How Tech Leaders Can Engage Their Teams and Prevent Quiet Quitting
If you’re a startup leader, chances are you’ve heard of “quiet quitting.” But as a brand new term, you might not be fully in the know on what it means. And rightfully so: the term was basically nonexistent until August 2022.
Today, though, it’s everywhere in the business work. Google Trends data show a surge in searches in the last two months. TikToks of psychologists, workplace experts, and self-titled quiet quitters abound.
Perhaps a bit contrary to the name, quiet quitting doesn’t refer to a person actually quitting a job. Instead, the employee stays at a job, but chooses to do the bare minimum, instead of going above and beyond. A Gallup poll found that at least 50% of Americans fit the definition of quiet quitting.
Some experts believe that quiet quitting may be part of lifestyle to “prevent burnout or help someone recover from burnout.” In the workplace, burnout can come about for a variety of of psychological or emotional reasons. But burned out employees typically say it’s the unrelenting, forward-motion of unceasing demands and goals they can’t meet. Some of these demands may be related to an employee’s expected 9 to 5; but often, it also relates to unspoken cultural expectations: working long hours of unpaid overtime; being available late into the evenings and on weekends to put out fires; not being given regular or annual pay raises; or even being passed over for promotions an employee feels they were promised.
If you’re a startup founder or leader, you’ll likely relate to 24/7 availability and long hours. In the early stages of a new company, long hours are necessary to get things off the ground. And, especially for early employees, it can be easy to pass this onto them. Even if it’s unintentional, culture set at the top - even culture of long hours and seemingly little reward - can absolutely be one of those things that passed down.
Of course, there are a lot of people who will happily put in “sweat equity” to be part of a promising new startup. As a leader, setting the right tone and demonstrating support and respect for your early employees can make the difference between staff that sticks by your side and makes meaningful progress toward growing your company, and employees that quiet quit and, eventually, quit for real.
Why is quiet quitting happening right now?
Think of what your remote work life looked like during 2020 and 2021. Most likely, the separation between work and home blurred. Time saved from no longer having to commute may have translated to an extra hour or two at your computer. Looking at Slack or emails late into the evening may not have felt like an intrusion anymore. For many of us, the loss of physical separation between work and home made it difficult to create mental separation. Over time, the separation disappeared completely for many people, and employee expectations also changed, with many leaders expecting longer hours and more availability. Compounded with general isolation, loneliness, and a lack of opportunities to socially engage outside the home, many people poured more time into their work. Now, it might be hard to return to pre-pandemic expectations.
But there’s more to it than that. One might wonder why, after the pandemic lockdowns are largely in the past for many of us, these conversations are happening now. Well, general economic conditions might be at least partially to blame. Before the pandemic, young people were already feeling financial pressure. Current economic conditions has only increased the number of people fighting financial fears. Inflation means higher gas prices, mortgages, and grocery bills quickly piling up, but wages have remained stagnant. For some, this has meant giving up longer, unpaid hours at their job to take on work after hours. Taking a gig economy job - driving for Uber or Lyft, for instance - means people under financial stress can earn money in their evenings and weekends instead, something they may feel forced to do.
So: what can employers do to help their employees feel valued and supported so they don’t have to quiet quit?
What tech employers can do to proactively address and fight quiet quitting
Of course, it’s not just on the employer to manage their staff’s well being. And for startups, it’s actually often very important to have staff who see the vision and are driven to work with you to achieve it. So recognizing the signs of quiet quitting before they happen and putting some measures in place proactively are key to make sure your team sticks with you through the wild startup ride.
Respect your employee’s offline time
Let’s be frank: no one can work tirelessly with no downtime. And everyone’s need for downtime is different. The first thing startup leaders can do is recognize their team’s need for time away from work - and understand that, when their employees take time for themselves, it actually enables them to perform better.
In general, try to set guidelines for when you’ll email or message your staff, and through what channels. And if there are sometimes going to be outliers to that, be upfront about it. If your general practice is no emails after 7pm and on weekends but, occasionally, there will be a big push that’s all hands on deck, give your team plenty of heads up. If customer experience teams need to be periodically checking messages in off hours, consider setting up a call schedule to divide the hours evenly and give everyone a break.
There’s good business data to support your employees taking regular breaks and enjoying their downtime, too. When the brain is unfocused, it’s better able to activate old memories, recombine ideas, and seek out big-picture strategies. The “shower thoughts” adage is real: when people are relaxed, they’re more likely to have good, impactful ideas. People who take more breaks are also more productive. Whether that’s to walk the dog, meet friends for lunch, or even check social media, staff that routinely break away from their tasks are more productive.
Take stock of employee meeting load
We can all relate to the “meeting that could have been an email.” While we may joke about it, no one truly enjoys sitting through an hour-long meeting that really doesn’t feel necessary. Whether that’s because the wrong people were invited or the meeting lacked focus, cleaning up your team’s meeting schedule can have a significant positive impact for everyone’s mental wellbeing.
Again, as a leader, it’s important to set the tone for meetings. One of the most important components is to make sure all meetings have a clear and concise agenda. Each meeting, regardless of who schedules it, should have certain questions answered upfront:
What background information is absolutely necessary for people attending the meeting?
Should anything be reviewed in advance? If so, make sure it’s sent out well before the meeting.
What are 1-3 goal outcomes of the meeting?
Whose perspective is absolutely necessary in the meeting?
This outline should help trim any meetings that don’t need to happen, and could just as easily be resolved with a quick Slack message. It should also help you keep from inviting people who don’t really need to be there. If employees set meetings, make sure they know that it’s OK to ask people if they should be present at something. Asking upfront can alleviate time burden for everyone.
At a higher level, leaders can monitor and surface team meeting data. If you use Google Suite, you can look into the meeting load per user. This data will quickly show you any staff that’s spending an inordinate amount of time on Zoom calls, or if there’s been a slow creep of meeting load across the team.
Some leaders will also set meeting load goals. For instance:
Meeting length: meetings are capped at a certain length of time (4o and 45 minute meetings are popular)
Meetings per week: meetings are capped at a certain number of hours per week
Meeting-free days: setting a day where employees are guaranteed to have no meetings can help improve productivity and give them consistent heads-down time to work on tasks.
Meeting etiquette: set a culture where people can drop off a call if it’s not relevant to them
Try to take stock of meeting load on a regular basis. Increased screentime can increase chances of burnout and impact employee’s mental health, so this is a relatively easy one to help them guard their wellbeing (and save you money on wasted meetings).
Have employees perform based on goals and work quality, not time
Imagine you have two employees: one works exactly 36.25 hours per week, and the other is more sporadic - sometimes working 25, sometimes working 50. The first is “optically” a good employee: they cross their tasks off, they turn things in on or just after every deadline, and they take good notes during the meeting, but they don’t really push the needle. The latter employee turns in work that’s detailed, thoughtfully laidout, and regularly exceeds your expectations. They’ve presented a number of projects that move the needle of your business and exemplify their creativity. Which employee is more valuable to your organization?
Prioritizing output over optics is a win-win for employers and employees alike. Truthfully, we’ll never have a full picture of an employee’s “productive hours.” But we will have a good idea of their overall impact on your company.
Of course, it’s important that a full-time employee is providing consistent work that aligns with their hourly expectations. But micromanaging how many hours they log and when they do so might actually be misleading.
Instead, focus on more goal-oriented models. For developers, the obvious option is the sprint model, where features and fixes are delivered at the same time every two to three weeks. Engineering leaders can also look at average pull request size or test coverage, for example, to measure their team’s true productivity. A shift in focus this way can help leaders and staff alike focus on the right metrics.
Connect with your team proactively
One of the most important - and easiest - ways to ensure your staff doesn’t feel overworked is to set regular meetings with them to see how they’re doing. While this can be hard for leaders managing large teams, these more personal checkins or one-to-ones don’t need to happen weekly. Often, once every 2-4 weeks is enough to keep a finger on the pulse.
In these 1:1 meetings with staff, try to keep distractions limited and keep your camera on. Ask them open-ended questions instead of yes/no ones. Below are some questions that can help you make the most of this time and uncover any underlying concerns or issues from your staff.
What motivates you to come to work every day?
What was the most challenging part of your week/month? Why?
What’s one thing that could help you do your job more effectively right now?
What are you most proud of in your week recently?
Are there any projects you’d really like to work on?
Asking these kinds of questions can also help encourage openness and dialogue, a healthy and important component of a high-functioning team.
Share relevant, timely, and thoughtful praise for their work
On top of making sure to have them share any challenges or high points in their recent work, make sure to give them constructive praise on work they’ve done well. This doesn’t need to be during a meeting (ideally, it should be delivered as close to the actual project you’re praising as possible). But make sure it’s relevant, timely, and detailed. Instead of just saying, “good job,” let the person know what they did well. Point out specific details so they know you were truly paying attention and saw what they did. Praise may seem like a small item, but can go a long way in making a staff member feel valued in the company.
Encourage open feedback and dialogue
Even if you’ve done number one and two above, that’s not always sufficient for employees. Sometimes, the reality is just that they won’t be comfortable talking to their manager about certain things. That’s totally normal (and ok).
When employees join the team, let them know who they can go to if they have questions or concerns. If your company doesn’t have an HR department, designate someone who’s outside of their day to day (read: not in their department) who they can safely and anonymously talk with. That person should reach out on occasion and try to develop a safe relationship with the staff members so that they feel more comfortable reaching out, should they need to discuss something.
Limit social activities and team-building exercises
This one might seem a little unorthodox, but hear us out. Between our work, social media, and Netflix, we spend a ton of time in front of screens. Many employees don’t want to spend more time in front of a screen.
Instead of scheduling long, drawn-out trivia, or awkward Zoom social hours, give employees an afternoon off every once in a while to spend with family or friends (IRL). In the summer, some companies may make this more frequent so staff can take advantage of the good weather. Other things you can do include sending an UberEats gift card to buy themselves lunch, or even encourage meeting-free, message-free “lunch hours.”
How to recognize quiet quitting
Even with a proactive commitment to your team, it’s still important to stay vigilant as a manager. Know what to look for in your staff to intervene before they quietly quit.
Some of the key signs of quiet quitting include:
Arriving late to work, signing off early, or both
A reduction in productivity, when compared to their former workload
No longer attending meetings they used to regularly be present for, or are expected to be at
Increased sick days, mental health days, or absenteeism
Not participating in planning or meetings: this could be keeping their camera off (if the culture is camera on), no longer speaking up, or failing to prepare for meetings
Contributing less to team projects or displaying passion or engagement
Keeping an eye out for these signs and reaching out to employees early if you notice any of them can be your best defense against quiet quitting, and, eventually, actually quitting.
Final Thoughts
As tech leaders, quiet quitting sounds scary. Startups need dedicated, driven employees, and the idea of losing that can be (rightfully) stressful. But with proactive management, the likelihood of quiet quitting can be drastically reduced. Setting expectations upfront and respecting your staff’s downtime can go a long way. Consistently checking in with staff, managing their weekly meeting burden, and intervening if you notice the signs of quiet quitting can all help your team feel supported and reduce burnout, quiet quitting, and turnover.
