How Companies Get to the Bottom of Quiet Quitting

The topic of “Quitting” is stirring the HR world. People seem to be resigning in very different ways. Sometimes very officially, increasingly internally, often silently. Yet, what does it say about our work environment when people who do what is expected of them (no less, but also no more) are referred to as “Quitters”? – However, we don’t want to become too philosophical here. The fact is: people feel less connected to their employers today than the generations before them. According to a recent study by EY, only 13% of respondents feel a strong bond to the company (for comparison: in 2017 it was still 34%). For companies, this is both a curse and a blessing at the same time.

The Facets of Quiet Quitting

Let’s start with “Quiet Quitting”. This includes the phenomenon where employees stay in the company, but emotionally and intellectually switch off. They only do the bare minimum and reduce their productivity, creativity, and interaction with colleagues to the required minimum. Not because they feel powerless and unmotivated, but quite consciously, to not let work take up too much space in their lives. Especially among young employees, this attitude was temporarily proclaimed a trend. But is this form of “Quitting” really a problem? – This requires a nuanced view: I think it is quite legitimate for an employee not to constantly go above and beyond the expected. Emotional distance from the company can also be healthy.

When Quiet Quitting Becomes a Problem

The problem arises when employees start to actively block processes and structures, both on formal and informal levels. For example, quite bluntly put, when informal conversations at the coffee machine are refused because they are not part of the employment contract. Such behavior can, if it affects more than just a few employees, lead to a toxic company culture. And can even bring organizations to a standstill. Not all processes can be formally defined. Informal approaches to tasks and challenges can facilitate and expedite work in many areas. Where this dynamic comes to a halt, work also becomes difficult for those who are actually enjoying their work. The risk of resignation increases, especially when there are sufficient job alternatives in the industry.

So, it can be concluded: Quiet Quitting as a conscious action becomes a problem when it blocks or downright poisons the informal and interpersonal in organizations, potentially making work less attractive for all employees.

Detecting and Addressing Silent Resignation

But there is also another form of silent resignation. One that does not come preventively, but as a reaction to the existing working conditions. I would like to refer to it here as “Inner Quitting”. Employees who do not feel seen, do not receive recognition, and do not see the value of their work reflected in tangible results or emotionally, eventually only do the absolute minimum, increasingly become numb and often fall far behind what they could and would achieve in a positive work environment. This form of quitting happens more subconsciously and is not targeted. However, the consequences for the atmosphere among the workforce can be similar to those of consciously working on a low flame.

Regardless of the reasons for the silent retreat. It is vital for companies to continuously detect and counteract such negative developments. For this, they need to find out how their employees are really doing – candidly and unfiltered.

Artificial Intelligence Provides True Employee Insights

Getting authentic insights into the emotions and motives of employees, especially those who feel little connection to the company, is challenging. Traditional, quantitative employee surveys often reach their limits as they can lead to standardized and thus potentially biased answers. Quiet Quitters are likely to hold back or distort their true feelings and thoughts in conventional surveys. Making it difficult to gain a genuine insight into their perspectives and experiences. Here, the use of AI and especially Large Language Model (LLM) technologies can make a significant difference.

LLM-based technology, used in the HR context, is capable of analyzing and evaluating qualitative answers – i.e., text responses – and identifying subtle hints and patterns in the expression of employees. This makes it possible to understand what is actually going on in the minds of the people in the organization. Which needs remain unmet, and where there may be toxic behaviors or structures that undermine employee satisfaction and loyalty. By combining quantitative and qualitative data enabled by AI analyses, companies can gain a deeper, nuanced perspective on the needs and challenges of their teams. And thus make better informed and targeted decisions to improve leadership and corporate culture.

Setting Employees on Default with AI

Conclusion: The multifaceted act of “Quitting” – whether visible and loud, quiet and strategic, or latently internal – reflects the urgency to listen to the desire for change on the part of many employees. This change must be initiated by the people in leadership positions. They have never been better positioned to do so than today. Because AI-based technology is a game changer, especially in HR work. Companies should be bold and loud in going forward and using the new possibilities when it comes to the most valuable thing they have: employees who by default want to do good work.

Quiet Thriving Over Quiet Quitting

AI’s Role in Fostering Proactive Work Culture. Every movement has its counter-movement, and this is also true in the HR sector. While “Quiet Quitting” describes a state in which employees do just the bare minimum, “Quiet Thriving” represents a concept that encourages people to actively participate and shape their own work environment.

Lead Effectively: Speak 20%, Actively Listen 80%!*

*(Spoiler: AI makes it possible) Hand on heart: Do you know the current state of well-being of your employees? Do you understand their worries, challenges, and feelings? Do you know what truly moves them, what challenges they face, what is going well for them, and where they urgently need support?

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Quiet Thriving Over Quiet Quitting

AI’s Role in Fostering Proactive Work Culture

Every movement has its counter-movement, and this is also true in the HR sector. While “Quiet Quitting” describes a state in which employees do just the bare minimum. “Quiet Thriving” represents a concept that encourages people to actively participate and shape their own work environment.

Quiet Thriving: A Proactive Counter-Concept

The basic idea behind this approach is that people have an inherent need for joy, development, and fulfillment in their work. These needs shape the motivation to adopt a proactive role. Even in a negatively perceived work environment, rather than merely aiming for the minimum. Such an attitude contributes to mental health and enables individuals to positively shape their environment within their own capabilities.

The “Circle of Control, Influence, and Concern,” a model from Positive Psychology, illustrates the different levels of influence and resulting options for action. It nicely demonstrates that some things are within our control, while others are not. Recognizing and distinguishing between them paves the way to more (inner) freedom and enjoyment in one’s own actions, even under suboptimal conditions. In relation to the work context, this essentially raises three questions:

1. If I cannot control or influence my work environment, can I learn to accept it? (e.g., behavior of my supervisor)
2. If a problem in my work environment is not under my control, can I exert influence on it, so that I at least experience some joy at work? (e.g., work routine)
3. What is under my control? How can I gradually expand my scope of action. To eventually do more than just the bare minimum and contribute enthusiastically to the company’s goals with my own ideas? Not out of compulsion, but from an authentic motivation that enriches me both personally and professionally?

In “Quiet Thriving,” employees consciously engage with their subjective sense of self-efficacy (no matter how small it may be). Proactively shape aspects they can influence, and adjust their attitudes and reactions regarding aspects they initially cannot change. Furthermore, they strategically connect with like-minded individuals and together build a supportive community to strengthen and utilize collective self-efficacy.

The Role of Artificial Intelligence

From an HR perspective, the previously mentioned “Quiet Quitting” tendencies are likely to be observed particularly in employees who perform monotonous or seemingly meaningless tasks. Especially when they cannot see the immediate effect of their work and thus feel unappreciated. Here, HR can specifically intervene and help shape conditions to promote “Thriving.” A prerequisite for this is recognizing the emotional state of the employees. Artificial Intelligence (AI), working with extensive language models (like we know from ChatGPT), can determine how people in the organization are truly feeling by evaluating qualitative data (e.g., open text responses in a survey).

Based on this data, HR can show demotivated and dissatisfied employees opportunities for development and learning, or enable a temporary switch to a different activity. For example, job rotations or further training can break established patterns, provide variety, and set new impulses. AI can also determine which development step is appropriate for which employee. It is fundamentally important that these offers do not come as an additional burden “on top” of the existing workload. But represent a real alternative to the previous range of tasks. A profound understanding of the character traits, states, and needs of the employees can further contribute to entrusting the right people with the right roles within the organization at the right time. Thus creating optimal conditions for them to fulfill their tasks with motivation. Thanks to AI, HR has the opportunity to delve deep into the organization for the first time and tap into the entire human potential that lies dormant within it.

Know Your Privilege

It is important to emphasize that “Quiet Thriving” represents a privileged approach that is not applicable to all life and work situations. In terms of work, it is particularly suitable for office jobs and industries where skilled workers are scarce and employees have at least some degree of influence. At the same time, our awareness of the diversity of work experiences and environments should motivate us to make working life more conducive and fulfilling for as many people as possible. The emerging AI technology offers fascinating possibilities in this regard. Let’s use it to tap into the creative potential that lies dormant in everyone.

Article header by RoonZ on Unsplash

How Companies Get to the Bottom of Quiet Quitting

Lead Effectively: Speak 20%, Actively Listen 80%!*

Attention, narcissism!

Lead Effectively: Speak 20%, Actively Listen 80%!*

*(Spoiler: AI makes it possible)

Hand on heart: Do you know the current state of well-being of your employees? Do you understand their worries, challenges, and feelings? Do you know what truly moves them? What challenges they face? What is going well for them? And where they urgently need support?

Listening is exhausting

Effective listening requires practice and training. Especially for leaders and particularly in uncertain times when many people are plagued by existential worries. A natural talent for listening is rare. The ability to constantly express our opinions on various channels and be confirmed in our “bubble” does not make listening any easier.

In hierarchical structures, there is also often the unspoken rule that leaders take up the majority of speaking time in meetings – and ultimately are always right. The transition from a dominant speaker to an attentive listener marks a significant step towards a sustainable cultural change in organizations. Which requires time, strength, and perseverance. Because true listening requires a high level of activity. Studies have shown that listening is much more strenuous than speaking. When we speak, our brain is stimulated similarly to when we eat or have sex. Which releases positive energy in our body; on the contrary, active listening significantly depletes our energy reserves.

Can I actually listen?

When thinking of leadership communication skills, many initially think of rhetoric, the ability to present well and maintain verbal control. This perspective needs to change. Because good leaders, who strive for a collaborative, open, and appreciative corporate culture, do not need to talk much. But rather need to listen attentively – regularly and to each individual employee. This leadership ability can be trained like a muscle. A prerequisite for this is to critically reflect on one’s own communication behavior.

The five stages of listening

Listening goes far beyond the simple absorption of words. The quality of listening can be measured in five stages:

Stage 1 (lowest level): Not listening – We pay no attention to the speaker, perhaps constantly looking at our smartphone or otherwise signaling our disinterest. Here, the other person is ignored, and effective communication does not take place.
Stage 2: Listening to speak ourselves – We immediately check the information received for how we can personally interpret or respond to what has been said. The focus is more on formulating our own response than on understanding what has been said.
Stage 3: Listening to agree or disagree – Here, we perceive the words of our conversation partner, but mainly consider them from the point of view of our own opinion and positioning.
Stage 4: the transition to empathetic listening: Understanding what moves our counterpart – Here, we listen not out of self-interest or to evaluate what has been said, but out of genuine interest in the perspective and emotions of the other person.
Stage 5 (highest level): Enabling a better self-understanding of the other person – At this level, listening becomes a mirror that helps our counterpart sort out their own thoughts and feelings and gain new insights or perspectives, without us sending the topics through our personal filter.

Understanding and applying these listening stages, especially stages 4 and 5, enables profound, empathetic communication, creates space for genuine exchange, and fosters mutual appreciation. By actively listening, leaders:

receive accurate information; this increases the likelihood of making wise decisions.
show appreciation to employees.
enhance the sense of belonging and connection among each other.

Actively Listening with AI

However, it is also clear: listening takes time. And given the diverse role expectations on HR in recent years, time has become scarcer. However, the advent of artificial intelligence could herald a turning point here. AI proves to be almost the perfect listener. It can effortlessly analyze text and voice data, a task that was previously reserved for human intelligence and took place in time-consuming and costly assessment and development centers. With AI, qualitative data and complex relationships can be utilized in a completely new way.

Leveraging AI for Qualitative Data

At Zortify, for example, we train our models using artificial neural networks. These can filter information from the environment in a way similar to the human brain. For example, AI is capable of reading out needs and moods from large datasets with qualitative text responses and identifying psychological states of employees. And that’s exactly what it’s all about: recognizing what is there without immediately evaluating it or reflexively reacting to what has been said, as we often unconsciously do in conversations (see stages 2 and 3).

Choreographer Monica Bill Barnes once said in an interview, “Listening is a matter of deciding that you do not have to worry about what you are going to say next.” This is a point that is difficult for us humans, especially when we – as in the professional context – always believe we have to have a competent answer ready. AI does not know such social fears. It listens without its own expectations and thus fundamentally enables a deep understanding of what has been said. This forms a valuable basis for HR experts to initiate specific measures and suggest. For example, an internal job change, a career step, or a confidential conversation. What used to take months or years (or was even completely ignored) is now possible thanks to AI within minutes: Active listening through data analysis, followed by human intervention by HR.

The right setting

Leaders are called upon to develop a sense of which communication channel is most effective for the different personality types in their team. In particular, they should actively approach the “silent” team members again and again and promote continuous exchange. The key here is a setting in which both sides feel comfortable. And what is the best way to find that out? Exactly: by listening attentively.

Article header: Franco Antonio on Unsplash