Quiet quitting became a phenomenon following the pandemic, especially among Gen Z workers, wherein workers slowly put less and less effort into their work — as a way of silently rebelling and mentally checking out before actually quitting.
But according to a new Gallup poll, many workers are now going the opposite direction and opting for “loud quitting,” which means they are “actively disengaged” on the job and not exactly hiding it.
The Gallup 2023 State of the Global Workplace Report examined data from over 122,416 workers and found that nearly 18% of employees around the world (about one in five) are currently in the process of “loud quitting.”
“These employees take actions that directly harm the organization, undercutting its goals and opposing its leaders,” Gallup explained. “At some point along the way, the trust between employee and employer was severely broken. Or the employee has been woefully mismatched to a role, causing constant crises.”
Unsurprisingly, the same data showed that nearly 59% of employees are still “quiet-quitting.”
“Quiet quitting is what happens when someone psychologically disengages from work. They may be physically present or logged into their computer, but they don’t know what to do or why it matters,” Gallup said. “They also don’t have any supportive bonds with their coworkers, boss or their organization.”
The same data found that employee engagement has up to 3.8 times as much influence on an employee’s level of stress than a work location does, meaning that even when working remotely, having a strong and active relationship with team members is crucial to happiness.
According to Gallup, the majority of quiet quitters (41%) say that in order to improve their efforts on the job, they would like to see a change in team engagement and company culture.
