying trends. Google Trends.? Retrieved from? https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=US&q=rage%20applying&hl=en.

Hollinger, A. (2021). Quitting out loud: The agential realism and emerging phenomena of quit lit. Dissertation. Doctoral dissertation.

Kaplan, J. (2023). First there was quiet quitting. Now it's become grumpy staying. Business Insider Africa. Retrieved from https://africa.businessinsider.com/careers/first-there-was-quiet-quitting-now-its-become-grumpy-staying/q076y5y.

Lucas, E. (2023). As ‘skills-based hiring’ becomes all the rage, these education leaders want to overturn a 117-year-old way of measuring students’ experiences. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmylucas/2023/04/26/as-skills-based-hiring-becomes-all-the-rage-these-education-leaders-want-to-overturn-a-117-year-old-way-of-measuring-students-experiences/?sh=47cc261970d0.

Martin, A. (2023). Skills-based mentoring: An overlooked strategy for developing talent pipelines. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/search/?q=skills-based%20hiring&sh=2f73f8b279f4.

O’Connell, B. (2023). Gallup Says 'Quiet Quitting' Is Turning Into 'Loud Quitting'. The Street. Retrieved from https://www.thestreet.com/employment/gallup-quiet-quitting-turning-into-loud-quitting.