Overcoming Quiet Quitting

Quiet Quitting is a huge problem for Organizations.

According to Gallup, nearly 60% of Employees are doing it.

When combined with Actively Disengaged Employees (Those ACTIVELY working against an Organization), this leads to $8.8 Trillion LOST every year.

What's crazy about this is that if you understand WHY Quiet Quitting is so rampant, it is fairly simple to overcome.

What Is Quiet Quitting

Let's start by defining Quiet Quitting first.

It is when an Employee (at any level) chooses to only do the absolute minimum that is required to maintain their job.

They will only put in the minimum amount of hours required of them.

Their efforts will only be the minimum amount to keep their job.

On top of this, their enthusiasm will be kept at a minimum.

These employees are not planning to actually quit... but if they find something they perceive to be better, then they might.

There is no loyalty to the Organization, to the Leaders, to the Values, or to the Goals that are laid out.

This makes it very ironic that 85% of Leaders ACTUALLY believe their Employees are Aligned with their company's Values and Directions.

When you combine the 60% of Employees who are Quiet Quitting with the Employees who are Actively Disengaged, it seems Employees have their Leaders COMPLETELY Fooled.

But is Quiet Quitting really that bad?

Why It Is So Problematic

It is actually significantly worse than it appears.

Part of the problem is how prevalent it is.

If you only had one or two Employees that Quiet Quit it would probably be fine (assuming no one was Actively Disengaged).

But when 60% of Employees are doing the ABSOLUTE minimum, how can you accurately track what "should" be able to be accomplished on a Team?

You can't.

Most Organizations are HIGHLY underestimating what Employees can accomplish due to past data of Employees only doing the minimum required.

Plus, these Productivity numbers are likely even lower due to Actively Disengaged Employees.

However, these same Organizations now also have their hands tied in terms of "Raising" the standards.

These 60% of Employees are already on the Fence of Not Caring, and if you push and make higher demands, they may just decide to Actively Quit.

We are watching that happen with the Return-To-Office "Mandate" failures.

Or worse, these Employees may decide to join the Actively Disengaged Employees and make things worse.

Think about the recent increases in worker Strikes.

This forces Organizations to hire MORE Employees to meet demands, increasing costs, while still only getting the Minimum from most.

This Hiring Method creates Diminishing Returns, and eventually, it often creates Negative Returns.

This isn't the only problem though.

Employees who Actively Quit are not planning on Solving any Problems that pop up and aren't going to attempt to do anything Innovative.

If you are lucky, when something goes wrong you will be able to push the Employee to fix the Problem with the Threat of losing their Job.

But this creates OTHER worse Problems.

If you are unlucky, then Leaders will be expected to fix every problem themselves without anyone to actually help them.

Plus, any Innovative plans must be driven by the Leader and they will have to Struggle to get any Buy-In from their Team.

Yes, if you struggle to get Buy-In, then you have a lot of Quiet Quitters in your midst.

This creates HUGE bottlenecks in Organizations.

With these problems, you also have the Problem that all of these Employees really only care for one thing - themselves.

This mindset will prevent your Teams from getting to the best Psychological State of Being - Group Flow.

Group Flow is where we see the highest levels of Productivity, Innovation, Creative Problem Solving, and Wellness among Teams.

But it is impossible to get to if everyone is out there only for themselves.

Plus, the Organizational Energy (Combined Mg-ATP of Employees) will be splintered.

Like a hose with many holes in it.

All Efforts will be dispersed without being able to get Employees to be fully Invested in the Organization's direction.

All of these problems quickly add up and can Quietly Destroy Organizations.

Why It Is So Prevalent

It is really simple to understand "why" Quiet Quitting is so prevalent.

It all has to do with Psychophysiology.

Let's start with the most obvious one - Burnout.

This is what happens when people are in so much Dis-Stress that they become drained of Energy (Mg-ATP), and they can't produce enough new Energy to keep up with demands.

This is something that 80% of Employees are going through right now.

Of course, under Burnout people are going to only give their Minimum Efforts - It's all their bodies can actually accomplish!

However, it also is worse because Dis-Stress causes Oxidative Stress.

By nature, Oxidative Stress adds, which often means our Stress Thresholds (what we can handle) will decrease.

Plus, if that Oxidative Stress is not fixed, then MORE problems will arise, all having to do with Health:

Anxiety, Depression, Digestive Problems, Headaches, Muscle Tension and Pain, Heart Disease, Heart Attack, High Blood Pressure, Stroke, Sleep Problems, Weight Gain, Inability to Focus, Memory Problems, and worse.

All caused by Stress.

If work is the #1 place people feel Dis-Stress, and work is causing ALL of these problems and more, why would people "want" to do anything positive for it?

Plus, the "money" that Employees are currently making isn't enough to support their basic needs like food, shelter, and clothing.

There is absolutely no benefit to Employees "giving" more than the minimum.

This isn't even getting into things like the lack of Respect, Self-Esteem, Recognition, and Autonomy that are also prevalent and causing problems for Organizations.

Leaders cannot expect more than they give, and Organizations aren't really giving anything to Employees.

When you give the Minimum, expect the Minimum.

A paycheck is the minimum.

As organizations continually fail to provide anything of benefit to help Employees with their Psychophysiological Needs, these trends we are seeing will get worse.

However, just because this is the norm, doesn't mean there isn't a way out.

The Regenerative Legacy Solution

I touched on this in my article, The Dumbest Move Leaders Could Make Goint Into 2024 - Plus What They Should Do Instead.

Failure to Properly Invest in your Employee Experience will lead to worsening Quiet Quitting, or worse will become Active Disengagement.

The key however is "Properly" Invest.

You need 2 things -

• Fix The Energy (Mg-ATP) Problem, aka Burnout
• Leadership Cultivation

If you invest in these, and ideally do them together, THEN you have your solution to Quiet Quitting.

Lately, I have been calling this Designing a Regenerative Legacy.

We need to Regenerate our Energy (Mg-ATP) stores if we are going to get people out of Quiet Quitting.

With Regenerated Employees, you can get a Regenerated Business.

New Growth.

New Innovation.

Increased Problem Solving.

New Life.

When you combine this with Leadership Cultivation, you are adding a sense of Connection, Respect, Self-esteem, Recognition, and Autonomy to Employee's Lives.

This opens up Flow States to these Employees, where they become 5x more Productive.

Now you have Employees that went from doing an underestimated 5 days worth of productivity in 5 days, to 25 days worth of productivity in 5 days.

That's like doing a Month's worth of work in a Week!

Then you expand that to Group Flow through Leadership Cultivation.

Now multiple members of teams are directing these same efforts, together, in the same direction!

This is where Exponential Growth becomes possible.

Then, if you take it further and create a Regenerative Legacy and expand it to your Products/Services AND to the World, you don't need to "force" Buy-In.

People are already desperate to be a part of something that "actually" helps the world.

If they know your Organization is doing that AND they themselves are receiving Regenerative Services via an improved Psychophysiology...

Why WOULDN'T they give their Best?