Every Day is a Choice

(WSJ image)

Quiet quitting is the buzzword for doing just enough to keep your job.

Jim Harter, chief scientist for Gallup’s workplace and well-being research, said workers’ descriptions of “quiet quitting” align with a large group of survey respondents that he classifies as “not engaged”—those who will show up to work and do the minimum required but not much else. More than half of workers surveyed by Gallup who were born after 1989—54%—fall into this category.

One factor Gallup uses to measure engagement is whether people feel their work has purpose. Younger employees report that they don’t feel that way, the data show. These are the people who are more likely to work passively and look out for themselves over their employers, Dr. Harter said.

Your humble blogger was not aware that there was a quantitative measurement, a Gallup survey on employee engagement, to gauge the venerable phenomenon of workers who are just putting in the time.

Poor economic conditions often force engagement, that is, the fear of losing one's salary and benefits can be sometimes be a sufficient spur to productivity.

However, in the Bay Area over the last 30 years for the most part the market has favored those who are selling their services. And if an employer creates a healthy working environment, that may allow the employer to retain some sought-after workers who have good opportunities elsewhere. The "quiet quitters" believe that there's more to life than the job, and so may the above-and-beyond workers, too.