Is it time to quiet quit?

The pattern of working from home suited employers during the pandemic, first as the space restrictions meant less workers and the cost of fumigating the offices, should there be an outbreak of Covid, was considerable.

State employees were also encouraged to stay and work from home as this could be facilitated for thousands of white collar workers by using electronic equipment under certain secure protocols. The end of the pandemic saw most of the state employees return to their offices and stalls and stay only at home when reporting sick.

The work-from-home revolution has raised the bar for what counts as being sick and in some instances urgent office work continued to be run from home by staff even with nasty symptoms such as fever, shortness of breath or nausea. Many still do.

The other side of the coin is that staff, who habitually report sick, can easily perform certain tasks at home. At law, they are expected to refrain from working. In any case, their HR manager knows who is genuine or those who are lazy and indulge in malingering.

Being sick is part of the human condition and this has been the object of many studies especially in winter during bouts of flu. It is not going to go away and the cost of sick absentees will need to be factored in the cost of production.

Productivity during times of an approaching recession when inflation reaches double-digit levels, employers can only reach the required quotas by dollops of overtime. Consider the private sector, where salaries are higher yet standards are more demanding, occasionally one meets with staff deciding not to work overtime.

These indulge in protecting their work-life balance and stop doing enough to get their job

“The bargain of hard work for higher pay is less attractive than it used to be. The temptation to occasionally burn the midnight oil nowadays is becoming less popular when everyone else is worried about burnout.”

done without succumbing to burnout. In Malta, this is giving bosses a burnout since additional staff are scarce and it has become impossible to add more hands as the workload increases. For example, let us quote a study by Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University. He has been tracking work-from-home habits since before the Covid-19 pandemic made them the talk of the town.

In a recent working paper he presents the results of a randomised controlled trial at a large Chinese multinational company, where sick days fell by 12% for employees working from home two days a week relative to those coming in full-time. Again, post-pandemic, workers who worked habitually from home felt uneasy to call sick. Being even mildly sick can impair brain function as much as high altitude, whose effect can feel like a bad hangover. It is difficult to exercise proper judgment if one cannot focus on the task at hand.

Consider the scenario of a worker reporting sick and is lying in bed not doing anything at home. This connotes not only physical discomfort but also cognitive impairment.

On the contrary, for highachievers putting in the hours is not a chore but a way of life. As recession in Europe looms, this slowly puts future job security into question, showing yourself to be useful becomes even more important. Hybrid-work etiquette is fluid and many companies have yet to update their sick-leave rules for the new era.

At a time of full employment, when employees cannot take it anymore, they resign and move on. Very often, they do not have to wait long to settle in a new job.

Obviously blue collar workers face different work challenges. Consider the safety of tapping away at a laptop and smartphone from the discomfort of a sick person’s bedroom is not as dangerous as driving a forklift.

The fact that some employees feel unenthused about their work is hardly new. In all workplaces employees show varying degrees of commitment to their jobs. Some work late, others leave at 5 o’clock sharp, a few seem to do little more than is required.

The very idea of going above and beyond one’s duty requires a distribution of effort, with less committed colleagues providing a baseline against which others can be judged. The nature of the work also matters: it is easier to be engaged by some jobs than others. It is unsurprising, too, that quiet quitting has a particular resonance now as plenty of employees feel detached from their work.

The bargain of hard work for higher pay is less attractive than it used to be. The temptation to occasionally burn the midnight oil nowadays is becoming less popular when everyone else is worried about burnout. Plenty of managers want employees to return to the office, the environment in which they built their careers; the end of the pandemic has seen another push for workers to fill up offices again. Now, is it important to recognise that if people are getting their work done – while protecting their personal time – it’s a routine that should be encouraged.

Modern human resources theories remind us that staff who find ways to rejuvenate and maintain their health and well-being in and out of work are more likely to continue to meet their job requirements and less likely to really quit.

Employees today are looking for belonging, flexibility and purpose at work. This requires organisations to put themselves in the shoes of their employees and look at what they are asking of individuals. Where do individuals feel most satisfied and fulfilled? What are they willing to compromise on? How and when are they being rewarded for their contributions?

So what is the true meaning of quiet quitting. This is about a conscious effort to uphold our wellbeing in the way we work, rather than risk burnout through working long hours or defining ourselves simply through our work. It’s not a coincidence, either, that quiet quitting has been linked to Generation Z, most of whom are at the beginning of their careers. It is regrettable that some companies abuse of beginners based on their eagerness to “climb the career ladder”.

In conclusion, the quiet-quitting kerfuffle tells a tale of alienated groups. One comprises disenchanted employees who wonder what is the point of working themselves to the bone. Naturally, the well-being of workers is a crucial factor that needs to be factored in by both private employers and the State.

Sadly, one reads that 66% of workers in Europe are experiencing unhealthy levels of stress at work. Protecting the mental well-being of employees should be the number one priority in the next Budget speech.