How Your EAP Can Help Prevent Quiet Quitting

Quiet quitting has gained popularity across the internet throughout 2022. Is it impacting your employees? Learn how partnering with a comprehensive EAP can help your organization understand—and prevent—quiet quitting.

There are two main reasons “quiet quitting” continues to trend on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram:

1. Working from Home in the Pandemic

It’s well-known the pandemic changed the way we work. Companies who previously held strong positions against working remotely had no other choice during lockdown. It became a real-time experiment that proved productivity and profits could continue without people reporting in-person to the office each day.

Surrounded by at-home comforts and no commute, people realized they could create a healthier work-life balance for themselves. With less interruption from colleagues, they recognized they could successfully complete their assigned work in a shorter timeframe. And realized—among massive layoffs due to COVID and inflation—that job security isn’t guaranteed.

2. No Longer Putting Work Before Life

Throughout the 2000s, entrepreneurs, c-suite execs, and social media influencers have promoted pushing yourself to work all the time to grow your career and build wealth. But research has caught up and now shows the negative impact of work-related stress, longer work hours, and increased demands. As a result, significant rates of burnout, anxiety, depression, feelings of isolation, and other mental health issues are a real concern.

Additionally, Gen Z and Millennials are the first generations to grow up consistently hearing that their mental health matters. As well as having the digital tools to openly share and compare their experiences. They have normalized practices like self-care, therapy, healing childhood trauma, setting boundaries, and calling out toxic workplaces. Because of this, they have been at the forefront of quiet quitting, and demanding positive change to how previous generations have worked and lived.

Quiet Quitting is a Misnomer

The term “quiet quitting” may sound like the employee is actively protesting by no longer showing up or refusing to complete their assigned work—but that’s incorrect.

Quiet quitting attempts to bring more balance to the workforce by enforcing a symbiotic relationship between employer and employee. It encourages the employee to fulfill their pre-determined job responsibilities within their defined work hours, but to resist additional projects without proper accommodations and compensation. The priority shifts to protecting and enhancing the mental health of each employee, as well as their overall wellbeing.

In other words, employees do what they’re paid to do while maintaining healthy boundaries for themselves.