The uptake of the term “quiet quitting” to describe varying degrees of stepping away from the pressures of the workplace is another example of bad news dominating the headlines. While a contrasting term — “loudly persisting” — appeared in Time, that term hasn’t generated any headlines. My cofounder, Kristin, and I have been discussing how our motivation around Ampll was largely about “loudly persisting” — to allow remote and hybrid work cultures to more systematically make “loud” what was “quiet” before concerning our work-life integration, work style preferences, and what we need to manage our own energy.
Some do believe that quiet quitting is a generational phenomenon.
However, anyone who has watched Office Space knows that Gen Z didn’t invent quiet quitting, Gen X did. 😜 Yet, the yellow bars above show Gen X has a dramatically different attitude about work twenty years after that movie became a cult phenomenon.
Also, the LA Times did a great piece on how quiet quitting is just a new name for an old concept.
One reason we may be seeing increased press coverage of quiet quitting today is that modern work has created new challenges for managers.
The data points to quiet quitting clustering around specific managers, rather than across employees as a whole.
A Business Insider piece specifically pointed to quiet quitting as only something a “bad boss” would worry about..
What the articles fail to mention is that these managers are employees, too. We all need to create a culture and a set of systems to address engagement.
We created Ampll as a connection and well-being platform in response to additional challenges of overload and connection with remote and hybrid work.
Collaborating effectively starts with a culture of transparency and psychological safety. Historically, we got some of this interaction ad hoc through casual in-office interactions. Now, with remote and hybrid work, it’s time to formalize these ad hoc interactions with systems that reinforce this openness culturally.
Honest discussions about work-life balance and outside commitments is definitely in-scope.
We can start as teammates by encouraging teammates to share basic preferences about how and when they work best. Understanding whether someone works best in mornings versus afternoons, or when they are trying to do deep work are just basic points.
A recent Harvard Business Review article titled “It’s time to stop following the ‘Golden Rule’” emphasized:
It’s time to adopt a “New Golden Rule:” Treat others as they would like to be treated. It’s a small change, but one that can make a huge difference. All it takes to put this new mindset into practice is understanding, curiosity, and compromise.
— Irina Cozma in Harvard Business Review
And as a team, we should all encourage ourselves and our teammates to recharge and look after our energy. The quote below from Arianna Huffington resonates well with us here at Ampll that recharging and performance are directly linked.
As you dive more into the capabilities of Ampll, the “why” is all rooted in bringing so much of what we all tried to do implicitly while in the office out into systems that reinforce the culture changes we need to make in remote and hybrid work. While some may feel uncomfortable at first broadcasting when they like to work best, how they like to work best, their commitments outside of work, and how they like to recharge, we believe we could all benefit from creating cultures and systems that encourage “loudly persisting” over “quiet quitting.”
Steve Pao is Chief Product Officer at Ampll and a member of the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council, an opt-in research community of business professionals. Prior to Ampll, Steve was an early employee and product executive at two companies that did IPOs (Latitude Communications in 1999 and Barracuda Networks in 2013). Steve is a proud "empty nester" and lives in Portland, OR with his wife whom he met in 7th grade German class.
