There is a new phrase sweeping the interwebs- “quiet quitting”. Depending on who you listen to, this is either a logical response be being overworked and underpaid, or the work of Satan itself and yet another sign that young people are lazy. As is almost always the case, the truth is somewhere in the middle.
I’m offering a different perspective altogether. If you are worried about your employees “quiet quitting” you are a shitty employer.
Why do I think this is reflection on the employer and not the employee? Because employment is a two way street. Yes, I need your money to pay my bills, and you need me to perform specific tasks so your business functions. But it’s a lot more complicated than that. Long gone are the days when you went to work for a company right out of college and stayed there until you retired. The world, and employment, has changed. And until very recently, the vast majority of those changes were for the benefit of company owners, not employees. Now employees are starting to regain a little power and bad employers don’t like it.
If you ask people to work illegal, unpaid overtime you’re a shitty employer. If you expect employees to “go above and beyond” for you every day, but you don’t reward or even acknowledge it when they do, you’re a shitty employer. If you take credit for underling’s ideas and don’t give credit where credit is due, you are a shitty employer. If you think it’s OK to treat your employees like crap and still expect their best every day, you are a shitty employer.
People who know they are valued work harder. People who know their accomplishments will be celebrated will accomplish infinitely more than people who don’t. People who feel their superiors are there to support them and want them to succeed usually will in fact succeed. If you have a problem with that, that’s on you.