Quitting and Leaving vs. Quitting and Staying: How to Spot and Prevent Quiet Quitting

When an employee quits and leaves, everyone knows it. There is a resignation letter, an exit interview and a job posting to fill the role. It is disruptive and expensive. However, at least the organization knows where it stands.

The employee who quits and stays is a different story. They still show up every day. They complete their assigned tasks and go home. What they no longer give is the effort that used to set them apart: volunteering for projects, offering ideas in meetings or helping a coworker who has fallen behind. This is what has become known as quiet quitting.

Quitting and staying is the more costly of the two. A vacant position gets attention and eventually gets filled. A disengaged employee can stay in a role for years. Over time their lower level of effort becomes the new standard for the team around them. From a behavioral science perspective, people do what they do, good or bad, because it works. If going above and beyond keeps producing something the employee values, it continues. If it stops producing anything of value, it fades over time.

So, what happens in your organization when someone goes above and beyond? In many workplaces the honest answer is not much. The person who finishes early is handed more work. The person who raises a concern is asked to fix it on top of their regular duties. The person who stays late to meet a deadline gets a quick thank-you email (if that). None of this is meant to punish effort. However, over time the employee learns that extra effort mostly leads to more effort. Doing the minimum starts to look like the more reasonable choice.

Because the change is gradual, quiet quitting is easy to miss. A quiet quitter typically meets the minimum standard. The work itself may look fine. Here are a few things leaders can watch for.

Look for a drop in voluntary behaviors. Is the person who used to speak up in meetings now silent? Have they stopped volunteering for new projects or offering to help others?

Notice changes in how they talk about the work. Comments like “That’s not my job” or “I just do what I’m told” can signal that effort is no longer paying off for them.

Compare the person to their own history. The best indicator is how their current behavior compares to what they did six months or a year ago. If others on the team have pulled back too, comparing them to their peers can hide the change.

So, how do you prevent it? When leaders do notice quiet quitting, the typical response is a talk about attitude or a new engagement survey. These are antecedents. They may prompt a short burst of effort. However, they don’t change what happens after the effort. Fire needs ongoing oxygen to keep burning. Comparably, behavior needs ongoing reinforcement.

In Deliberate Coaching®, prevention starts with pinpointing what extra effort actually looks like on your team. “Be more engaged” is too vague to coach or reinforce. “Shares at least one improvement idea in the weekly team meeting” gives the leader something observable to look for.

Next, make sure those behaviors pay off for the employee. Specific and sincere recognition is one option. Others include more say in how the work gets done, access to interesting projects or time with leaders to talk about development. What matters is that the employee values it. The best way to find that out is to ask.

Finally, coach regularly using open-ended questions such as “What gets in the way of you doing your best work?” or “What would make it worth going the extra mile?” These conversations often uncover a process or workload problem before it turns a strong performer into someone who has quit and stayed.

Do you have employees who have quit and stayed? Contact DCI at info@deliberatecoaching.org to learn how Deliberate Coaching helps leaders spot quiet quitting early and build workplaces where extra effort is worth it.

Posted by Nic Weatherly, Ph.D.

Dr. Weatherly is the CEO and Managing Consultant at Deliberate Coaching International with a proven track record of maximizing operating revenues and organizational and staff performance by building holistic systems and targeted training programs, linking performance-improvement initiatives to key business metrics, and strategically aligning short- and long-range goals to the organization’s mission, vision, and values.