The term “quiet quitting” may sound like another way to say “lazy”, but the problem is very real, and very costly. It doesn’t mean employees are slacking off or secretly planning to leave. It means they’ve stopped going above and beyond. They’re doing what’s required, and nothing more.
To some leaders, that might not sound like a crisis. After all, isn’t that what people are paid to do, fulfill the job description? But when a significant portion of your workforce starts dialing back their effort, creativity, and emotional investment, your company loses something essential. Not just productivity, but momentum, morale, and innovation.
Quiet quitting doesn’t happen overnight. It’s the end result of unresolved disengagement, and if you’re not paying attention, it can spread quietly across teams before showing up in your metrics.
If you’re a founder, HR leader, or people manager, understanding what drives quiet quitting is your first step. Fixing it is the next.
It’s Not Laziness. It’s Withdrawal.
Quiet quitting is a form of employee self-protection. It happens when people no longer feel that the effort they’re putting in is worth the return. That return might be recognition, opportunity, purpose, psychological safety, or simply fair treatment. When those things erode, people pull back. Not because they don’t care, but because they no longer see a reason to care more than the minimum.
It’s a rational response to unmet expectations. And it’s more common than most leaders realize.
The irony is that quiet quitting often starts with your most invested employees. The ones who once went the extra mile. When their initiative is overlooked, when their input is dismissed, or when burnout goes unaddressed for too long, they learn that discretional effort isn’t valued and they stop offering it. It’s resignation.
How to Spot It Before It Becomes a Trend
Quiet quitting rarely announces itself. Employees still show up. They meet deadlines. On the surface, nothing is “wrong.” But underneath, they’ve mentally checked out.
If you’re watching closely, you’ll notice a few subtle but consistent signs. Employees stop volunteering for new projects. They stop offering ideas in meetings. They’re less responsive, less collaborative, and less interested in feedback. Their energy shifts from proactive to reactive. They start doing the job just well enough, and no better.
As a leader, you need to distinguish this from healthy boundary-setting. Quiet quitting isn’t about someone refusing to stay late once in a while, it’s about someone who no longer feels emotionally or intellectually engaged in their role, and doesn’t see a path forward.
If that person is in a key role, or if several people start to behave this way, your culture is already telling you something. Listen.
Engagement Is the Fix
You can’t solve quiet quitting with pizza parties or motivational quotes. Employees don’t disengage because they’re bored. They disengage because something about the environment is no longer working for them and they’ve decided it’s safer to coast than to try and fix it.
To rebuild engagement, you need to rebuild trust. That starts with one-on-one conversations. Not performance reviews, but real check-ins. Ask what’s going well. Ask what’s getting in their way. Ask what they need more of, or less of, to feel invested again.
And don’t dismiss what you hear. Employees are not being “dramatic” when they say they’re overwhelmed or under-recognized. If they’re giving you honest feedback, they’re giving you a chance to turn things around.
In parallel, make sure your managers are equipped to lead people, not just manage tasks. So many quiet quitters are not reacting to the company as a whole, they’re reacting to the person they report to. If managers aren’t building trust, clarity, and support, disengagement will continue no matter how many changes happen at the top.
Culture Drives Discretionary Effort
Every organization has a culture of minimums and a culture of “above and beyond.” Quiet quitting thrives in the former. In these environments, there’s a noticeable gap between what’s said and what’s done. Leadership talks about values, but those values aren’t reflected in promotions, recognition, or decision-making. High performers are expected to carry the load without support. Teams are treated as expendable. And feedback, when it’s asked for, doesn’t result in any change.
In cultures like this, disengagement isn’t just predictable. It’s logical.
Contrast that with a culture where people know their work matters. Where they understand how their role contributes to something meaningful. Where effort is acknowledged and rewarded, and where there’s a clear path to grow. In these environments, you’ll still have challenges. But you won’t have a quiet quitting problem, because people don’t quit what they feel connected to.
Compensation Still Matters
Let’s not ignore the obvious, when employees feel they’re being underpaid for the value they bring, motivation will erode. Especially if they see peers leaving for better offers, or if they’re being asked to do more with no corresponding increase in compensation.
Pay alone doesn’t guarantee engagement. But lack of fair pay is one of the fastest ways to trigger quiet quitting. It creates a sense of imbalance: “Why should I give more when I’m not being met halfway?”
If you haven’t reviewed your comp strategy recently, don’t wait for exit interviews to confirm what people have been thinking for months. Compensation is one of the few levers you can pull quickly, and the signal it sends is powerful.
Stop the Silence Before It Spreads
Quiet quitting doesn’t start with a bad employee. It starts with a breakdown in connection. If your people no longer feel heard, supported, or recognized, they won’t necessarily leave right away but they will leave mentally. And when that happens at scale, you’ve got a culture problem that no incentive program can fix.
The good news? This is fixable. But it requires more than surface-level engagement strategies. It takes listening. It takes responsiveness. It takes managers who understand that culture is built every day, in small interactions, not just policies.
If you want employees to go the extra mile, make it clear that it’s safe, and worthwhile, to do so.
At Peoplyst, we help teams pinpoint what’s actually driving disengagement and build systems that support high trust, high performance cultures. If quiet quitting is showing up in your org, let’s talk about how to address it before it becomes something louder.
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