literature review on quiet quitting

• DOI: 10.1093/sw/swac051
• Corpus ID: 253759245

Quiet Quitting.

• Anna Scheyett
• Published in Social work 21 November 2022

26 Citations

The great opportunity for workforce health, a “quiet quitting” scale: development and validation, quiet quitting: a comprehensive exploration of hidden problems, modelling the significance of organizational conditions on quiet quitting intention among gen z workforce in an emerging economy, unveiling the hushed rebellion exploring the concept of quiet quitting in the modern workplace: development and validation of quiet quitting scale, employee quiet quitting behaviours: conceptualization, measure development, and validation, drowning in silence: a scale development and validation of quiet quitting and quiet firing, quiet quitting among healthcare professionals in hospital environments: a concept analysis and scoping review protocol, quiet quitting among nurses increases their turnover intention: evidence from greece in the post-covid-19 era, a movement to redefine our relationship with work, 4 references, the ideological dilemma of subordination of self versus self-care: identity construction of the ‘ethical social worker’, eats me alive: social workers reflect on practice in neoliberal contexts, survival strategies in social work: a study of how coping strategies affect service quality, professionalism and employee health, regulating hospital social workers and nurses: propping up an “efficient” lean health care system, related papers.

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The Impact of “Quiet Quitting” on Overall Organizational Behavior and Culture

• Conference paper
• First Online: 01 February 2024
• Cite this conference paper

• Ioseb Gabelaia   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6323-6913 12 &
• Ramune Bagociunaite 13  

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems ((LNNS,volume 913))

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• International Conference on Reliability and Statistics in Transportation and Communication

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Abandoning the idea of going above and beyond at work is what briefly defines the “quiet quitting” concept, that draws the attention of organizational researchers and practitioners. There are two camps of views on “quiet quitting” - one claiming that it is a trend, the other – that it is a problematic phenomenon for today's business organizations. The goal of a study is to explore and better understand a phenomenon such as “quiet quitting,” as the issue has not been extensively studied before. It aims to gain insights and provide a comprehensive analysis to contribute to refining theoretical and practical contexts that explain “quiet quitting.” With a systematic review, this research aims to explore the “quiet quitting” concept and its impact on organizational behaviour and culture, identifying “quiet quitting” causes and solutions. The authors had an opportunity to interview 27 employees who admit that they have quietly quit their jobs over the past nine years, asking 12 exclusively designed questions to obtain evidence. The results of the research showed that there is a significant relationship between “quiet quitting” and organizational behaviour and culture. The main causes of “quiet quitting” have been identified, i.e., overall burnout, lack of growth opportunities, leadership, and lack of recognition, also solutions, such as transparent communication, professional development, employee feedback (surveys), well-being initiatives (work-life balance), and leadership development.

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Gabelaia, I., Bagociunaite, R. (2024). The Impact of “Quiet Quitting” on Overall Organizational Behavior and Culture. In: Kabashkin, I., Yatskiv, I., Prentkovskis, O. (eds) Reliability and Statistics in Transportation and Communication. RelStat 2023. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 913. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-53598-7_33

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The quiet quitting scale: Development and initial validation

Petros galanis.

1 Clinical Epidemiology Laboratory, Faculty of Nursing, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Aglaia Katsiroumpa

Irene vraka.

2 Department of Radiology, P. & A. Kyriakou Children's Hospital, Athens, Greece

Olga Siskou

3 Department of Tourism Studies, University of Piraeus, Piraeus, Greece

Olympia Konstantakopoulou

4 Center for Health Services Management and Evaluation, Faculty of Nursing, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Ioannis Moisoglou

5 Faculty of Nursing, University of Thessaly, Larissa, Greece

Parisis Gallos

6 Faculty of Nursing, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Daphne Kaitelidou

Associated data, introduction.

COVID-19 pandemic causes drastic changes in workplaces that are likely to increase quite quitting among employees. Although quiet quitting is not a new phenomenon, there is no instrument to measure it.

To develop and validate an instrument assessing quiet quitting among employees.

We identified and generated items through an extensive literature review and interviews with employees. We carried out the content validity by content experts and we calculated the content validity ratio. We checked face validity by conducting cognitive interviews with employees and calculating the item-level face validity index. We conducted exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to investigate the quiet quitting scale (QQS) factorial structure. We checked the concurrent validity of the QQS using four other scales, i.e., Copenhagen burnout inventory (CBI), single item burnout (SIB) measure, job satisfaction survey (JSS) and a single item to measure turnover intention. We estimated the reliability of the QQS measuring Cronbach's alpha, McDonald's omega, Cohen's kappa and intraclass correlation coefficient.

After expert panel review and item analysis, nine items with acceptable corrected item-total correlations, inter-item correlations, floor and ceiling effects, skewness and kurtosis were retained. Exploratory factor analysis extracted three factors, namely detachment, lack of initiative and lack of motivation, with a total of nine items. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed this factorial structure for QQS. We found statistically significant correlations between QQS and CBI, SIB, JSS and turnover intention confirming that the concurrent validity of the QQS was great. Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's omega of the QQS were 0.803 and 0.806 respectively.

QQS, a three-factor nine-item scale, has robust psychometric properties. QQS is an easy-to-administer, brief, reliable and valid tool to measure employees' quiet quitting. We recommend the use of the QQS in different societies and cultures to assess the validity of the instrument.

1. Introduction

A viral TikTok video posted on July 25, 2022 has brought significant mainstream media attention to the phenomenon of “quiet quitting” [1] . Quiet quitting involves employees, and though the term is new, it is not entirely a new phenomenon [2] . Quiet quitting is a work-related phenomenon where employees do not literally quit their jobs but intentionally limit their work, just doing the bare minimum [1] . Furthermore, employees do not volunteer to perform additional tasks and they do not go above and beyond what is expected. Also, quiet quitting can threaten employees' productivity [3] . There are differences between quiet quitting and quitting. In the case of quiet quitting, employees remain at their jobs but are frustrated, have lost their passion for their job and try to work as little as possible. In contrast, in the case of quitting, employees have already left their jobs and are looking for a new workplace. In other words, quitting refers to workers who have already quit their work, while “quiet quitting” is a softer approach since workers do not quit their jobs but they adopt poor work behavior by not exceeding their baseline obligations. Possibly, quiet quitting can be considered as a precursor of employees' turnover. It is quite likely that employees that experience high levels of quiet quitting in the future will leave their jobs since they consider their workplace culture as poor. Thus, quiet quitting can be a predictor of quitting among employees. In this context, measuring quiet quitting with valid tools is crucial to understand deeply this phenomenon.

Furthermore, a valid tool to measure the phenomenon of quiet quitting allows us to identify quiet quitters in a workplace. Afterwards, organizations, policy makers and managers can develop and implement interventions to reduce quiet quitting in order avoiding employees' turnover in the future. In other words, understanding of quiet quitting allows organizations and managers to achieve a sufficient management and improve workplace culture.

The quiet quitting trend follows the great resignation phenomenon that occurred amid the COVID-19 pandemic [4] . Financial difficulties, especially after the pandemic, force workers to stay at their works, but nowadays they decide to prioritize their personal life instead of their career in order to achieve a better work-life balance [5] . Workers adopt now the trend of quiet quitting by responding insufficient to work demands. Several scholars have already recognized that quiet quitting is a significant threat for work productivity by triggering a toxic workplace culture [2] , [3] , [6] – [8] . In this context, employees' work attitudes could be altered and disrupted resulting in dissatisfaction, disengagement, and turnover intention. Furthermore, high levels of quiet quitting among workers in specific industries such as healthcare industry can lead to a decline in the work productivity threatening patients quality of care and increasing healthcare cost [1] , [5] , [9] , [10] . Thus, identification of quiet quitters among healthcare workers is essential to reduce their disengagement and dissatisfaction and improve their passion to provide high quality healthcare. Therefore, a valid tool to measure quiet quitting among workers especially in specific domains (e.g., healthcare workers) is necessary to develop the appropriate strategies in order to change work attitudes and behaviors among quiet quitters and, thus, improve public health.

Although quiet quitting helps workers avoid burnout, it may compromise their professional careers [6] . Moreover, COVID-19 pandemic causes drastic changes in workplaces that are likely to increase quite quitting among employees [3] . Literature suggests that prevalence of quiet quitting has increased dramatically after the end of COVID-19 lockdowns [11] – [13] . For example, a recent survey conducting in the USA during the COVID-19 pandemic found that half of the participants are considered quiet quitters [11] . Also, another study found that 80% of quiet quitters were burnt out [13] . Since the COVID-19 pandemic caused a tremendous increase on workers' burnout [14] – [16] , an increase also in the prevalence of quiet quitting seems to be reasonable. Moreover, literature supports a negative relationship between burnout and work engagement during and after the COVID-19 pandemic [17] .

Several instruments have been developed until now to measure work-related variables, such as job burnout, job satisfaction, turnover intention, work engagement, work overload, etc. [18] – [22] . Most of these instruments are reliable and valid and have been translated in several languages, i.e., Maslach burnout inventory, generic job satisfaction scale, job satisfaction survey, Copenhagen burnout inventory, Utrecht work engagement scale, etc. All these instruments measuring work-related variables are multi-dimensional concepts. For example, the Maslach burnout inventory measures three dimensions of the job burnout: exhaustion, cynicism/detachment and professional inefficacy [22] . Additionally, the Bergen burnout inventory assesses exhaustion at work, cynicism and the sense of inadequacy at work [23] , while the Utrecht work engagement scale consists of three scales measuring vigor, dedication and absorption [24] . Therefore, we expected that a scale measures the phenomenon of quiet quitting would also be a multi-dimensional concept since quiet quitting is a work-related concept. In this context, we considered a priori several dimension structures for our scale taking into consideration structures in similar instruments that measure work-related variables [18] – [24] and the theoretical concept of quiet quitting [1] , [2] , [7] , [8] . Therefore, we considered the following structures for our scale: (a) detachment, since it is considered as emotional separation from work-related worries and thoughts; (b) lack of motivation, since motivation is considered as individuals' internal disposition and external incentive toward work and (c) lack of initiative, since initiative refers to the ability that workers have to go above and beyond in their work and do more than what is asked by their supervisors. Additionally, we considered that several other structures such as emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, lack of personal accomplishment, exhaustion at work, job satisfaction, work-related burnout and client-related burnout are not compatible with the concept of quiet quitting.

However, it is interesting to note that no instrument is developed to measure the phenomenon of quiet quitting among employees. Thus, developing a valid and reliable instrument to measure employees' quiet quitting is both timely and important. Given that quiet quitting is an alarming issue that has not been investigated in depth and the lack of a specific tool to measure this concept, we aimed to develop a reliable and valid instrument to assess quiet quitting among employees.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. development of the scale.

We developed the quiet quitting scale (QQS) according to the steps that literature suggests [25] . Development and validation of the QQS are shown in Figure 1 . First, we conducted a complete and thorough literature review to assess scales on work-related burnout, stress and satisfaction. In particular, we first identified reviews on scales measuring job burnout, stress and satisfaction [18] , [21] , [26] – [30] . Afterward, we identified the scales that measure job burnout, stress and satisfaction, e.g. Maslach burnout inventory [22] , Copenhagen burnout inventory [31] , job satisfaction survey [32] , single item burnout scale [33] , generic job satisfaction scale [34] , Utrecht work engagement scale [24] , etc. Finally, we discussed the way that the items of these scales can be useful to develop the items of the QQS. Also, we conducted interviews with six employees from different areas of the labor-market: three from the public sector and three from the private sector. These employees have been working in companies, healthcare services, hospitality services, schools and public services. We encouraged employees to give comments concerning the phenomenon of quiet quitting. Moreover, we discussed with them the items that we have created after the systematic review we performed in the previous step. Afterward, we created a list of 38 items.

Second, an expert panel evaluated the 38 items. Expert panel comprised a psychologist, a psychiatrist, a health psychologist, a general physician, a social worker, and a sociologist. Experts evaluated how well the 38 items correspond to quiet quitting. In particular, experts rated each item as “not essential”, “useful but not essential” or “essential”. Afterward, we calculated the content validity ratio and items with a value >0.80 were remained in our scale [35] . We deleted 20 items based on the ratings from the expert panel. Thus, 18 items remained.

Third, we performed cognitive interviews with five employees and they interpreted the 18 items as we intended [36] . We did not make changes on this step since the five employees indicated no changes were needed.

Finally, we conducted a pilot study with 30 employees to obtain an initial assessment of the scale and assess the face validity. Fifteen employees were females and 15 were males with a mean age of 42.4 years (standard deviation=11.3) and a mean number of work experience of 17.3 years (standard deviation=11.6). We requested employees to rate the clarity of the 18 items based on a four-point Likert scale (1=item is not clear, 2 = item is somewhat clear, 3 = item is quite clear and 4 = item is highly clear). We calculated the item-level face validity index, i.e., the percentage of employees giving an item a clarity rating of three or four. Items with an item-level face validity index >0.80 remained in our scale [37] . Face validity index ranged from 0.833–0.967 for the 18 items. Thus, face validity of the 18 items was excellent and we kept these items through this step.

Eleven items (for example, “I feel detached from my job”, “I feel inspired when I work” and “I feel isolated at work”) were rated on a five-point Likert scale as follows: (1) strongly disagree, (2) disagree, (3) neither disagree or agree, (4) agree and (5) strongly agree. Also, seven items (for example, “How often do you take initiative at your work?” and “How often do you answer phone calls/messages (mail, sms, viber, messenger) from your work after your work shift?”) were rated on a five-point Likert scale as follows: (1) never, (2) rarely, (3) sometimes, (4) often, (5) always. Higher values indicated higher levels of quiet quitting. Seven items were reverse-scored (i.e., “I give my best at work”, “I find motives in my job”, “I feel inspired when I work”, “How often do you take initiative at your work?”, “How often do you help your colleagues when you have completed your own tasks?”, “How often do you answer phone calls/messages (mail, sms, viber, messenger) from your work after your work shift?” and “How often do you answer phone calls/messages (mail, sms, viber, messenger) from your work on a day off?”).

2.2. Participants and procedure

Our target population comprises employees in public and private sector in Greece. This study's participants were adults aged 18 years or older working at public and private sector across Greece and being able to understand Greek. We recruited participants from face-to-face interviews, social media (i.e., Facebook, Instagram, Viber and WhatsApp), blogs, e-mail campaigns and SMS campaigns. Thus, a convenience sample was obtained. We collected data during June 2023.

Final overall sample consisted of 922 employees. We measured employees' basic demographic information, i.e., gender, educational level, age, job sector and work experience.

2.3. Item analysis

Then, we performed an item analysis for the 18 items that were produced after the initial development phase. In particular, in the overall sample, we checked inter-item correlations, corrected item-total correlations, floor and ceiling effects, skewness, kurtosis and Cronbach's alpha (when a single item was deleted) for the 18 items [38] . Acceptable values for inter-item correlation ranged from 0.15 to 0.75 [39] and ≥0.30 for item-total correlation [40] . If more than 15% of employees achieved the lowest or highest possible score, we considered floor or ceiling effects to be present, respectively [41] . The commonly used 15% threshold was adopted to identify floor or ceiling effects in order to avoid substantial proportions of participants to be near the minimum or maximum value respectively on the five-point Likert scale of the QQS. Examination of floor and ceiling effects is necessary to avoid attenuation or inflation in median and mean estimates and attenuation in variance estimates [42] , [43] . Skewness and kurtosis values from -1 to +1 indicated the presence of normal distribution. After these statistical analyses, we examined retained and excluded items in a theoretical basis. In particular, we checked if it was appropriate to remove the items that were deleted after item analysis.

2.4. Construct validity

We performed exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to define the various factors that define the QQS. Since the overall sample comprised 922 employees, we randomly divided them into two groups in order to use different employees for EFA and CFA. Thus, sample for EFA included 461 employees and sample for CFA included 461 employees. Minimum sample size for EFA requires at least 50 observations [44] or five observations per item [38] . Moreover, CFA requires at least 200 observations [45] . Our sample was bigger than these minimum requirements.

First, we conducted EFA to identify the underlying factor structure of the QQS. Then. we conducted CFA to verify the results of EFA. In this step, we analyzed the nine items that were emerged after the initial development of the QQS and the item analysis.

We calculated the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin index and p-value for Bartlett sphericity test to check the applicability of the EFA. Acceptable values were >0.80 for the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin index and <0.05 for Bartlett sphericity test. Since we expected that possible factors that were developed during the EFA would be correlated, we used oblique rotation (promax method in SPSS). We applied the following acceptable values: eigenvalues greater than 1, factor loadings greater than 0.60, communalities greater than 0.40 and the total variance explained by the factors >65% [46] . Moreover, we calculated Cronbach's alpha for the factors that were produced by the EFA. The acceptable level of Cronbach's alpha was >0.7 [47] . Finally, we named the factors rationally and appropriately.

Then, we conducted CFA to further test the construct validity of the QQS. We performed CFA to confirm the validity of the QQS factor structure. Since the scale was normally distributed, we used the maximum likelihood estimator. We checked the goodness of fit indices in CFA by calculating two indices of absolute fit, two indices of relative fit and one index of parsimonious fit. In particular, we calculated root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) and goodness of fit index (GFI) as absolute fit indices, normed fit index (NFI) and comparative fit index (CFI) as relative fit indices and chi-square/degree of freedom (x2/df) as a parsimonious fit index. We used the following acceptable values: RMSEA < 0.10 [48] , [49] , GFI > 0.90 [50] , NFI > 0.90 [49] , CFI > 0.90 [49] and x2/df < 5 [41] . Moreover, we calculated standardized regression weights between items and factors and correlation coefficients between factors.

2.5. Concurrent validity

We checked the concurrent validity of the QQS on the overall sample ( n = 922). In that case, we used the job satisfaction survey (JSS) [32] , the copenhagen burnout inventory (CBI) [31] , the single item burnout (SIB) measure [33] and a single item to measure turnover intention [51] . The JSS comprises 36 items, and total score ranges from 36 to 216 with higher scores indicate higher job satisfaction. JSS is a reliable and valid tool in Greek [52] . In our study, Cronbach's alpha for the JSS was 0.878. The CBI comprises three factors: personal burnout (six items), work-related burnout (seven items) and client-related burnout (six items). Each factor takes values from 0 to 100, and higher scores indicate higher levels of burnout. CBI has been validated in Greek [53] . In our study, Cronbach's alpha for the factor “personal burnout” was 0.919, 0.878 for the factor “work-related burnout” and 0.860 for the factor “client-related burnout”. The SIB measures overall work burnout on a scale from 0 (i.e., not at all burnt out) to 10 (i.e., extremely burnt out). SIB is a reliable and valid tool in Greek [54] . We measured turnover intention with the question “How often have you seriously considered leaving your current job?” where answers are on a six-point Likert scale (i.e., never, rarely, sometimes, somewhat often, quite often and extremely often).

We measured a total score for the QQS and the factors that were created from the factor analysis. In particular, we summed the answers in all items and divided the aggregate by the total number of items in order to calculate the total score for the QQS. Similarly, we calculated the score for each factor. All scores ranged from one to five, and higher scores indicated higher levels of quiet quitting.

We expected a negative relationship between the QQS and the JSS but a positive relationship between the QQS and the CBI, the SIB measure and the turnover intention.

2.6. Reliability

First, we checked the reliability of the QQS on the overall sample ( n = 922). In that case, we measured Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's omega. The acceptable level of Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's Omega was >0.7 [47] . Moreover, we calculated corrected item-total correlations, inter-item correlations and Cronbach's alpha when a single item was deleted for the nine items of the final structure model of the QQS. Acceptable values for inter-item correlation ranged from 0.15–0.75 [39] and for item-total correlation were ≥0.30 [40] .

Furthermore, we conducted a test-retest study with 50 employees who completed the QQS twice in two weeks. We calculated Cohen's kappa for the nine items since the answers were in an ordinal scale. Also, we measured intraclass correlation coefficient for the total score of QQS and for scores on three factors. In particular, we calculated the two-way mixed intraclass correlation coefficient (absolute agreement).

2.7. Ethical considerations

Our study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Nursing, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (approval number; 451, June 2023). We did not collect personal data, and we obtained informed consent of the employees. Moreover, participation was anonymous and voluntary. We conducted our study in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki [55] .

2.8. Statistical analysis

We used AMOS version 21 (Amos Development Corporation, 2018) to conduct CFA using. All other analyses were conducted with IBM SPSS 21.0 (IBM Corp. Released 2012. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 21.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.). We used absolute numbers and percentages to present categorical variables. Also, we used mean, standard deviation, median, minimum value and maximum value to present continuous variables. We used chi-square test, chi-square trend test and independent samples t-test to compare the two groups of employees regarding EFA and CFA. We used Pearson's correlation coefficient to assess correlation between QQS and JSS, CBI and SBI since all scales followed normal distribution. Also, we used Spearman's correlation coefficient to assess correlation between QQS and turnover intention since intention was measured on an ordinal scale. P-values less than 0.05 were considered as statistically significant.

3.1. Employees' characteristics

Our sample included 922 employees. Among them, we used 461 employees to perform EFA and 461 employees to perform CFA. We present demographic characteristics of our sample in Table 1 . The mean age of the employees was 40.8 years ( SD = 9.2), with an age range of 22–74 years. The majority of the employees were females (72%). Mean work experience was 16.5 years ( SD = 9.3), with a range of 4–40 years. Regarding employment patterns, 50.8% of the employees had been working in the public sector, and 49.2% in the private sector. Further, most of the participants had a university degree (89.6%), and among them, 54.0% also possessed a MSc/PhD diploma. We did not find differences between EFA and CFA employees ( p = 0.08 for gender, p = 0.56 for educational level, p = 0.56 for age, p = 0.09 for job sector and p = 0.89 for years of experience).

Note: a chi-square test; b chi-square trend test; c mean, standard deviation; d independent samples t-test.

3.2. Item analysis

Descriptive statistics, corrected item-total correlations, floor and ceiling effects, skewness, kurtosis and Cronbach's alpha (when a single item was deleted) for the 18 items that were produced after the initial development phase are shown in Table 2 , while inter-item correlations are shown in Supplementary Table 1 . First, we deleted items #14 and #15 due to negative inter-item correlations. Then, we deleted item #16 due to low corrected item-total correlation and low inter-item correlations with ten other items. Next, we deleted items #1, #4 and #17 due to high floor and ceiling effects, skewness and kurtosis. Also, we deleted items #2, #6 and #13 due to low inter-item correlations with six other items. Then, we examined the meaning of excluded and retained items on a theoretical basis in order to judge the results of the item analysis. For all the items that were removed there were items that remained and had similar meaning. For example, item #1 had a similar meaning with the items #3 and #5, the item #2 with the items #7 and #10 and the item #4 with the items #8 and #9. Thus, the removal of the nine questions is also justified in a theoretical context.

Thus, we deleted nine items. The remaining nine items (i.e., #3, #5, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12 and #18) had acceptable corrected item-total correlations, inter-item correlations, floor and ceiling effects, skewness and kurtosis. Moreover, Cronbach's alpha for the 18 items was 0.85 and was decreased after elimination of each single item.

3.3. Exploratory factor analysis

We conducted EFA including the nine items (i.e., #3, #5, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12 and #18) mentioned above. In that case, we used the first subsample of 461 employees. We found acceptable values for Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin index (0.845) and p-value for Bartlett sphericity test (<0.001). We performed oblique rotation and we found three factors including all items ( Table 3 ). Factor loadings ranged from 0.651–0.852, while communalities ranged from 0.519–0.756. We named the three factors as follows: detachment (items #7, #8, #11, #18), lack of initiative (items #9, #10, #12) and lack of motivation (items #3, #5). The total variance explained by the three factors was 65.028%. Cronbach's alpha for the total scale was 0.803, 0.707 for the factor “detachment”, 0.706 for the factor “lack of initiative” and 0.747 for the factor “lack of motivation”. Thus, EFA identified a three-factor model with nine items.

Note: Values express factors loadings.

As we mentioned in the introduction, we hypothesized a three-factor model for the QQS. EFA confirmed our hypothesis since we identified three factors, i.e., “detachment”, “lack of initiative” and “lack of motivation”. The factor “detachment” included the items #7, #8, #11 and #18 ( Table 3 ), which referred to individuals' tendency to separate themselves from work-related worries and thoughts. Additionally, the factor “lack of initiative” included the items #9, #10 and #12, which measured individuals' tendency to take initiative and go above and beyond in their work. Moreover, the factor “lack of motivation” included two items, which referred to individuals' internal disposition (#5) and external incentive (#3) toward work.

3.4. Confirmatory factor analysis

Then, we used the second subsample ( n = 461) to conduct the CFA. We performed CFA to verify the factors obtained from EFA. Thus, we performed CFA of nine items across three factors. The goodness-of-fit statistics suggested that the 3-factor model with nine items of the QQS provided a very good fit to data; x 2 /df = 3.184, RMSEA = 0.069 (90% confidence interval = 0.052 to 0.087), GFI = 0.964, NFI = 0.939, CFI = 0.957. Moreover, standardized regression weights between items and factors ranged from 0.478 to 0.878 (p < 0.001 in all cases). Furthermore, the correlations between the three factors were positive and statistically significant (p < 0.001 in all cases). CFA of the QQS is shown in Figure 2 . Correlation between the factors “detachment” and “lack of initiative” was strong ( r = 0.81), while between the factors “detachment” and “lack of motivation” and the factors “lack of initiative” and “lack of motivation” was moderate ( r = 0.51 and r = 0.58) respectively.

In conclusion, EFA and CFA identified a three-factor nine-item model for the QQS: detachment (four items), lack of initiative (three items) and lack of motivation (two items), ( Supplementary Table 2 ).

3.5. Concurrent validity

We found a negative relationship between the QQS and the JSS, suggesting that employees with lower levels of job satisfaction may have higher levels of quiet quitting. Correlation coefficients between QQS and JSS ranged from -0.28 to -0.54 (p < 0.001 in all cases). Moreover, we found a positive relationship between the QQS and the CBI, the SIB measure and the turnover intention (p < 0.001 in all cases). Correlation coefficients between QQS and CBI subscales ranged from 0.21–0.47. A similar pattern was observed in case of SBI (correlation coefficients ranged from 0.17–0.34). Also, correlation coefficients between the QQS and turnover intention were even higher (0.30–0.48). Therefore, the concurrent validity of the QQS was very good. Correlation analysis between the scales is shown in Table 4 .

Note: PCC: Pearson's correlation coefficient; SCC: Spearman's correlation coefficient.

3.6. Reliability

Reliability analysis included the nine items that emerged from the factor analysis. McDonald's omega and Cronbach's alpha are shown in Table 5 . All values were higher than 0.70, indicating acceptable internal consistency of the QQS. Cronbach's alpha of the QQS was 0.803 and McDonald's omega was 0.806. Cronbach's alpha of the factors “detachment”, “lack of initiative” and “lack of motivation” was 0.707, 0.706 and 0.747 respectively. Also, McDonald's omega of the factors “detachment” and “lack of initiative” was 0.711 and 0.735 respectively. Moreover, corrected item-total correlations had values between 0.363 and 0.616, while all inter-item correlations had values between 0.15 and 0.70. Also, removal of each single item did not increase Cronbach's alpha ( Supplementary Table 3 ). Range of Cronbach's alpha when a single item was deleted was 0.768–0.801.

Note: NC: noncomputable due to limited number of items.

Cohen's kappa for the nine items ranged from 0.836–0.945 (p < 0.001 in all cases), ( Supplementary Table 4 ). Moreover, intraclass correlation coefficient for the total score was 0.993, while for the three factors ranged from 0.987–0.992 (p < 0.001 in all cases), ( Supplementary Table 5 ). Therefore, reliability of QQS was excellent.

Moreover, less than 15% of employees achieved the lowest or highest possible score of the total and factors scores of the QQS indicating that the instrument is reliable.

4. Discussion

Due to recent findings by survey firm Gallup, about half of USA workers are quiet quitting their job [11] . The phenomenon of quiet quitting has been around even before the COVID-19 pandemic, but after pandemic, its prevalence has increased dramatically [12] . COVID-19 pandemic causes a tremendous impact on working conditions, including the wide adoption of remote working, job insecurity, unemployment and flexible work arrangements [3] . Additionally, the post-COVID-19 period was marked by a large number of resignations [4] , [6] . Therefore, organizations, managers and employers should give particular attention to quiet quitting, since it may change employees behaviors towards their jobs and affect the relationship between employees and their employers [56] .

Thus, it is important to assess the phenomenon of quiet quitting with valid and reliable instruments. Although there are several instruments in the literature examining work-related variables, such as turnover intention, job burnout and job satisfaction [18] – [21] , we did not find an instrument to measure quiet quitting. Given the research gap, we developed and validated a new specific measurement tool to determine quite quitting among employees.

In this study, we presented the development and validation of a new scale, namely quiet quitting scale. We found that the QQS has a stable three-factor structure. Moreover, the QQS is a brief and easy to administer instrument since it comprises only nine items. Initial psychometric analysis demonstrated that the QQS had very good validity and excellent reliability. Our development procedure and validation analysis seem to be robust since we examined several types of validity and reliability as literature suggests, e.g., content validity, face validity, item analysis, construct validity, test-retest reliability, etc. [25] , [37] – [39] , [41] . Thus, we applied a rigorous methodological approach, which complies with the reliability and validity stages of the QQS.

In our study, the higher the score on the QQS, the higher the scores on the CBI, the SIB measure and the turnover intention were. Also, we found a negative relationship between the QQS and the JSS. Thus, the high concurrent validity allows us to conclude that higher scores on the QQS indicate higher levels of quiet quitting. Therefore, the overall score of the summed-up items answers can indicate the level of quiet quitting among employees. Moreover, we found the same pattern for the three factors of the QQS: detachment, lack of initiative and lack of motivation. Additionally, the significant correlations between the QQS and work-related burnout (on the CBI and the SIB measure) and job satisfaction (on the JSS) suggest that employees with high levels of quite quitting may have also high levels of work-related burnout and low levels of job satisfaction. This finding is supported by a recent study in the USA where four out of five quiet quitters were burnt out [13] . Moreover, several systematic reviews provide evidence that work-related burnout is associated with job dissatisfaction, work disengagement and turnover intention [57] – [59] .

We should note some limitations in our study. First, we employed a convenience sample of employees from the public and private sector in Greece who volunteered to participate in our study. Also, we cannot calculate the response rate since we recruited our sample from sources such as social media, blogs, e-mail campaigns and SMS campaigns. Thus, convenience sampling and unknown response rate weaken the generalizability of our results. However, our sample size meets all criteria for validity and reliability analysis. Therefore, the psychometric analysis is quite powerful. Further studies with random and stratified samples could add significant information. Also, studies with employees from different organizations and companies (e.g., healthcare workers, administrative staff, teachers, academic staff, etc.) could further validate the QQS in more specific study populations. Second, we obtained our data through self-report questionnaires. Thus, information bias could arise because employees' responses could be affected by social desirability factors. Finally, since we assessed the validity of the QQS for first time, we did not attempt to establish a cut-off score that could categorize employees as quiet quitters and non-quite quitters. Future studies could perform cut-off analyses establishing cut-off values in order to discriminate employees.

5. Conclusions

According to our findings, the QQS is a 3-factor 9-item scale with robust psychometric properties. Thus, the QQS is a brief, reliable and valid instrument to measure quiet quitting among employees. However, further studies should be conducted to support the reliability and the validity of QQS. We recommend the use of the QQS in different societies and cultures to assess the validity of the instrument. Measuring quiet quitting appropriately could help policy makers to understand this phenomenon and develop and implement measures to diminish its impact on employees' life.

Use of AI tools declaration

The authors declare they have not used Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in the creation of this article.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all participants in our study. This research received no external funding.

Conflict of Interest: Petros Galanis is an editorial board member for AIMS Public Health, and he's also guest editor of AIMS Public Health Special Issue, and he was not involved in the editorial review or the decision to publish this article. All authors declare that there are no competing interests.

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Quiet Quitting

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Anna Scheyett, Quiet Quitting, Social Work , Volume 68, Issue 1, January 2023, Pages 5–7, https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/swac051

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Over the past few months, I have heard more and more in the media about quiet quitting. Headlines in the news include questions such as “What Is ‘Quiet Quitting’? and Why It’s Trending on Social Media” ( Bretous, 2022), “Is Quiet Quitting Real?” ( Harter, 2022), and “What Is ‘Quiet Quitting’ and How It May Be a Misnomer for Setting Boundaries at Work” ( Kilpatrick, 2022).

What is Quiet Quitting?

While definitions vary, they all agree that in quiet quitting , one does not literally quit one’s job, but rather simply does the work that is expected of the position, without going above and beyond what is expected ( Pearce, 2022). This phenomenon, first noted on TikTok, has become widespread. A recent Gallup poll found that quiet quitters made up over one half of U.S. employees in the second quarter of 2022 ( Harter, 2022).

Why Are We Hearing about It Now?

During the pandemic, some employees saw how their work might be reimagined remotely or flexibly, while at the same time experiencing virtual burnout and blurring of work–home boundaries. Other employees, including many social workers, were labeled “essential workers,” and had huge and often dangerous in-person work demands placed on them. Postpandemic demands to return to work, coupled with work culture that provided little reward or opportunity for growth, resulted in disillusionment and disengagement for many workers. This led to the Great Resignation, where many who could afford to leave their jobs did so. For those who could not, or chose not to leave their jobs, quiet quitting was an alternative ( Espada, 2022).

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Are Our Brains Wired to Quiet Quit?

Neuroscience has found that passive acceptance is a natural response to prolonged stress.

While the term “quiet quitting” may be new, what’s happening is just the latest expression of a fundamental aspect of human nature: In the face of persistent and inescapable stressors, people often respond by simply giving up. When nothing is in your control, why even try? Scientists have traditionally called this response “learned helplessness,” but more recent research suggests passivity is our default hardwired response to prolonged adversity. Organizations can reverse passivity among employees by giving them a direct experience of autonomy — the feeling of having control over their life and choices.

The world increasingly feels like it’s spiraling out of control, with a daily onslaught of grim news and economic anxiety. It’s no wonder that 31% of Americans are experiencing depression and anxiety — three times as many as before the pandemic — and nearly 50% of the workforce say they aren’t going to go above and beyond for their jobs.

• DR David Rock is a cofounder of the NeuroLeadership Institute and author of  Your Brain at Work .
• JD Jay Dixit is a senior science writer at the NeuroLeadership Institute and lectures at Yale University. His work has also appeared in Psychology Today and The New York Times .

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Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, the human capital management perspective on quiet quitting: recommendations for employees, managers, and national policymakers.

Journal of Knowledge Management

ISSN : 1367-3270

Article publication date: 7 April 2023

Issue publication date: 5 January 2024

The purpose of this Real Impact Viewpoint Article is to analyze the quiet quitting phenomenon from the human capital management perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

The methods comprise the analysis of 672 TikTok comments, the use of secondary data and literature review.

Quiet quitting is a mindset in which employees deliberately limit work activities to their job description, meet yet not exceed the preestablished expectations, never volunteer for additional tasks and do all this to merely maintain their current employment status while prioritizing their well-being over organizational goals. Employees quiet quit due to poor extrinsic motivation, burnout and grudges against their managers or organizations. Quiet quitting is a double-edged sword: while it helps workers avoid burnout, engaging in this behavior may jeopardize their professional careers. Though the term is new, the ideas behind quiet quitting are not and go back decades.

Practical implications

Employees engaged in quiet quitting should become more efficient, avoid burnout, prepare for termination or resignation and manage future career difficulties. In response to quiet quitting, human capital managers should invest in knowledge sharing, capture the knowledge of potential quiet quitters, think twice before terminating them, conduct a knowledge audit, focus on high performers, introduce burnout management programs, promote interactional justice between managers and subordinates and fairly compensate for “going above and beyond.” Policymakers should prevent national human capital depletion, promote work-life balance as a national core value, fund employee mental health support and invest in employee efficiency innovation.

Originality/value

This Real Impact Viewpoint Article analyzes quiet quitting from the human capital management perspective.

• Human capital
• Social exchange theory
• Knowledge loss
• Quiet quitting
• The Great Renegotiation
• The Great Resignation

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to two anonymous JKM reviewers and the Associate Editor for their developmental feedback on the previous version of this Real Impact Viewpoint Article.

Serenko, A. (2024), "The human capital management perspective on quiet quitting: recommendations for employees, managers, and national policymakers", Journal of Knowledge Management , Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 27-43. https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-10-2022-0792

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Burnout and Quiet Quitting: The Connection and How to Find Balance

As the office lights flicker like dying fireflies, a silent rebellion brews in cubicles across the globe, where burnout and quiet quitting dance a delicate tango of workplace discontent. This modern-day phenomenon has captured the attention of employers, employees, and workplace experts alike, as the lines between professional dedication and personal well-being become increasingly blurred.

The concept of quiet quitting has emerged as a subtle yet powerful response to the mounting pressures of today’s work environment. Unlike traditional resignation, quiet quitting involves employees mentally checking out of their jobs while still physically present. They fulfill their basic responsibilities but refrain from going above and beyond, effectively setting boundaries to protect their mental health and work-life balance.

Simultaneously, burnout has become a pervasive issue in workplaces worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) officially recognized burnout as an occupational phenomenon in 2019, defining it as a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. This recognition has shed light on the growing prevalence of both quiet quitting and burnout in modern workplaces, prompting a closer examination of their interconnected nature.

The Quiet Quitting Phenomenon

The origins of quiet quitting can be traced back to a combination of factors, including increased workloads, blurred boundaries between work and personal life, and a growing desire for better work-life balance. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated these issues, as remote work has made it challenging for many to disconnect from their professional responsibilities.

Signs and symptoms of quiet quitting can be subtle but impactful. Employees engaging in this behavior may exhibit decreased enthusiasm for their work, minimal participation in team activities, and a reluctance to take on additional responsibilities. They may also become less responsive to communication outside of regular work hours and show a general lack of engagement in company culture.

The impact of quiet quitting on individual productivity and workplace culture can be significant. While employees may maintain their basic job functions, the lack of initiative and reduced engagement can lead to a decline in overall team performance and innovation. This ripple effect can create a negative atmosphere within the organization, potentially influencing other employees and damaging morale.

It’s important to note that quiet quitting differs from actual resignation in several key ways. Burnout and Quitting: Recognizing Signs and Taking Action for Your Well-being explores this distinction further. While resignation involves formally leaving a job, quiet quitting is a more passive approach where employees remain in their positions but mentally disengage. This subtle form of rebellion allows individuals to maintain financial stability while attempting to protect their mental health and personal time.

Understanding Burnout

Burnout is a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion resulting from prolonged exposure to high levels of stress. The condition typically progresses through several stages, beginning with enthusiasm and idealism, followed by stagnation, frustration, and ultimately, apathy and burnout.

Common causes of burnout in the workplace include excessive workload, lack of control over one’s job, insufficient rewards or recognition, breakdown of community, absence of fairness, and conflicting values between the employee and the organization. The increasing prevalence of technology in our work lives has also contributed to the rise of burnout, as explored in Tech Burnout in the Digital Age: Understanding and Overcoming the Silent Epidemic .

The physical and mental health consequences of burnout can be severe and long-lasting. Physical symptoms may include chronic fatigue, insomnia, headaches, and weakened immune system function. Mental health impacts can range from anxiety and depression to decreased self-esteem and a sense of hopelessness. The relationship between burnout and sleep disturbances is particularly concerning, as discussed in Insomnia and Burnout: The Vicious Cycle and Strategies for Relief .

Maintaining a healthy work-life balance plays a crucial role in preventing burnout. This balance allows individuals to recharge, pursue personal interests, and maintain strong relationships outside of work. However, achieving this balance has become increasingly challenging in today’s always-connected work culture, especially for those working remotely, as highlighted in Remote Work Burnout: Strategies for Overcoming Fatigue and Boosting Productivity .

The Connection Between Quiet Quitting and Burnout

The relationship between quiet quitting and burnout is complex and often cyclical. Burnout can be a significant catalyst for quiet quitting, as employees who feel overwhelmed and exhausted may resort to disengagement as a means of self-preservation. This connection is explored in depth in Burnout Culture’s Hidden Costs: Understanding and Combating Workplace Exhaustion .

Quiet quitting can be viewed as a coping mechanism for burnout, allowing individuals to create boundaries and protect their mental health without the financial risks associated with actual resignation. By reducing their emotional investment in work, employees attempt to mitigate the stress and exhaustion that contribute to burnout.

However, this relationship is not unidirectional. The act of quiet quitting itself can lead to increased feelings of burnout over time. As employees disengage from their work, they may experience a loss of purpose and satisfaction, potentially exacerbating feelings of burnout and creating a self-perpetuating cycle.

Case studies illustrating the quiet quitting-burnout relationship abound in various industries. For example, a software developer at a high-pressure tech startup began quietly quitting after months of 60-hour workweeks and constant deadline pressure. While she maintained her basic job functions, her reduced engagement led to missed opportunities for career advancement and a growing sense of disconnection from her work. This situation ultimately resulted in full-blown burnout, necessitating a leave of absence and reevaluation of her career path.

Strategies for Employers to Address Quiet Quitting and Burnout

Recognizing the early signs of quiet quitting and burnout is crucial for employers to address these issues proactively. Signs may include decreased productivity, increased absenteeism, changes in attitude or behavior, and a general lack of enthusiasm for work-related activities.

Implementing workplace policies to promote well-being is essential in combating both quiet quitting and burnout. These policies may include flexible work arrangements, mental health days, and clear expectations regarding after-hours communication. Work From Home Burnout: Strategies for Maintaining Balance and Productivity offers valuable insights into creating supportive remote work environments.

Fostering open communication and feedback channels is vital for addressing issues before they escalate. Regular check-ins, anonymous feedback systems, and town hall meetings can provide employees with opportunities to voice concerns and feel heard.

Providing resources for mental health and stress management demonstrates an organization’s commitment to employee well-being. This may include access to counseling services, stress management workshops, and mindfulness programs. The benefits of mindfulness in combating burnout are explored in Burnout Recovery Through Mindfulness: Reclaiming Balance and Well-being .

Individual Approaches to Combating Quiet Quitting and Burnout

Self-assessment and recognizing personal burnout triggers are crucial steps in addressing both quiet quitting and burnout. Individuals should regularly evaluate their stress levels, job satisfaction, and overall well-being to identify potential issues early on.

Setting healthy boundaries at work is essential for maintaining work-life balance and preventing burnout. This may involve clearly communicating availability, learning to say no to excessive demands, and establishing a separation between work and personal time.

Developing resilience and stress management techniques can help individuals cope with workplace pressures more effectively. Strategies may include regular exercise, meditation, and engaging in hobbies or activities that provide a sense of fulfillment outside of work.

Seeking professional help and support when needed is crucial for addressing burnout and the underlying issues that may lead to quiet quitting. This may involve consulting with a therapist, career coach, or attending workshops focused on workplace well-being. Workplace Exhaustion: How Burnout Speakers Empower Professionals to Overcome It highlights the value of expert guidance in addressing these issues.

The Role of Workplace Culture in Addressing Quiet Quitting and Burnout

Creating a positive workplace culture is fundamental in preventing and addressing both quiet quitting and burnout. Organizations that prioritize employee well-being, foster open communication, and promote work-life balance are better equipped to tackle these challenges.

Leadership plays a crucial role in shaping workplace culture. Managers and executives should lead by example, demonstrating healthy work habits and encouraging their teams to prioritize well-being. This may involve respecting boundaries, promoting the use of vacation time, and openly discussing the importance of mental health.

Implementing recognition and reward systems that acknowledge both individual and team contributions can help combat feelings of underappreciation that often contribute to quiet quitting and burnout. These systems should go beyond monetary incentives to include opportunities for growth, learning, and career development.

Fostering a sense of community and belonging within the workplace can also help prevent disengagement and burnout. Team-building activities, mentorship programs, and collaborative projects can strengthen interpersonal connections and create a more supportive work environment.

The Impact of Technology on Quiet Quitting and Burnout

While technology has revolutionized the way we work, it has also contributed to the rise of quiet quitting and burnout. The constant connectivity enabled by smartphones and remote work tools has blurred the lines between work and personal life, making it difficult for employees to fully disconnect.

To address this, organizations should establish clear guidelines around the use of technology outside of work hours. This may include implementing “right to disconnect” policies that discourage after-hours communication and respect employees’ personal time.

On the other hand, technology can also be leveraged to support employee well-being. Digital wellness tools, such as meditation apps and virtual fitness classes, can be provided as part of employee benefits packages. Additionally, project management and productivity tools can help streamline workflows and reduce stress associated with overwhelming workloads.

The Future of Work: Balancing Productivity and Well-being

As the workplace continues to evolve, addressing quiet quitting and burnout will become increasingly important for both employers and employees. The future of work will likely involve a greater emphasis on work-life integration, rather than the traditional concept of work-life balance.

This shift may include more flexible work arrangements, such as four-day workweeks or hybrid remote-office models, which can help employees better manage their time and energy. Companies may also invest more heavily in wellness programs and mental health support as part of their standard benefits packages.

Additionally, there may be a growing focus on skills such as emotional intelligence and resilience in the workplace. These skills can help employees better navigate workplace stressors and maintain engagement even in challenging circumstances.

The connection between quiet quitting and burnout represents a significant challenge in today’s workplace. As employees struggle to maintain their well-being in the face of increasing demands, organizations must recognize the importance of addressing both issues proactively.

By fostering a culture that values employee well-being, implementing supportive policies, and providing resources for mental health and stress management, employers can create healthier work environments that reduce the likelihood of both quiet quitting and burnout. Simultaneously, individuals must take responsibility for their own well-being by setting boundaries, developing resilience, and seeking support when needed.

Ultimately, creating a sustainable work environment that balances productivity with employee well-being is crucial for personal and organizational success. As we move forward, it is essential for both employers and employees to remain vigilant and proactive in addressing the challenges of quiet quitting and burnout. By doing so, we can create workplaces that not only drive success but also nurture the health and happiness of those who contribute to that success.

Workplace Exhaustion: Combating Burnout with the Torch Blend Solution offers an innovative approach to addressing burnout in the workplace, providing yet another tool in the ongoing effort to create healthier, more balanced work environments.

As we navigate the complexities of modern work life, it’s crucial to remember that addressing quiet quitting and burnout is not just about maintaining productivity—it’s about fostering environments where individuals can thrive both personally and professionally. By taking proactive steps to create such environments, we can work towards a future where the flickering office lights symbolize not the dying embers of employee engagement, but the steady glow of a workforce that is balanced, fulfilled, and energized.

References:

1. World Health Organization. (2019). Burn-out an “occupational phenomenon”: International Classification of Diseases. WHO.

2. Maslach, C., & Leiter, M. P. (2016). Understanding the burnout experience: recent research and its implications for psychiatry. World Psychiatry, 15(2), 103-111.

3. Gallup. (2022). State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report. Gallup, Inc.

4. Moss, J. (2019). Burnout Is About Your Workplace, Not Your People. Harvard Business Review.

5. Seppälä, E., & Moeller, J. (2018). 1 in 5 Employees Is Highly Engaged and at Risk of Burnout. Harvard Business Review.

6. American Psychological Association. (2021). 2021 Work and Well-being Survey. APA.

7. Deloitte. (2022). The C-suite’s role in well-being. Deloitte Insights.

8. Bakker, A. B., & Costa, P. L. (2014). Chronic job burnout and daily functioning: A theoretical analysis. Burnout Research, 1(3), 112-119.

9. Sonnentag, S., & Fritz, C. (2015). Recovery from job stress: The stressor-detachment model as an integrative framework. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36(S1), S72-S103.

10. Schaufeli, W. B., & Bakker, A. B. (2004). Job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 25(3), 293-315.

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• Published: 08 August 2023

Quiet quitting during COVID-19: the role of psychological empowerment

• Mingxiao Lu 1 ,
• Abdullah Al Mamun   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9713-742X 1 ,
• Xuelin Chen 1 , 2 ,
• Qing Yang 1 &
• Mohammad Masukujjaman 1  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  10 , Article number:  485 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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Due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Chinese university lecturers have experienced increased levels of disappointment and powerlessness due to the changing work environment. An increasing number of lecturers exhibit quiet-quitting intention, which affects their work passion, teaching quality, and so on. However, it is little known about how work-related factors, influence quiet-quitting intention of lecturers. Drawing on the social exchange theory, this study proposes a conceptual model that investigates the effects of work overload, perceived career development opportunities, perceived pay-for performance, affective organizational commitment and work conditions on job burnout, employee well-being, and quiet-quitting intention. Using a quantitative cross-sectional approach, 698 responses were obtained from young Chinese university lecturers. We also employed partial least squares structural equation modeling to analyze and forecast the extent of the impact of this study’s independent variables. The findings revealed that work overload, perceived pay-for-performance, affective organizational commitment, and work conditions significantly affect job burnout and employee well-being. Additionally, job burnout and employee well-being significantly effect quiet-quitting intention, which are moderated by psychological empowerment. Overall, this study contributes to the understanding of the factors influencing quiet-quitting intention among Chinese university lecturers, providing theoretical and practical implications for addressing the challenges arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Introduction.

A sense of pessimism gradually spread worldwide during COVID-19. According to Collins Dictionary, the selected Word of the Year for 2022 is "permacrisis," a term that encapsulates the profound sense of continuously navigating through a series of unprecedented events, leaving individuals contemplative about the potential bleakness and apprehensive about the unknown adversities that may lie ahead. Specifically, in November 2022, words such as quiet quitting were selected as the Collins’ list of words of 2022, which revealed the disappointment and powerlessness of people in the current environment. Quiet-quitting intention (QQ) is a new concept that is different from turnover intention, which refers to emotional or physical tiredness and fatigue from a job, thus encouraging the thought of just doing the basic work to fulfill the responsibilities and never exceed that. Indeed, COVID-19 has caused social and economic uncertainty, which has increased the pressure on many people, and made them rethink their lifestyle and the way of work. An increasing number of people are willing to invest more energy into their personal lives rather than follow the idea of transcending themselves at work (Li, 2018 ; Mohammed et al., 2020 ).

Psychological and emotional fatigue have been shown to have significant negative consequences, leading to harmful effects on both the physical and psychological well-being of individuals and manifesting as reduced performance quality and diminished productivity (Wu et al., 2022 ). Consistent with this finding, Wu et al. ( 2023 ) have pointed out that additional work tasks from the COVID-19 pandemic may prompt employees to engage in emotional labor as a means to fulfill job demands, which may conflict with their authentic emotions and in turn impact their work quality. When university lecturers adopt a passive approach towards their work, it can have significant repercussions on their teaching quality, performance and organizational effectiveness (Mohammed et al., 2020 ). Consequently, the concern arises regarding the teaching quality when university teachers exhibit QQ. As university students stand at the threshold of entering the workforce and potentially assuming the role of catalysts for social development, the extent to which they can fulfill this role is intricately tied to the quality of professional education they have received in their respective universities. Therefore, finding ways to reduce university lecturers’ QQ is vital.

With the continuous growth of the social economy, higher education has become prevalent in China. Chinese universities have expanded their enrollment to enable more students to receive higher education. Therefore, lecturers at universities in China undertake more teaching and scientific research tasks along with their family responsibilities. For instance, Bao ( 2020 ) have highlighted that the outbreak of COVID-19 compelled Peking University, renowned for its academic excellence in China, to implement live online courses. However, the transition to fully online courses necessitates meticulous lesson planning, the development of teaching materials such as audio and video content, as well as the acquisition of essential technological skills. As a consequence, many faculty members in Peking University are grappling with the challenges of limited online teaching experience and insufficient preparation. The added pressure stemming from the shift to online teaching exacerbates the workload burden on university lecturers. This is a strong sign indicating that university lecturers face work overload. Under these circumstances, an increasing number of university lecturers in Chinese universities seem to experience job burnout and experience QQ. There is an urgent need to examine and represent the formation and development of quiet-quitting intentions among Chinese university lecturers. The previous studies have demonstrated that the motivational process of employee well-being has positive relationships with positive organizational outcomes (e.g., retention intention, affective organizational commitment, and so on) (Schaufeli and Taris, 2014 ; Agarwal and Gupta, 2018 ; Chen et al., 2023 ). Thus, a greater knowledge of reducing university lecturers’ job burnout and enhancing their well-being may contribute to the decrease in QQ.

The notion that human resources are the most crucial asset and the foundation of organizations is widely recognized (Qing, et al., 2020 ). Firms are now concerned about staff turnover (Gan and Yusof, 2020 ; Chen et al., 2023 ). Similarly, keeping employees in their jobs and encouraging them to offer full play to their effectiveness and ensure higher performance are equally crucial. Organizations (including universities) tend to promote empowering practices and reinforce the ability of employees to attain organizational objectives with a competitive edge. Previous studies have shown that employees with higher perceptions of psychological empowerment have lower intentions to quit and exhibit better performance (Nissan, 2021 ). Furthermore, Ambad et al. ( 2021 ) indicated that psychological empowerment can improve employees’ confidence in the organization and make employees more devoted to their firms. To support this, Nissan ( 2021 ) found that when people are psychologically empowered, they feel more satisfied with their work and are motivated to complete daily tasks, which also increases their sense of belonging. Therefore, it is rational to assume that employees with high perceptions of psychological empowerment invest more energy into their daily work and are devoted.

Higher levels of perceived career development opportunity and perceived pay-for performance influence employees’ turnover intention (Magni and Manzoni, 2020 ). Moreover, previous studies have suggested that work overload, affective organizational commitment, and work conditions are closely related to employees’ turnover intention (Ouerdian et al., 2021 ; Ravalier et al., 2021 ; Anasi, 2020 ). Overall, prior studies have extensively investigated the influences of these work-related factors on employees’ work attitudes and behaviors, including turnover intention and work engagement (Schaufeli and Bakker, 2004 ; Bakker and Demerouti, 2017 ; Berta et al., 2018 ). However, limited study has explored whether these factors have some impact on the job burnout, employee well-being and quiet-quitting intention for Chinese university lecturers. Therefore, this study attempts to examine the mechanisms influencing Chinese university lecturers’ job burnout, employee well-being and quiet-quitting intention, as well as the moderating role of psychological empowerment, by looking at some key job resources, such as personal career development opportunities.

To address these gaps, a conceptual framework was developed based on Social Exchange Theory (SET) and empirically tested. Prior studies have utilized the SET to investigate various organizational relationships, including those between employers and employees, employees and their co-workers, and the relationship between employees and the organization itself (Harden et al., 2018 ; Rai, 2013 ; Tsen et al., 2022 ). For instance, Harden et al. ( 2018 ) conducted a study examining the influence of work overload and fairness of rewards on turnover intention and organizational commitment, employing the SET as the theoretical basis for their investigation. Similarly, Azeem et al. ( 2020 ) applied the SET to explore the relationship between psychological contract violation, employee dissatisfaction, work disengagement, and turnover intention. However, despite the existing research on SET, no studies have specifically examined the antecedents of QQ from the SET perspective, representing a significant gap in the current literature. By adopting the SET perspective to explore QQ, this study examines the reciprocal exchanges between university lecturers and their institutions, considering factors such as opportunities for growth.

This study used a quantitative approach to test the associations between these constructs. To collect sufficient data, convenience sampling was utilized, resulting in a total of 698 complete responses from lecturers affiliated with Chinese universities. Furthermore, PLS-SEM was chosen as the analytical technique in this study due to its suitability for testing a theoretical framework from a predictive standpoint (Hair et al., 2019 ). In this way, the research can provide a more targeted and detailed analysis of the specific factors that are most important for predicting QQ among Chinese university lecturers. The findings of this study contribute in the following ways. From a theoretical viewpoint, first, this study provides a better understanding of the relationships of work overload, perceived career development opportunities, perceived pay-for performance, work condition, and affective organizational commitment with the QQ of university lecturers in Chinese universities, allowing holistic framework with direct and new indirect relationships. Second, this study provides valuable insights into QQ and contributes to the limited QQ literature, which has now become a topic of interest for the researchers. From a practical viewpoint, university administrators can benefit from this study by formulating effective management policies to enhance university lecturers’ well-being and stimulate their enthusiasm for work.

Literature review

Theoretical foundation.

This study was conducted based on the SET, which emphasizes the economic input and output of social behavior, redefines interpersonal communication as a social exchange phenomenon (Liu and Deng, 2011 ). People are driven by self-interest to engage in interpersonal exchange and communication. Human behavior abides by the axiom “Seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages,” which implies that individuals are inclined to pursue higher benefits and lower costs during interactions, or they are inclined to obtain higher satisfaction and lower dissatisfaction. The SET necessitates efforts to avoid competition in conflicts of interest and achieve win-win or multi-win outcomes through mutual social exchanges. The core idea advocated by the SET is that people who participate in and uphold exchange connections with others expect to get rewards (Blau, 1968 ; Gouldner, 1960 ; Homans, 1958 ). The SET can only be operated by exploring and studying behaviors that receive rewards from others (Blau, 1964 ). The exchange processes are regarded as transactions, which are bilateral, interactive, and reciprocal in character (Emerson, 1976 ), and once one of the two parties believe that this transaction has violated its own interests, the exchange will be called off immediately (Blau, 1986 ). Homans ( 1958 ) suggested that the exchange of benefits, or the giving of something of relative value to another, is fundamental to human behavior.

This study examined university lecturers’ psychological needs and their impact on quiet-quitting intentions by drawing upon the SET. Once employees’ psychological demands are satisfied, they feel more empowered and mentally relaxed; consequently, they act more faithfully and perform better in their jobs to achieve organizational goals. According to Lee and Nie ( 2017 ), to achieve mutual goals and missions, organizations assign tasks and empower the authority to employees which helps employees clarify the responsibilities and purpose of their job. Organizations and employees build relationships by exchanging their values and needs based on their own behalf and the principle of seeking expanded advantages. According to the SET, people’s perceptions and attitudes towards work and the behaviors they conduct in the workplace would be influenced by various factors; something that they think is advantageous or disadvantageous would violate the balance of the transaction between them and the organizations, such as work overload, perceived career development opportunities, perceived pay-for performance, affective organizational commitment, work conditions and so on.

Hypotheses development

Job burnout (jb).

JB is defined as the state of physical or mental exhaustion produced by individuals under severe work pressure. The notion of job burnout was first proposed by Freudenberger ( 1974 ), who believed that JB is a component of emotional fatigue. Maslach et al. ( 2001 ) believe that JB is a psychological syndrome caused by reacting to chronic emotional and interpersonal stressors in the workplace. He categorized three dimensions of JB: exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy. Generally speaking, JB is an extreme mental and physical state when people do not have the capacity to deal with work pressure successfully, and they experience an emotion dilemma and fatigue that is generated due to long-term work stress. Gillespie et al. ( 2001 ) and Kaiser et al. ( 2021 ) have pointed out that JB of university lecturers was a response to chronic job stress, which resulted from various factors, including insufficient funding, inadequate resources and support, excessive workload and a lack of promotion, rewards, and recognition. When university teachers invest their efforts into their jobs but did not receive feedback regarding their self-efficacy, the escalating perception of job stress can lead to JB, characterized by physical exhaustion and emotional fatigue (Li, 2018 ). Given that, it is rational to infer that when lecturers are confronted with heavy job stress, they are more likely to experience symptoms of JB and a subsequent decline in their work passion.

Employees’ well-being (EW)

EW denotes the overall quality assessment of employees’ job experiences and functions (Warr, 1990 ). In practice, some researchers often compare EW to a single-dimension idea—job satisfaction. These two terms are similar but not equivalent because employees’ well-being has a broader conceptual framework and consists of three facets: psychological, physical, and social. Wright and Hobfoll ( 2004 ) proposed that psychological well-being is conducive to realizing a win-win output and improving the interests of both employers and employees, which leads to higher productivity in the organization. Aboobaker et al. ( 2019 ) have emphasized the significance of deliberating upon the psychological integration of employees towards their work and workplace needs within higher education settings, as this is essential for the attainment of educational objectives. In the current study, we focused on EW as a dimension of psychological well-being related to satisfaction with jobs and life (Chen et al., 2023 ). Well-being of university lecturers is an ongoing and gratifying experience wherein their needs are met, professional aspirations are realized, potential is fulfilled, and harmonious personal development is achieved (Pei et al., 2022 ). In other words, the well-being of university lecturers primarily revolves around their professional welfare, which effectively encompasses their positive experiences during professional activities.

Work overload (WO)

When the expectation for an employee is too high within the time available or the work demand surpasses the employee’s ability, WO occurs (Katz and Kahn, 1978 ). WO is recognized as a common work demand because it requires employees to work as quickly as possible. The original nature of this term is speed, providing a more agile response and executing a variety of tasks and multiple projects in a limited period of time (Ingusci et al., 2021 ). WO can be categorized as chronic troubles in the work environment that add up whenever additional stress is applied to an employee. According to Keenan and McBain ( 1978 ), employees’ frequent experience of stress and overload in the work atmosphere may lead to undesired outcomes. WO is classified as a pertinent need in the work environment of most people because it involves handling many practical and mental endeavors (Bakker and Demerouti, 2017 ; Bakker et al., 2003 ). Long office hours and pushing office schedules lead to low career commitment and disrupt the harmony between work and personal life (Poulose and Dhal, 2020 ), which may cause emotional fatigue, job burnout, and intention to quit. Workload is a critical source of JB, and it is most clearly linked to the exhausting component of burnout (Maslach and Leiter, 2008 ). WO results from cognitive problems leading to lower employee satisfaction and well-being (Bliese and Castro, 2000 ). Qureshi et al. ( 2012 ) found similar results in a study of WO in textile industry workers. Hence, we propose the following hypotheses:

H 1A : WO is positively related to JB among university lecturers .

H 1B : WO has a negative effect on EW among university lecturers .

Perceived career development opportunities (PC)

Organizations improve with the development of economy and society, which also leads to changes in the required skills. Therefore, establishing a clear career development structure provides employees with security and stability. PC refers to formal coherent plans that meet the professional needs of the staff and personnel requirements of enterprises (Ayodele et al., 2020 ). This complex process affects people’s life. According to Adekola ( 2011 ), PC is the result of communication between the career planner and the organization responsible for managing employees’ careers. Based on the principles of the SET, when individuals hold positive psychological expectations that investing high levels of job engagement will lead to increased development opportunities, their relationship with the organization is characterized by a mutual and equitable social exchange (Yin, 2018 ). Hence, individuals are more likely to exhibit active engagement and work passion. The universities should provide the necessary tools and resources to lecturers to ensure better opportunities for them. Karavardar ( 2014 ) found that career development is critical for employees as they are more involved in the work; it is also important for ensuring a low turnover rate among employees. The organizations should frame such policies that may build psychological bonds between the organizations and staff. Once the expectation of career development is noticed and emphasized, and employees’ demands are met, they become more attached to their organizations, stay longer, and experience higher well-being. Career development opportunities improve individual performance by encouraging continuous learning and adaptation. Simultaneously, the organization establishes a positive development relationship with employees. Hence, the following hypotheses are proposed:

H 2A : PC has a negative effect on the JB among university lecturers .

H 2B : PC has a positive effect on the EW among university lecturers .

Perceived pay-for performance (PP)

Gerhart and Fang ( 2015 ) provided a comprehensive definition of pay-for-performance, characterizing it as a compensation program that aligns remuneration with individual performance based on quantifiable outputs (e.g., sales volume) or evaluative measures of behavior. The relationship between pay growth and performance might not always coincide with the association between employees’ perceptions of performance-based pay and their actual performance (Nyberg, 2010 ) and this misalignment could potentially impact employee attitudes and perceptions. According to the SET, when individuals perceive that investing higher levels of job engagement can lead to better rewards, their relationship with the organization will exhibit mutual and equitable social exchange (Yin, 2018 ). Consequently, they are more likely to demonstrate active engagement and generate higher levels of work performance. According to Bucklin et al. ( 2022 ), pay-for-performance has the potential to significantly enhance workforce productivity by incentivizing both the actions and outcomes associated with performance. Wenzel et al. ( 2019 ) have highlighted that a fair, participatory, and transparent performance pay schemes reduces the controlling perception while simultaneously nurturing the intrinsic motivation of employees. The motivational impact of fair performance appraisal may be diminished when employees perceive deficiencies in the fairness, validity, and reliability of the performance appraisal process (Lee, 2019 ). Additionally, individuals with a strong perception of pay-for performance exhibit higher levels of job satisfaction and are more likely to proactively assist their co-workers (He et al., 2021 ). Given that, it is rational to infer that lecturers with a high PP are intrinsically motivated, leading to improved work efficiency. Conversely, when they perceive pay-for-performance as unfair, they may experience emotional fatigue, which in turn reduces work efficiency. Thus, we posit the following hypotheses.

H 3A : PP has a negative effect on the JB among university lecturers .

H 3B : PP has a positive effect on the EW among university lecturers .

Affective organizational commitment (AC)

AC has captured the increasing attention of organizations because competitive advantage stems from a committed workforce (Meyer and Parfyonova, 2010 ). Organizational commitment denotes “a psychological connection between the staff and their organizations making it less prospective that individuals will voluntarily resign from the firms” (Allen and Meyer, 1996 ). Referring to the SET, employees who exhibit affective commitment towards their organizations are motivated to actively engage in positive social exchanges with their organization and have a sense of meaningful work (Cropanzano and Mitchell, 2005 ; Wang et al., 2020 ). In other words, individuals carried with high AC are more inclined to perceive their work as meaningful and derive enjoyment from their job. Additionally, Wu et al. ( 2022 ) have emphasized that receiving social support from the organization can effectively mitigate individuals’ levels of job fatigue and another job resource (e.g., high job control) can play a buffering role in the strain-burnout relationship. Similarly, Gaan et al. ( 2023 ) have pointed that resonant leadership, characterized by the ability to balance emotions and foster harmony among employees, emerges as a potential catalyst for promoting purposeful engagement among employees who are working remotely in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Conversely, during the COVID-19, the increasing job demands deepens the conflicts between surface acting and true feelings of individuals, in turn increasing the likelihood of exhaustion and diminished ability to function that occurs during and after a workday (Wu et al., 2023 ). Given that, it is rational to infer when individuals are afforded a greater abundance of favorable job resources and encounter fewer job demands within their organizations, they are more inclined to develop affective commitment towards their organization and exhibit higher levels of work engagement. Consequently, this enhanced commitment and engagement contribute to a diminished experience of emotional fatigue in relation to their work. Thus, we postulated the following hypotheses.

H 4A : AC has a negative effect on the JB among university lecturers .

H 4B : AC has a positive effect on the EW among university lecturers .

Work condition (WC)

WC represents the sum of the facilities, work environment, amount of work, and hours of work. The Job Demand Resource Model (JD-R) proposed by Demerouti et al. ( 2001 ), classifies work conditions into two dimensions: job demands and job resources. Job resources and demands are considered catalysts for work behaviors (Bakker and Demerouti, 2017 ). When we refer to the mental and emotional labor required for work, we think about its "demands," which may be broken down into four categories: physical, psychological, social, and organizational. Schaufeli and Bakker ( 2004 ) proposed that job demands may be considered work environment features, such as a large amount of work and limited time. The expression, “physical, psychological, social, or organizational components of the job” refers to “job resources” that functions to realize work targets, reduce work demands under the physical or psychological costs and motivate individual development (Demerouti et al., 2001 ). As Elkayam et al. ( 2020 ) suggested, employees who are more satisfied with their working conditions generally express a lower sense of burnout. Furthermore, inferior WCs may lead to job dissatisfaction in the nursing industry (Wisniewski et al., 2015 ). Mudrák et al. ( 2020 ) drew a similar conclusion in academics: a higher level of satisfaction is due to high-quality core job resources supporting inner motivation, while some extant work environments may be recognized as suboptimal. Hence, the following propositions are made.

H 5A : WC has a negative effect on the JB among university lecturers .

H 5B : WC has a positive effect on the EW among university lecturers .

Quiet-quitting intention (QQ)

QQ is a new term, and it is an adaptation of the idea of turnover intention. It does not mean that employees leave their job, but rather “limit work to contract hours.” QQ implies “the idea of not giving any extra effort, but rather performing only what is required of them in their job description.” Tett and Meyer ( 1993 ) recognize “quit intention” as employees’ cautious judgments and emotions. Quit intention has a negative link with firm productivity (AbuAlRub and Al‐Zaru, 2008 ), which is unfavorable for the healthy and sustainable development of organizations. Sun and Wang ( 2017 ) expanded the idea of turnover intention. They suggested that employee turnover can be seen as “employees’ inattentive behavior in a way that they are within the office but does not pay attention to the work,” which is similar to the idea of QQ. Many academics from various fields working in behavioral, longitudinal, and organizational domains have looked into the factors that lead employees to consider leaving their jobs (Haque et al., 2020 ). Quiet quitting seems to be a renewed commitment to life outside of the workplace. Job dissatisfaction and lack of perceived employee well-being are the reasons for the intention to quit, whereas employee well-being, lower workload, and few career development opportunities lead to the intention to stay and better performance (Ali and Rafie Mohd Arshad, 2018 ). Therefore, we propose the following hypotheses.

H 6 : JB is positively related to QQ among university lecturers .

H 7 : EW is negatively related to QQ among university lecturers .

Psychological empowerment (PE)

In the last decade, PE has emerged as a major player in various aspects; however, the academia lacks consensus on its definition since the usage of the terminology varies with studies. Over time, the concept shifted from “a process of improving the employee’s perception of self-efficacy” to “a condition of intrinsic motivation of the employee” (Thomas and Diener, 1990 ). The most recognized definition of the present time was proposed by Spreitzer in 1995 , who is deeply involved in the field of psychology and is regarded as an expert in this area. She believes that PE reflects a person’s sense of control in the workplace, and she divides PE into four dimensions according to the relationship between the individuals’ sense of control and work, which includes meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact. Here, meaning is understood as an individual’s recognition of the value or significance that they bring to an activity while being engaged in it. Competence refers to the skills required by employees for the successful execution of their jobs. Self-determination implies the leeway given to employees to make decisions and to set priorities within their jobs. Outcomes refer to employees’ expectation that the tasks they complete would positively influence the firm’s goals (Spreitzer, 1997 ; Jose and Mampilly, 2014 ).

PE entrusts employees to determine the operations of their work with greater confidence and self-determination levels, thus ensuring a positive organizational climate. Pecino et al. ( 2019 ) confirmed that a positive organizational climate could lead to fewer cases of burnout. Staff are more enthusiastic about staying at the firm and are more dedicated to their work. Suifan et al. ( 2020 ) found that PE can lead to a lower quitting intentions among employees. Statistical evidence was provided by Amarneh et al. ( 2021 ) who demonstrated that PE moderated the relationship between nurses’ job satisfaction and their intention to leave their current positions. Thus, based on the above discussion, we propose that PE acts as a moderator in the connection between employees’ JB and QQ. Additionally, the previous researchers have attempted to explore the relationship between PE and other human resource constructs based on the organization’s perspective. Ugboro ( 2006 ) conducted their study from the vantage point of organizations’ total quality management, and they examined the connection between top management leadership, employee empowerment, employee well-being and customer satisfaction. The results revealed significant relationships between these factors. Thus, we assumed that PE has a moderating role in the link between employees’ EW and QQ, and we propose the following hypotheses.

H M1 : PE may moderate the connection between JB and QQ .

H M2 : PE may moderate the connection between EW and QQ .

Research methodology

Data collection and sample design.

The population for this research comprised lecturers from universities in China. G*Power 3.1 was used to estimate the sample size with 0.95 power and 0.15 effect size, and eight independent variables. The analyses involved collecting at least 160 efficient samples to realize the requisite power and effect size (Faul et al., 2007 ). A sample sizes of at least 200 was needed (Leguina, 2015 ). Convenience sampling is a common form of sampling found in specific population research (Stratton, 2021 ). Considering that our target group comprises Chinese lecturers, and reaching all lecturers in China is impractical, convenience sampling emerges as the most practical and viable approach. In order to secure an adequate number of responses, this study employed convenience sampling. The questionnaire was distributed through WJX ( https://www.wjx.cn/vm/OtSLkrP.aspx# ), a widely recognized and practical online questionnaire management tool in China. Data collection took place between September 12, 2022 and October, 22, 2022, with a final screened sample of 698 valid samples retained.

Measurement

Overall, the scale in the current study was developed based on established scales from existing literature and the questionnaire was meticulously designed to incorporate straightforward and unbiased wordings, ensuring ease of comprehension for the respondents. The items in the questions were used to measure the constructs and sources listed in supporting material S1 . Survey Questionnaire . The final scale was first developed in English and then it was translated into Chinese. To determine the correctness and validity of the questionnaire items and guarantee equivalence of the measures in the English and Chinese versions of the questionnaires, two authorized experts evaluated the final version of the developed scale. A five-point Likert scale was used to measure each question in the questionnaire (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree).

Common method variance (CMV)

First, Harman’s one-factor test was used to examine CMV issues (Podsakoff et al., 2012 ). The percentage of variance explained by a single factor was less than 50%; thus, no serious problem with CMV was indicated. This study also included a comprehensive collinearity test to ensure that all study constructs were independent. This evaluation method was proposed by Kock ( 2015 ). The entire set of study variables was regressed on the variables derived from the research constructs. The variance inflation factor (VIF) was analyzed in the regression analysis. In addition, the VIF scores for each of the variables included in the analysis needed to be less than 3.3 to demonstrate the absence of multicollinearity problem in the data. As presented in Table 1 , the results of the full collinearity test showed no multicollinearity issue in the data, as the VIF values for all constructs were between 1.489 and 2.719, which is within the threshold value of 3.3.

Data analysis methods

This study used Smart-PLS software and structural equation modeling to test the validity of the assumptions and the model. The variance-based PLS-SEM method for testing hypotheses has been proven and used in many studies (Hair et al., 2017 ). This method is distinguished by its adaptability to the allocation of data, which makes it better suited for sampling smaller sizes (Kock, 2015 ) than the covariance-based version of the SEM. Before examining the structural model, checking construct reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity is important (Henseler, 2017 ). Internal consistency was evaluated using Cronbach’s Alpha, Dijkstra-rho, Hensele’s composite reliability, and average variance extracted (AVE) (Hair et al., 2017 ). The Fornell-Larcker criterion and heterotrait-monotrait ratio (HTMT) were used to evaluate the robustness of the measurement with respect to discriminant validity. Factor loadings and cross-loadings were also considered. Beta (coefficients), confidence interval (CI), and p -values were applied to the path coefficients to test the hypotheses.

Demographic characteristics

Table 2 presents the demographic characteristics of the respondents who participated in this study. The participants are academic professionals affiliated with Chinese universities. The majority of them were employed in public universities (65.5%), and the rest 34.5% were employed in private universities. Among the respondents, 48% were male and 52% were female. A small fraction of the respondents aged 21 to 25 years (4.4%), most aged 26 to 35 years (44.3%), followed by those aged 36–45 years (38%) and those over 50 years (13.3%). The sample included professors (3.3%), associate professors (12.8%), lecturers or senior lecturers (63.5%), and teaching assistants (20.5%). In terms of work experience, the majority (51.6%) had less than 10 years, while only 6.7% worked more than 20 years. Regarding education background, the majority (64%) of the respondents had a master’s degree, and 36% had doctoral degree. Most respondents (51.6%) had a monthly income between CNY 5000 and CNY 8000 and only 3% earned more than CNY 14,000 per month.

Validity and reliability

The results in Table 3 show that CA, CR, and Dijkstra-rho Hensele’s values were higher than the standard value of 0.7. This shows that the questionnaire’s internal consistency is reliable (Hair et al., 2021 ). However, there are two types of validity: discriminant and convergent. AVE and factor loadings showed convergent validity in this study. Table 3 shows that the AVE for all latent variables was greater than 0.5, indicating satisfactory convergent validity (Hair et al., 2017 ). Multicollinearity was assessed using VIF for each variable. Thus, all VIFs were found to be less than 3.3. (Henseler et al., 2015 ). As all VIF values were less than 3.3, there was no evidence of multicollinearity.

The findings revealed that the square root of AVE for a variable should be larger than the correlations to obtain a discriminant validity according to the Fornell-Larker approach (supporting material S2 ). For each construct’s discriminant validity, the HTMT ratio score needs be less than 0.900 (Henseler et al., 2015 ). The obtained HTMT ratio values (Fig. 1 ) were in agreement with the set limits. All constructs in this study showed the required discriminant validity.

Heterotrait-monotrait ratio (HTMT).

Path analysis

The suitability of the structural model was determined using the coefficient of determination ( r 2 ) and the effect size ( f 2 ). A higher r 2 value suggests that the model is capable of explaining the data. The adjusted r 2 value (Fig. 2 and Table 4 ) for the five independent constructs (i.e., WO, PC, PP, AC, and WC) on JB explicates 31.9% of the variance in JB. The adjusted r 2 value for EW was 32.9%, signifying that 32.9% of the variation in EW can be explained by WO, PC, PP, AC, and WC. The adjusted r 2 value for QQ was 53.8%, indicating that 53.8% of the variation in QQ could be explained by JB and EW. This signifies that the model is a suitable fit for this study.

Measurement model.

According to Cohen ( 2013 ), the f 2 value of 0.35 is considered as large, the f 2 value of 0.15 is considered medium, and the f 2 value of 0.02 is considered small. As presented in Table 5 , PC was found to have small effects on JB, as well as small effects on EW. Whereas, WO and WC not only exhibited large effects on JB but also on EW. PE was also found to have a large effect on QQ.

The results of the study (Table 4 and Fig. 2 ) show that WO ( β  = 0.254, t  = 6.847, p  = 0.000), PP ( β  = −0.136, t  = 3.038, p  = 0.001), AC ( β  = −0.264, t  = 5.906, p  = 0.000), and WC ( β  = −0.071, t  = 1.672, p  = 0.001) significantly and positively influence JB, while PC ( β  = −0.026, t  = 0.595, p  = 0.276), which was insignificant, does not do so. Likewise, WO ( β  = −0.026, t  = 7.031, p  = 0.000), PC, PP ( β  = 0.088, t  = 1.969, p  = 0.024), AC ( β  = 0.034, t  = 0.706, p  = 0.240 > 0.05) and WC ( β  = 0.280, t  = 6.062, p  = 0.000) are significantly connected to EW, except PC that becomes insignificant on the same. Finally, the constructs JB ( β  = .0.394, t  = 12.321, p  = 0.000) and EW ( β  = −0.333, t  = 11.185, p  = 0.000) were found to be statistically significant for QQ. The moderating effect (Table 6 and Figs. 3 and 4 ) of PE on the link between JB and QQ was significant ( β  = 0.078, p  = 0.009). Additionally, as the statistical results revealed, the moderating effect of PE on the connection between EW and QQ was significant ( β  = −0.059, p  = 0.037). Therefore, all hypotheses are confirmed except for H 2A and H 2B , which are rejected based on the 1% significance level.

Moderating effect of psychological empowerment.

Moderating effect of employee well-being.

Importance performance matrix analysis (IPMA)

To further examine the outcomes, we conducted a post-hoc importance performance matrix analysis (IPMA) using WO, PC, PP, AC, WC, JB, and EW as variables, and QQ as the target construct. As shown in Fig. 5 , JB is the most important factor in determining QQ, as reflected by its relatively high importance and performance values. Significantly, EW commands second-highest importance but low-performance values. The most effective managerial steps can be determined by focusing on low-performing but important constructs (Ringle and Sarstedt, 2016 ). In other words, the performance of aspects related to EW should be prioritized because of their high importance and low performance.

IMPA findings.

Multi-group analysis

Measurement invariance was established before using PLS-MGA to verify the validity of the effects. The Measurement Invariance of Composite Models (MICOM) approach was used to determine the degree of homogeneity between the two groups. Here, 69 out of 75 MICOM permutation p -values were revealed to be higher than 0.05, confirming the measurement invariances among the analyzed groups. Consequently, the study examined the path coefficient values from PLS-MGA analysis (see Table 7 ).

As Table 7 indicates, there were no statistical differences between male and female university lecturers, except for the effect of JB on QQ. In terms of age, the outcome of the two groups based on the sample (18 to 35 years; 36 years and above) revealed that the effect (PC to JB) on the respondents aged 18 to 35 years was much higher than that on the respondents aged 36 years and above. In addition, the findings suggest that the effect (PC to EW) on the respondents aged 18 to 35 years was much higher than that on the respondents aged 36 years and above. In regards to education, the variance of education did not affect the variance within the study’s paths. Furthermore, in terms of tenure year, the results of the two groups (5 years or less; more than 5 years) suggested that the effects (PC to JB; EW to QQ) on respondents having a work experience of 5 years or less were much higher than the respondents with a work experience of more than five years. Finally, given the analysis of two groups based on average monthly income (equal to or less than CNY 8000; above CNY 8000), the results indicated that the effect of PC on JB was higher for respondents with income equal to or less than CNY 8000 than for respondents with income more than CNY 8000.

This cross-sectional study exclusively focuses on the quiet-quitting intention of university lecturers in China. Motivating lecturers is undeniably a significant challenge faced by universities in the present day. Therefore, it is imperative for these institutions to gain a comprehensive understanding of how to inspire a profound sense of work passion among their lecturers. First, this study empirically proves the significant direct influence of work overload on job burnout (H 1A ). Our finding is consistent with those of a previous study (Poulose and Dhal, 2020 ). This finding suggests that work overload, particularly due to the transition to a fully online teaching mode during the Covid-19, can contribute to the development of job burnout among lecturers, which may diminish lecturers’ enthusiasm for their work. This study also discovers that work overload has a significant negative effect on employee well-being (H 1B ). This finding corroborates a previous study demonstrating that work overload caused by cognitive problems leads to lower employee well-being (Bliese and Castro, 2000 ). This finding highlights that recognizing the impact of excessive work demands on lecturers’ well-being can guide institutions in implementing strategies to support their faculty. Simultaneously, we found that perceived career development opportunity tends to have a negative effect on job burnout (H 2A ) and a positive effect on employee well-being (H 2B ). Likewise, Price and Reichert ( 2017 ) identified perceived career development opportunity as a factor that can enhance job satisfaction and Liang and Hsieh ( 2005 ) indicated that an individual’s perception of career development significantly influences job burnout. In other words, when university lecturers perceive limited career growth prospects or lack of advancement opportunities, it is likely to contribute to higher levels of job burnout and lower levels of well-being. Moreover, perceived pay-for performance was negatively correlated with job burnout (H 3A ) and had a positive correlation with employee well-being (H 3B ). Consistent with these findings, a recent study conducted by He et al. ( 2021 ) have also suggested that performance-based compensation fosters a positive work environment characterized by enhanced job satisfaction and a collaborative atmosphere where individuals willingly provide assistance to their colleagues. Given that, satisfying the material and spiritual needs of university lecturers is important. They need appropriate career development channels, as well as corresponding salaries, so that their employee well-being can be enhanced with a decrease in job burnout.

Consistent with H 4A , this study has confirmed that affective organizational commitment has a significant and negative influence on job burnout. This finding is in line with the study by Li ( 2014 ), which has suggested that in the context of Chinese universities, lecturers’ burnout and affective commitment are closely correlated. The results also imply that affective organizational commitment has a significant and positive influence on employee well-being, thus supporting H 4B . This finding is in line with those of previous studies conducted by Cropanzano and Mitchell ( 2005 ) and Wang et al. ( 2020 ), which indicate that this emotional connection between lecturers and universities can act as a protective factor against job burnout and contribute to an overall improvement in their well-being. Furthermore, we found that work condition negatively influences job burnout (H 5A ) and positively influences employee well-being (H 5B ), which indicates that work condition is a crucial job resource: a suitable work environment and conditions could improve the well-being of university lecturers as well as help reduce job burnout in university lecturers. This finding is in accordance with the previous studies, indicating that favorable work conditions release burnout and exhaustion and increase the sense of well-being (Elkayam et al., 2020 ; Wisniewski et al., 2015 ; Mudrák et al., 2020 ). In addition, consistent with H 6 , the results indicated a significant a positive relationship between job burnout and quiet-quitting intention of university lecturers, which supports the findings of prior studies (Li, 2018 ; Mohammed et al., 2020 ). This finding demonstrates that lecturers experiencing high levels of burnout may feel overwhelmed by the demands of their role during Covid-19 and tend to develop a stronger likelihood of quiet-quitting intention, seeking relief from the stress and emotional strain associated with their work. This study also sheds light on the relationship between employee well-being and quiet-quitting intention among Chinese university lecturers. Specifically, this study revealed that lecturers’ well-being negatively influences their quiet-quitting intention (H 7 ). Consistent with the study by Schaufeli and Taris ( 2014 ), higher employee well-being makes employees more willing to offer full endeavors to their job. This result suggests lecturers who experience a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction with their work are more likely to feel motivated to continue their contributions within the educational setting.

The moderation analysis unveiled a significant positive moderation effect of psychological empowerment on the relationship between job burnout and quiet-quitting intention. Furthermore, the slope effect diagram depicted a significant and positive moderating effect of psychological empowerment on the relationship between emotional employee well-being and quiet-quitting intention. These findings indicate that the relationship between job burnout and quiet-quitting intention as well as the relationship between employee well-being and quiet-quitting intention becomes stronger when levels of psychological empowerment are high. University lecturers who feel psychologically empowered believe in their abilities to successfully fulfill their roles and responsibilities. This increased self-efficacy contribute to reduced quiet-quitting intention, as they feel competent and capable of making meaningful contributions to the organization.

Finally, the multiple-group analysis assessed the influence of the personal features of the participants in terms of gender, age, education, tenure years, and income. Females were more easily interfered with by job burnout and more intending to quiet quit their jobs than males. Furthermore, job burnout and well-being of university lecturers aged 18 to 35 years are more likely to be affected by their perceptions of perceived career development opportunities than university lecturers aged above 36 years. Similarly, lecturers with a shorter tenure (5 years or less) are more likely to experience job burnout if they think that their university does not provide satisfactory career development opportunities. The multi-group analysis also confirmed that the influence of perceived career development opportunities on job burnout was relatively higher in the lower-income group than in the higher-income group.

Theoretical implications

The findings of the current study have several important implications for theory and the existing literature. First, this study contributes to the existing literature by applying the SET to understand the complex relationships between work-related factors, employee well-being, job burnout, psychological empowerment and quiet-quitting intention. This study strengthens the fundamental principles of the SET and offers empirical evidence of its effectiveness in elucidating the dynamics of work-related outcomes. Second, this study offers new results and adds depth to the broader literature on psychological empowerment. The previous studies experimented with psychological empowerment as a mediating construct (Meng et al., 2016 ; Tripathi and Bharadwaja, 2020 ) and in a moderating role (Meng et al., 2016 ; Kirrane et al., 2018 ; Grošelj et al., 2020 ) with various relationships, yet moderating effects within the context of employee well-being and job burnout are missing. This study presents a new moderating effect of psychological empowerment on the relationship between job burnout and quiet-quitting intention as well as the relationship between employee well-being and quiet-quitting intention. This finding underscores the importance of fostering psychological empowerment among lecturers as a means to alleviate the negative effects of job burnout and enhance their overall employee well-being, ultimately reducing the likelihood of quiet-quitting intention. Finally, the study makes a significant contribution to the existing literature on quiet-quitting intention by providing a comprehensive understanding of the antecedents of quiet-quitting intention among Chinese university lecturers. By examining the interplay between work-related factors and psychological factors, this study offers valuable insights into the prevailing psychological status of Chinese university lecturers

Practical implications

In view of the results, this study may have critical implications for administration, colleges, and departments (of universities), which can benefit from it by developing effective management policies to motivate university lecturers’ enthusiasm. In general, the research results show that job burnout and employee well-being are highly associated with quiet-quitting intention; hence, management policies need to be adopted in line with the practical and psychological demands of staff. Administration, colleges, and departments are expected to perceive the needs of staff to optimize management effects and employee engagement. This study has three key implications.

First, work overload has the strongest effect on job burnout among university lecturers, which implies that physical feelings and mental exhaustion stem from heavy pressure and a large amount of work. This suggests that university lecturers in China regard stressful work as the key source of emotional drain, which also leads to an aversion to work. In addition, according to the outcome of this study’s analysis, linking wages and performance can reduce job burnout. When workload cannot be effectively reduced, quantifying the work and matching it with corresponding remuneration will also reduce job burnout. Therefore, for the administration of universities, optimizing the work allocation mechanism and issuing new quantitative assessments to recognize the dedication and value of university lecturers’ policies are of great importance. The administration may utilize several applications to realize punching the clock and calculate working hours; in addition, they could set workload as an indicator of performance assessment reflected in the salary to motivate university lecturers. Additionally, work overload also has the strongest effect on employee well-being, suggesting that a high-tension workload decreases the satisfaction of staff with their profession. Similarly, allocating workloads and ensuring a reasonable teacher-student ratio are essential. When expanding the enrollment scale, administration, colleges, and departments should also expand the recruitment scale of staff (lecturers and administrators), reduce staff workload, and enhance professional satisfaction.

Second, job burnout and employee well-being were both closely associated with quiet-quitting intention. As discussed in the previous chapter, long time and intensive work, mismatch of salary and performance, low organizational commitment, and poor working conditions lead to job burnout and a reduction in employee well-being. Consequently, job burnout and reduced employee well-being are expected to cause quiet quitting. For universities, the quiet-quitting intention of staff is a great waste of resources and threat to human resources. Human resources refer to the sum of the physical and mental strength of all staff, but when they have the will to quit quietly, the efforts, endeavors, and dedications they would put in are very limited, which will greatly affect the quality and value of their work and the amount of output. Therefore, administration, colleges, and departments must pay attention to the staff suffering from job burnout. Clarifying the demands of the staff and providing them with more spiritual concern and support is also necessary. When the administration makes policy adjustments, they should be as human as possible and should consider the behalf and welfare of staff. This may improve the sense of work happiness and organizational belonging, and decrease the quiet-quitting intention of staff.

Third, this study focuses on the moderating effect of psychological empowerment as a consistent connection between job burnout and employee well-being with quiet-quitting intention. The link between job burnout and quiet-quitting intention is affected by psychological empowerment. Under the same workload, employees with a higher level of psychological empowerment have a lower willingness for quiet quitting. University lecturers who possess the opportunity for independence and influence on their work tend to stay in the organization and are pleased to put in more energy and endeavor to fulfill their duties. Additionally, psychological empowerment has a significant moderating effect on employee well-being. These findings should encourage administration and departments to promote high standards of authentic leadership to empower university lecturers and offer them more freedom within an appropriate range, which will enable them to be more flexible in teaching and research. The sense of recognition and trust by the organization may gradually build in their minds; thus, they may more actively participate in their work and bring creativity and vitality to their universities.

Limitations and recommendations

Based on the SET, the current study revealed that psychological empowerment has a moderating effect on job burnout and employee well-being to quiet-quitting intentions. Discovering this moderating influence will help identify the mechanism of how the intention of quiet quitting is generated among university lecturers during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, considering that the respondents in this study were university lecturers from a developing country, future studies may progress from the perspective of developed countries and investigate other industries, such as medicine and manufacturing.

To some extent, the findings of this study were affected by the background of COVID-19, and they may not be applicable in the future, as the influence of COVID-19 is fading with time. The external and internal environments of universities change rapidly, and management modes and policies adjust accordingly, which may lead to the changing attitude of university lecturers towards universities and their profession. In addition, the factors that cause quiet-quitting intention may vary under different circumstances; thus, future research can enrich the literature by expanding the background and context of the research. Furthermore, future research can apply longitudinal research to determine the change in university lecturers’ quiet-quitting intention during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, so as to draw a more comprehensive and dynamic conclusion.

In addition, in the process of our research, we quoted previous literature as the theoretical basis; nevertheless, the relevant literature, in particular, the topic of quiet-quitting intention, remained limited. This dilemma has little possibility of causing a deviation; although the perspectives and objectives of the study are innovative, the research results may be biased due to human touch. With the growth in literature, future studies should thoroughly investigate this issue and contribute to the current literature by adding more valuable findings and implications. This study can be regarded as the first step towards engaging with the social phenomenon of quiet quitting during COVID-19. From a dynamic perspective, the background is continuously changing. Hence, there are other factors worth examining to determine the mechanism that contributes to decreasing the quiet-quitting intention of employees and eventually enhancing the management and performance of organizations.

In conclusion, this study makes significant contributions to the existing literature by developing a conceptual framework grounded in Social Exchange Theory to understand the intricate relationship between work-related factors, psychological empowerment, employee well-being, burnout and quiet-quitting intention. By applying Social Exchange Theory, this study provides a comprehensive understanding of how these factors influence the psychological status of Chinese university lecturers during the challenging period of Covid-19. This study further reinforces the core tenets of the SET and provides empirical evidence of its utility in explaining the dynamics of work-related outcomes. This study used a quantitative approach to test the associations between variables. The data in this study were collected utilizing a cross-sectional design and subsequently analyzed through PLSSEM. The findings indicate that work overload exerts a positive influence on job burnout and negatively impacts the well-being of lecturers. Furthermore, the findings show perceived career development opportunities, perceived pay-for performance, affective organizational commitment, and work condition emerge as significant factors that mitigate job burnout and promote employee well-being among lecturers. The findings also highlight that employee well-being negatively affects quiet-quitting intention, whereas job burnout positively influences quiet-quitting intention. Regarding the moderating role of psychological empowerment, the results demonstrate the positive moderating effect of psychological empowerment on the relationship between job burnout and quiet-quitting intention, as well as the relationship between employee well-being and quiet-quitting intention. Consequently, these insights bear significant implications for universities and policymakers in the formulation of strategies aimed at reducing quiet-quitting intention, ultimately cultivating a positive and productive work environment.

Data availability

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary Material ( S3. Dataset) , further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author/s.

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Lu, M., Al Mamun, A., Chen, X. et al. Quiet quitting during COVID-19: the role of psychological empowerment. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 10 , 485 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02012-2

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The economics behind 'quiet quitting' — and what we should call it instead

Greg Rosalsky

Alina Selyukh

Over the last several weeks, the concept of " quiet quitting " has exploded like a supernova across the media universe.

The big bang began on TikTok, with a video uploaded by a 20-something engineer named Zaid Khan. With the sound of a piano playing a ragtime-style tune and summertime shots of New York City flashing across the screen, Khan narrates a 17-second video that has introduced millions of people to the idea.

"I recently learned about this term called quiet quitting, where you're not outright quitting your job, but you're quitting the idea of going above and beyond," Khan says. "You're still performing your duties, but you're no longer subscribing to the hustle culture mentality that work has to be your life. The reality is it's not — and your worth as a person is not defined by your labor."

Quiet quitting, in other words, is not really about quitting. It's more like a philosophy for doing the bare minimum at your job.

In Japan, there's a concept called shokunin , which refers to an artisan who is deeply dedicated to their craft, always striving for perfection in what they make. Quiet quitting is like the opposite of that. It's about divorcing your ego from what you do for a living and not striving for perfection. Setting boundaries and simply completing the tasks you're supposed to complete within the time that you're paid to do them — with no extra frills. No more kowtowing to your boss or customers. No more working nights and weekends, incessantly checking your email.

Workaholism is out. Coasting is in. Call it the work-life balance manifesto.

Tapping Into The Post-Pandemic Zeitgeist

Most observers seem to agree that the recent enthusiasm for quiet quitting says something about our post-pandemic zeitgeist. With a super-tight labor market giving workers multiple job options, and an ongoing battle being fought over the preservation and expansion of remote work, many workers seem to be reevaluating where and how they do their jobs.

Maybe quiet quitting is just an extension of "The Great Resignation" (or, as we rebranded it, " The Great Renegotiation "). Maybe a large chunk of our labor force was always phoning it in, but now they have a loud social-media presence and better branding. Maybe it's people feeling like suckers for going the extra mile pre-pandemic just to get laid off en masse . Or maybe quiet quitting is a BS pseudo-trend. To be honest, we don't know. But there is at least some data to suggest there's something real going in the psyche of the workforce.

"With layoffs and firings at a record low... people have unprecedented job security," says Julia Pollak, chief economist at the job-search website ZipRecruiter. "And so the risk of termination is lower. And that's also why the incentive to work harder is reduced. The consequences of being found to shirk have become much smaller. One, because companies can't afford to fire people. And two, because there are so many alternatives out there if you do lose your job."

Meanwhile, government data shows an historic drop in productivity over the last two quarters. There could be many reasons for this: the supply chain fiasco, a record rate of job switching, business hiring decisions during a weird time for the economy, scars from the pandemic, growing pains from the mass adoption of remote work, you name it. But some argue that something like quiet quitting might have something to do with it. It would certainly play into a sentiment expressed by some of America's biggest corporations : their employees just aren't being productive enough.

[Editor's note: This is an excerpt of Planet Money 's newsletter. You can sign up here .]

Gallup recently did a survey about quiet quitting, counting workers who report being neither engaged nor "actively disengaged" at work. They found that these quiet quitters make up at least half of the U.S. workforce. Overall, Gallup's data doesn't really show a sizable shift in how workers feel about their jobs over the last few years, suggesting that quiet quitting could be a normal feature of the American workplace. One area where the data did show a somewhat significant change, however, was among younger workers. "The percentage of engaged employees under the age of 35 dropped by six percentage points from 2019 to 2022," Gallup finds, suggesting that while feeling meh about work may be par for the course for a lot of Americans, it may be gathering momentum among Gen Zers and millennials.

"It's clear that quiet quitting is a symptom of poor management," Gallup writes. The organization recommends that company managers do a better job communicating with their underlings. "Gallup finds the best requirement and habit to develop for successful managers is having one meaningful conversation per week with each team member — 15-30 minutes."

The Loud Reaction To Quiet Quitting

Since the concept of quiet quitting began ricocheting around the internet, there have been countless takes on it. Supporters argue that quiet quitting is a way to safeguard your mental health, prioritize your family, friends and passions, and avoid burnout. But many movers and shakers are against it.

"Quiet quitting isn't just about quitting on a job, it's a step toward quitting on life," complains Arianna Huffington , arguing quiet quitters would be better served finding jobs they are passionate about.

"People who shut down their laptop at 5... they don't work for me," says business thinkfluencer Kevin O'Leary in a CNBC video . "I hope they work for my competitors."

Others worry that quiet quitting is too passive aggressive, can't accomplish what workers really want, and puts an extra burden on coworkers. Kami Rieck, writing in The Washington Post , suggests "the people who tend to experience the highest levels of burnout — women and people of color — probably can't afford to 'quiet quit.'" Instead of silently refusing to put in extra effort, Rieck writes, "it would probably be more helpful to raise these concerns with your boss and brainstorm other solutions."

Hamilton Nolan, writing in The Guardian , stresses that workers in generations past also felt a "collective sense of malaise," but they channeled their frustrations into something more productive than coasting at their jobs: creating unions. "All of these working people did not quit. Nor were they quiet. They knew what was wrong, and they fixed it. Loudly."

Even U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh recently chimed in on quiet quitting: "If you are an employer, you should catch on early enough that your employees aren't satisfied, aren't happy, and then there needs to be a dialogue, a conversation."

The Economics Of Quiet Quitting

One of the more simple models in neoclassical economics says that, in a competitive market, workers are paid their "marginal product." That means the more productive they are — the more extra widgets they make per hour — the more they get paid. In this cartoon world, there would be strong incentives against quiet quitting. You work harder, you get paid more: You coast, and you get paid less. And, we should say, for some workplaces, that may actually be a good approximation of how the world works. You're more likely to get raises and promotions when your boss believes you're working hard.

But, of course, the world is much more messy than workers simply getting paid for how efficiently they work. A more sophisticated cartoon of the workplace is known as "the principal-agent model." In this model, the principal (the boss) enlists an agent (the worker) to do a specific job for them. The problem: the principal doesn't have complete information on exactly what their agent is doing. Is their agent being productive on the job? Or are they slacking? In order to make sure the agent is doing their bidding, the principal must figure out ways to incentivize and monitor them. The model has implications for the dramatic changes in office life — or lack-of-office life — we've seen in recent years. With the mass adoption of remote work, many managers seem to be struggling with how to effectively monitor and motivate their employees.

But companies are trying. A recent investigation by the New York Times finds "eight of the 10 largest private U.S. employers track the productivity metrics of individual workers, many in real time." And they document a surge in companies investing in "digital productivity monitoring" to oversee their white-collar employees. "Many employees, whether working remotely or in person, are subject to trackers, scores, 'idle' buttons, or just quiet, constantly accumulating records. Pauses can lead to penalties, from lost pay to lost jobs." It's all a bit icky.

Workers Tell NPR What They Think

Of course, the mantra of quiet quitting, at least according to TikTok, is not really about failing to do your job. It's about "quitting the idea of going above and beyond." But the concept has drawn much criticism — for being a misnomer, for example. Or for overshadowing the " quiet firing " trend, where companies passively aggressively make their employees' work lives unhappy, and " quiet fleecing ," which refers to workers' pay lagging behind their increased productivity for decades.

NPR reached out to listeners and readers to get their perspective on quiet quitting. Some dislike the name. It's pretty confusing. So they offered some rebranding alternatives:

Reverse hustle

Work-life integration

Acting your wage

Workforce disassociation

Corporate coasting

Working at work

DYJ: Doing Your Job

Working to rule

Working to thrive

Morale-adjusted productivity

Our audience members also shared their real-life experiences with setting boundaries at work. Below are some of their comments (with two people asking to shorten their last names for fear of repercussions at work).

Sara M., department manager : "Since COVID, I feel like my priorities, values, who and what are important to me have shifted drastically. I now leave my office at the end of the day not thinking about what I need to work on when I go home at night. I set boundaries for checking my emails and reaching out to co-workers during non-office hours. Most importantly, I do not feel any bit of anxiety when it comes to requesting time off, taking personal days or especially taking sick time. Before it was something I would agonize over. Now it's something I can do without hesitation or worry."

Lane Sheldon, attorney : "Many of my friends work in Big Law and while they're paid very well, the expectations placed on Associates are extremely demanding and often unfair/emotionally abusive. They can't or won't draw similar boundaries, often for fear of retaliation, but they all recognize the toll it takes on their mental AND physical health. Many have left their positions as a result."

Christy G., administrative assistant : "I do not interact with anything from work before 7:00 or after 4:30, which is the time my office is open. I work in a corporate setting so my tasks are not life or death. If someone asks for something, like maybe a file scanned or something like that, at the end of the day — it can wait until the next day. My colleagues do not feel the same way. They answer their phones and answer emails outside of work and on vacations. Sometimes I'll come in on Monday morning and will see 5+ emails from co-workers sent at 7 pm on Saturday."

James Holverstott, laborer : "I have zero ability to do anything but do as I am required by my boss. The idea that 'quiet quitting' fits any jobs besides ones laden with keyboard strokes, spreadsheets, and meetings is patently foolish. It feels like more of a realization by people who have been more than happy to work 24/7/365 to chase the almighty dollar that their lives are being wasted in the pursuit of more stuff, and now they are presenting some laughable notion of 'I just realized I work too much, but luckily I can afford to do less because no one will notice anyway!' as somehow a paradigm shift in worker's rights. I am disgusted that this has even become something people believe could be effective for the bulk of the workforce."

Nick Ivanov, university research assistant : "No boundaries. I will do whatever necessary to make it possible to get a green card in the future. I cannot return to where I am originally from. I have to work 10 times more to be entitled to one tenth of what U.S. citizens take for granted."

Adrian Brothers, school bus driver : "The company I work for wants me to voluntarily put an app on my personal phone. I don't put it on there. ... If they want to communicate with me about work, they can either give me a phone call, a text-message, heck, even send me a letter in the mail. But I will not give the company access to my phone. If they want me to sign on to an app so they can message me every day, they can shell out the money for the phone to come with it."

Misty Moore, nurse : "I have the boundary of accepting as many assignments as I can handle and yet still provide excellent results. I do take on extra work but that is 100% my choice. No one should be looked down upon for not doing extra work."

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