IN one of the peer group sessions I attended recently, we talked about work-life balance, and the idea of doing the bare minimum at work came up. Because of the pandemic and online collaboration apps, some people found it hard to delineate work from their personal lives. Now that people are trickling back to the office, some people still find it difficult to go back to leaving work at the office and enjoying their time at home. And to top it all off, there is no additional compensation for overtime work.
It is not surprising that there is a growing movement among the workforce, especially the millennials and the Gen Zs, on quietly quitting. This is in response to the hustle culture in the workplace highlighted by the return to office, and collaborative apps that seemingly make team members available 24/7. Quietly quitting is a way to set boundaries between one’s work and personal life by only doing work that is within the confines of their job description and doing the barest minimum. This actually makes sense because if organizations expect their employees to go above and beyond, they should also be able to incentivize their employees accordingly.
Even without the pandemic and the apps, I can understand why people quietly quit. There are abusive managers who will heap on you more work if you do not push back and to avoid that, some slack off. This is also understandable when a person has just been promoted and they need to familiarize themselves with the new role before taking on more assignments. Quiet quitting also forces your manager to look at workload distribution and makes them think of ways so that one team member is not unduly burdened. Moreover, quiet quitting helps you focus on emergency personal concerns and resolve them, so you can go back to work faster.
However, quiet quitting can also be a sign of dissatisfaction with what the team is currently doing, or it could indicate burnout because of the heavy workload. It could also point out that your organization has a dismal compensation package, or lacks the opportunities for professional development. For a team member, they might quietly quit because they were passed over for a promotion they deserved, or, worse, they might be looking for new work.
There are ways to know which of your team members are quietly quitting. Watch out for changes in their behavior, especially their attendance and the meetings they join and do not join. Notice changes in their output and their demeanor when assigned tasks and their diminished participation in office activities or general lack of enthusiasm.
Your role as a team leader is to identify what is causing your team members to quietly quit. While there are some things beyond your control, your role is to keep your team working effectively and efficiently. Your team will always have their own personal reasons, but there are some things you can do to encourage engagement and productivity. The challenge of leadership is that regardless of conditions, you will continue to keep your team engaged and productive, and to know when to motivate them and when to leave them alone.
One of the best things you can do is to talk to your team members and establish a work relationship that includes not just asking them how they are doing at work, but also with how they are doing in their personal lives. While we want clear delineations between life and work, we cannot deny that their personal lives will invariably affect their work. This will help you better understand your team’s personal motivations so you can provide opportunities where their personal goals are aligned with the team’s.
Knowing your team also helps you understand how you can help them find purpose in what they are doing. Most employees look for fulfillment in their work. When they do not know how they contribute to the organization’s goals and objectives, or when they do not see you as someone who understands their full potential, they are likely to do just the bare minimum. Your need to make them appreciate the unique role they play in the success of the team and the organization. In a previous organization, I remember the owner saying that everyone is dispensable. Imagine how that made the employees feel. Soon enough, people started doing the bare minimum or looked for other employment.
As a leader, you need to respect boundaries for work and personal concerns and then set the example. One way you can do this is by respecting your team’s personal time off or when your team has gone for the day. If you really need to, acknowledge that you are inconveniencing them and allow your team to decline the task. If you are sending an e-mail just so you do not forget, schedule it so that it only sends during work hours. Remember also that as a leader, you need to protect your team from unwarranted work from your own manager. You can accept other tasks but you need to check in with your team if they will be able to do additional tasks. If you do not know how to say “no”, chances are you will be running your team to the ground.
Monitor your team’s workload so one team member is not unduly burdened. It goes without saying that as the leader, you should be on top of everything. An overworked team member is the result of a manager’s failure in time management, planning and monitoring. Make sure that people in your team have a general idea of what others are doing so that you can assign tasks to others when needed.
I firmly believe that people go to work because they are intrinsically motivated and would want to meaningfully contribute to their team. As a leader, you need to know how you can tap that motivation and stoke it until it becomes their own personal purpose. Otherwise, you will find yourself stuck with a team that does only the bare minimum, whose ultimate goal is to go from paycheck to paycheck.