Quiet quitting…frontline employees and present absenteeism (cont’d)

Quiet Quitters also display a lack of initiative. They will not take any proactive action to make things happen. An organisation in which lots of its employees lack initiative is bound to struggle on the market. Competition demands that an organisation is always innovating and coming up with new ways of serving customers and handling the competition.

Unfortunately, all the best ideas are not in the heads of the leaders and managers alone. This is why it is important that employees also come out with initiatives that will help the business perform better on the market. Sadly, when employees begin to think of quitting, all initiatives are deleted from their minds. All they think about is leaving the company. After all, if they wish to leave, why will they give their ideas to the company?

If the Quiet Quitter happens to be a customer service employee, the situation might even be worse. This is because as customer-facing employees, those at the front line get to interact a lot with customers. These customers tend to give them ideas on how the business can better serve customers. It is expected that these employees will share these ideas with their immediate superiors to help the business compete well on the market. If a Quiet Quitter decides to keep this information and not share, he or she would be depriving the business of a very important resource—a potential competitive advantage.

It has also been found that when employees resort to Silent Resignation, they tend to withdraw from their colleagues at work. They would begin to isolate themselves from activities at work such as staff durbars, get-togethers, etc. They will stay behind their desks, and if possible, will absent themselves from these gatherings. When colleagues notice this behaviour, they might also begin to shun the individual. Some colleagues might even confront the one about the behaviour change and this can lead to unpleasant exchanges among these colleagues.

It is true that internal customer service, the cohesion between colleagues, tends to affect the quality of external customer service. When employees begin to display adverse behaviours due to Quiet Quitting intentions, it tends to cause internal customer service to suffer. This, in turn, causes the quality of service delivered to customers to also suffer.

With its potential to cause such damage, businesses need to have clearly defined strategies to deal with the phenomenon. The difficulty in dealing with the Quiet Quitting behaviour of employees may be because it is a behaviour that can go unnoticed for a long time. It is like a quiet stream that runs surreptitiously under the organisation without showing itself in the open. If it were a volcano, it would have been far easier to deal with. It would have been a lot easier to deal with as a behaviour if its symptoms were a lot more pronounced.

It has been said that employees, more often than not, leave managers, not their jobs. In other words, poor managers account for the resignation of many employees. This might only be anecdotal but the truth is not too far off. A great manager is an asset for both the employee and the organisation. With the right manager in an employee’s corner, the one would give off the very best on the job. On the reverse, a terrible manager can make even the most enthused employee lose all the love the one has for the job.

In other words, the manager can be one of the reasons why an employee would want to quit. Therefore, having the best managers can be one of the best ways to stem the tide of Quiet Quitting within an organisation. Having managers who are simply great managers is important in getting the best out of an organisation’s employees.

Managers and immediate superiors also have a very important role to play in the early detection of Quiet Quitting. They also have the potential to nip it in the bud before it becomes a much more deadly plague in the workplace. Being the closest management members to employees, managers must know their team members. This is important so that when there is even the slightest change in the one’s behaviour, the manager can notice and do something about the situation immediately.

One of the ways by which organisations can combat Quiet Quitting is for every business to regularly engage with employees to have a good idea of the engagement levels of employees. In most organisations, once an employee is brought on board, there are very few further engagements between the employee and the human resource or human capital department. The employee is deployed at his or her schedule and that is it. There are no regular follow-ups and follow-throughs.

For many employees, the only other time the Human Resources, Human Capital or People Development department gets in touch with them is when these employees send in their resignation letters. It is only at that time that HR would hurriedly put together an exit interview to essentially find out why the employee is quitting. Exit interviews, on themselves, are very good. However, in many instances, they come in when it is too late to salvage the situation.

For early detection of quiet quitting, it would be most helpful if employees were regularly engaged to find out what is going on in their lives. In such engagements, management must get to know the personal goals and objectives of these employees. People’s dreams and aspirations change over time. An employee might have had a dream before entering the employ of the organisation. However, after a while, the one’s plans might change. This new direction might mean that the employee’s desires might also change. This might lead to the employee looking elsewhere. Not having any other option, the one might still stay on the job but will have desires to be out of the job.

One of the causes of quiet quitting behaviour is a lack of openness within the organisation. When employees do not feel like their voices are heard, the natural tendency would be to wish they were elsewhere. Organisations in which employees are not free enough to express themselves become a breeding ground for quiet quitting behaviour. Management has a responsibility to ensure that there is always open and honest communication throughout the organisation.

Another way to ensure that employees fight off Quiet Quitting tendencies is to provide avenues by which employees can provide feedback to the organisation, without fear of repercussions. Customer-facing employees, on many occasions, have fantastic ideas on how to better serve customers. However, in many cases, their views are not encouraged. Even in the rare event that they get to voice their opinions, their views are not strongly considered in decision-making. This can lead to them feeling unappreciated. This is a sure recipe for Quiet Quitting.

Businesses must also find ways of appreciating the efforts of employees. A lack of appreciation can lead to Quiet Quitting behaviour. When employees, especially those who serve customers daily, put in so much work, the least they expect is to be appreciated. In many situations, all the appreciation the employee needs is just a Thank you from the boss. Those words of appreciation are all some employees need to feel appreciated by the business. Sometimes, a small gift is all it would take to rest the mind of a Quiet Quitter. The one might begin to re-think his or her intentions.

Another reason why employees resort to Quiet Quitting is the absence of career advancement. Organisations in which chances of career growth and development are almost non-existent would always have a greater chance of producing quiet quitting employees. It has been argued that this could be another of the reasons why quiet quitting is said to be high in the public sector. As new employees begin to see their career path grow dimmer by the day, the reality of the bleak future the job holds for them begins to dawn on them. This is why organisations must ensure that every employee is given a clear path that would lead to the top in their chosen field. Employees must believe that there is a great future for them in that organisation.

From the ongoing discussion, it is clear that as much as Quiet Quitting has serious implications for the success or otherwise of an organisation, the truth is that there is still a lot that can be done about the situation. In dealing with Quiet Quitting behaviours, organisations must become very proactive. Too many organisations wait for the behaviour to become entrenched in the employee before they begin to take action. By then, the damage done might be irreversible. Those whose minds are made up to leave will keep those thoughts and for as long they do not have any option, they will stay but will really not be there.

In a time of intense competition and very sensitive and knowledgeable customers, the slightest disadvantage that an organisation has can become the difference between struggling on the market and utter failure. This is why having employees who wish they were somewhere else cannot be treated lightly. It must be handled with care before it begins to cause unnecessary havoc.