Quiet Quitting – what is it, and does it matter for employers?

What is Quiet Quitting?

After hitting the headlines recently, Quiet Quitting is defined as:

Performing a job assigned to a person, but there’s no above-and-beyond action, extra work on those days off or answering emails 24/7.

It is essentially the employee who does the bare minimum, similar to “Work to Rule” industrial action, albeit “Work to Rule” is part of a deliberate action to frustrate the employer’s business, rather than, as “Quiet Quitting” seems to be, about reclaiming personal time and work-life balance.

In many ways, Quiet Quitting is not a new concept although what is new, perhaps, is its recent trending, especially on TikTok, with people proudly posting their Quiet Quitting, and it becoming acknowledged more widely and thus something that is likely to happen more often.

Why does Quiet Quitting matter?

Employees aren’t necessarily required to do “above and beyond” and it is in many ways a natural reaction to the long hours that many people found themselves putting in during the pandemic, and the resulting stress.

As our recent article about the dangers of hybrid working shows, it is easy for employees to take on too much, for work to bleed into private life, and this can become unhealthy. Employees taking positive steps to redress that balance is not necessarily a major issue.

However, it can be a problem because of its negative mindset. Having employees who have mentally checked out, and are proud of putting in the bare minimum, isn’t a good thing for a business, its culture or performance.

Whilst businesses shouldn’t rely on employees regularly doing above and beyond to the extent that they burn out or switch off, it is good to have employees who are engaged, enthusiastic and willing to go that extra mile when necessary.

Employees who are in this negative mindset are more likely to end up leaving, creating:

• higher employee turnover with the related costs;
• disruption; and
• they can have a damaging effect on their colleagues in the meantime.

In addition, if the intention in some cases of Quiet Quitting is to deliberately frustrate the employer’s business, then it can be a breach of the implied term in all employment contracts that employees would not operate a contract's terms with the intention and result of frustrating their employer's business.

Therefore, sticking to the exact contractual hours etc can in fact be a breach of contract, even though the employees are adhering to the letter of their written contracts or rule books.

An employee who, for example, went home at 5pm in the middle of a job without finishing it because it was the end of his working day would be likely to be in breach of the duty of good faith, especially if this caused loss or damage and this would especially be the case the more senior that employee is.

What is the legal issue here?

Whilst employees cannot be disciplined or fired for just doing their job, there will be times when refusing to go the extra mile would be actionable.

As already said, where it is intentionally done to undermine the employer, this goes further than just doing the job and becomes a potential breach of the implied terms.

Many employees will have well-drafted contract terms which have express terms requiring specific flexibility and expectations of employees to put in extra effort where the business needs it. Refusal to do this can, therefore, be a breach.

Disciplinary action can therefore be taken in some instances and more serious examples could result in dismissal.

There are also the issues of bringing the business into disrepute too, for example, should any negative social media post name the business, its staff and customers too. This could be a serious disciplinary issue too.

Where Quiet Quitting tips over into poor performance that is not actually doing their job properly, a capability procedure could be considered too.

Top Tips

1. Monitor effort and reward it too: employees are more likely to be engaged where they feel valued and that extra effort and work are appreciated and fairly rewarded. It is a good idea to proactively monitor the hours employees are doing and ensure that some employees are not, in fact, regularly working excessive hours and to make sure that employees are given thanks and appreciation when they do put in that extra effort.
   
   
2. Make sure your contracts are drafted properly: ensure that you have properly drafted contracts which make employees’ expectations clear. If the contract is clear that the employee is required to work above and beyond when necessary and to be flexible, then you will be in a better position to deal with it. Whilst the implied terms can certainly be used where there is serious non-compliance, an express term can help make expectations clear and give better protection.
   
   
3. Engage employees and be proactive: if you do find yourselves with a problem employee, be proactive, get advice and deal with the problem head-on, before the problem starts to spread and affect your team. You do not want to wait until you’ve lost several good employees before you tackle a difficult situation, and employees who are engaging in this behaviour can often cause this. With the proper advice, you can proactively deal with this issue before it becomes a big issue.
   
   
4. Ensure social media policies are well drafted and understood: this is something that is becoming more and more important, make clear expectations on the use of the business name, customers and staff too and you can then take action more easily when breached.