Everyone is talking about ‘quiet quitting’ these days. Is this the unfortunate result of a self-centered generation entering the labor force or the logical reaction of employees to a workplace that no longer rewards going above and beyond? Is it simply “acting for a living?”
Definitions of quiet quitting vary and appear to vary in self-serving ways: groups define it in the most useful way. That is not to say it is entirely fictitious, especially in the software industry. So, what exactly is going on here? After all, happy team members don’t have to go to extremes to keep their sanity, job satisfaction, and work-life balance.
What is quiet quitting?
Before examining what it means in the tech industry, let’s examine how people define quiet quitting online. Here are some popular definitions we discovered:
- This NPR writer defines quiet quitting as “the philosophy of doing the bare minimum at your job.”
- Employee engagement is decreasing, according to this article on quiet quitting.
- According to a study, the percentage of engaged employees under 35 has reduced by 6% since 2019.
- This TikToker defines “quiet quitting” as not allowing job worries to cause distress outside of work.
What do tech leads need to know about quiet quitting?
If you ignore what the cynics say – that it’s the result of a “lazy & entitled” generation (which we don’t believe for a second), quiet quitting appears to result from a few valid reasons. We discovered three common reasons among software developers: burnout, meaningless work, and company culture and collaboration issues.
Assisting developers in avoiding burnout and maintaining work-life balance
According to studies, avoiding team member burnout is critical for businesses. The days of expecting 110% from teams have been relegated to cornball sports movies from the 1980s. Work overload is the most common cause of burnout, according to studies. People want and require a balance between their work and their personal lives.
Since remote working has become more common in recent years, the question of work-life balance has evolved. Before, the lines were clear: in the office vs. outside. The lines have blurred, and for many, this is causing more burnout than ever before.
And it’s not just about quitting quietly; according to our developer happiness survey, developers with a poor work-life balance are likelier to quit: 21% of developers say an unmanageable work-life balance would cause them to look for another job.
The crunch will always loom over developers’ heads in a deadline-driven industry, and they want to avoid it as much as you do. How can businesses avoid this? Hiring enough people is undoubtedly critical: a small team can only do so much. However, it is also critical to ensure that people can work effectively. Simple, practical tools and best practices, such as Agile methodology, make it easy for developers to complete tasks and empower them to work effectively in the office or remotely.
Making meaningful work and being genuine about it
There has been much written about the value of doing meaningful work. This consists of two parts. The first is your company culture and your team’s values – people want to work towards a common goal or cause, and aligning everyone on the “why” of what you do can make a big difference in keeping people motivated.
According to research, culture is important: if it is self-serving or deceptive, it backfires and makes people less motivated. Aligning on a “why” that the entire team can rally around, whether providing special value to customers or humanity in general, can go a long way towards rallying the troops and inspiring innovation.
Making work meaningful for most people means avoiding “busy work.” the second component of meaningful work is what the developer does daily to accomplish this goal. The good news is that this type of work, typically classified as “administrative,” is simple to automate. Consider automating issues through the development pipeline rather than manually updating project management tools, sprint planning, and other agile processes.
Making it simple to collaborate
Let me tell you, as someone who works from home: I don’t miss the commute. However, remote work must compensate for the fact that we are no longer conditioned to rely on face-to-face communication.
And this can lead to people feeling isolated, unsupported, unheard, and a variety of other negative emotions that are detrimental to motivation and happiness.
Be proactive in addressing this issue through culture and management. Reach out and talk to your people; provide them with ways (perhaps even anonymous ones) to communicate their feelings. And, when people give you feedback, act on it. In other words, don’t give up on your developers!
Conclusion
It is encouraging that the modern workforce is taking steps to maintain their work-life balance and mental health. Reducing unnecessary work and meetings and prioritizing personal life improves motivation, creativity, and developer productivity. So, embrace the emergence of the “quiet quitting” trend – it’s just another reminder that we need to take care of ourselves, prioritize our mental health and other aspects of our lives over work, and enable our team members to do the same.