How can IT leaders address ‘quiet quitting’?

PA Consulting’s Katherine O’Halloran, people and change expert, comments on how IT leaders can address ‘quiet quitting’ in the workplace in an article by Cath Everett in Computer Weekly.

Commenting on this, Katherine explains: “part of the reason why the term has taken such a hold is simply because it has been assigned a name”.

Adding: “Disengagement doesn’t sound very sexy, but quiet quitting is a ‘thing’,” she says. “So it’s got a brand now, which has captured attention in a workforce which includes often heavy users of social media and means it’s reached a wider audience.”

Katherine goes on to say that “the whole quiet quitting debate also raises the question of whether “companies are sometimes just exploiting people by expecting them to go above and beyond” too routinely”.

She continues, “While this is less likely to be an issue if staff are driven by the organisation’s vision and purpose, as is often the case with tech startups, it is still “important to look at what the expectations are on both sides, what’s reasonable and where compromises could be made”.

Katherine illustrates her point by citing Dan Pink’s book Drive, explaining that, “it’s about leaders understanding who their people are and what motivates them – and if you do, everything becomes a bit easier.”