It’s been a few years since the concept of “quiet quitting” entered workplace vocabulary to describe employees who do the bare minimum at work. While there’s nothing new about this phenomenon, it appears to be becoming increasingly widespread.
According to research by Gallup, 62% of employees worldwide feel “unengaged” at work: they don’t quit their jobs but mentally withdraw from them. These workers are content to carry out the tasks outlined on their job description, and to follow to the letter the working hours on their employment contract.
Meanwhile, 15% of close to 130,000 employees surveyed by Gallup for its “State of the Global Workplace” report are “actively disengaged”, meaning they no longer derive any pleasure from their working lives, which makes them want to change jobs.
The deterioration of workers’ mental health has a lot to do with this: the least committed employees are more likely than others to experience feelings of loneliness in their daily lives. In fact, 31% of actively disengaged workers say they feel lonely, compared with 17% of those who feel engaged at work.
Full-time remote workers are similarly likely to suffer from social isolation (25%), as are the under-35s (22%).
On the positive side, work can be a remedy for loneliness. As a general rule, working adults are less likely to suffer from loneliness (20%) than those who are unemployed (32%). But they still need to feel fulfilled in their jobs.
As the Gallup researchers state in their report, “not all mental health issues are related to work, but work is a factor in life evaluations and daily emotions. Employees who dislike their jobs tend to have high levels of daily stress and worry, as well as elevated levels of all other negative emotions”.
More than ever, employers should strive to ensure their workers’ quality of life and encourage them to get involved at work. But they should not delegate this task to human resources alone: engagement is fuelled by a multitude of factors, including the management style in place.
The Gallup study shows that, when managers are engaged at work, other employees are more likely to be so, too. Companies, therefore, have an interest in developing day-to-day practices that promote the wellbeing of all their employees, including managers, in the workplace.
After all, employee commitment is a key factor in productivity: unengaged and actively disengaged employees contribute to an estimated US$8.9 trillion in lost productivity, according to Gallup – a considerable sum, equivalent to 9% of global GDP.