Is WFH driving the new 'quiet quitting' phenomena?

You may have come across the term '#quietquitting (which first appeared on TikTok in 2022) and this refers to a phenomena that started when #wfh (Working From Home) became the norm for many of us, during and after Covid.

Once staff (especially Millennials and Gen Z'S born after 1981, according to LSE research) had more time at home to think about their careers, work/life balance and how valued they felt - many became despondent, disenfranchised and disaffected, so then reverted to doing just the bare minimum working hours, job specific duties and levels of engagement and commitment.

The LSE research referred to above, also mentioned that quiet quitting was more prevalent with the 'laptop class' in the finance, technology and professional services sectors (where many of these roles now incorporate WFH). I have also seen an uptick in enquiries recently from SME business owners trying to motivate underperforming #salespeople and #BDMs (Business Development Managers).

Only last month, I finished a 3 month contract with a small business owner who's one and only BDM was underperforming and had been since Covid. Sales / Business Development is traditionally a transient industry anyway but this particular BDM was showing the tell-tale signs of quite quitting and had struggled to adapt to a more hybrid way of selling i.e. doing more WFM 'virtual' sales.

The normal quiet quitting tell-tail signs are just doing the bare minimum, not volunteering to take on more work, not going above and beyond and in this case, only hitting quota occasionally. This particular BDM was also very seasoned but also very resistant to change (thankfully not all of us 'seasoned sellers' are change-phobic).

I was able to put together a series of 'compromise changes' to help this BDM feel more valued and therefore more likely to apply himself. This does, however involve the business owner showing a certain amount of empathy and charitable good will (which doesn't come easy to all) but this good will shouldn't stay in place permanently (as was my recommendation with this BDM).

Sometimes a staff-member is beyond redemption and needs to move on for their own benefit as well as the benefit of the business. Any parting of the ways, should always be amicable (if possible) - as this will keep the negative emotions and associated stresses to the bare minimum, and protect the company's brand reputation.

I remember one recruiter telling me many years ago that the company I worked for at the time, was known in the industry as the 's Bs' (this stood for 'bash em up, burn em out and bin em'). Thankfully employers are more responsible employers these days (there's still the odd exception though) but it can be difficult to know whether to 'stick or twist' with a quiet quitting staff member.

PS. If you suspect your underperforming salesperson/BDM is quiet quitting, then drop me a line.