The confinement derived from the Covid-19 pandemic changed work habits: Most of the office work had to migrate to the home officewhere employees performed the same activities from home.
Despite having some advantages over face-to-face work and offices, the home office also triggered an evil among its practitioners: hyperconnectivity, which later resulted in stress, depression and many other health effects. Therefore, it began with a trend among office workers.
The original term, quiet quittingis a concept that originated in social networks and was later put into practice within offices and the home office. It consists of making the minimum effort at work to avoid being fired, but without sacrificing mental health.
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According to Estrella Vázquez, general director of Factor RH, the silent resignation it means stop putting on the shirt: Do not invest more time or effort than required, retire punctually at our departure time and stop responding to messages to our bosses outside of working hours.
In a few words, quiet quitting means doing the bare minimum for what they pay me”, specified the specialist for an interview with Alto Nivel.
Why has the silent resignation gained ground in recent years?
Obviously not all workers in the world are attracted to this practice. Either because they have gotten used to working in different ways for many years, they fear being fired or they hesitate to find another job with the same benefits.
In contrast, this concept has caught on among the younger generations. The quiet quitting does not mean becoming ‘lazy’ within the company, but rather learning to set limits and learning to say NOT to extra or excessive work if there is no extra payment for these services.
The silent quit is mostly seen in centennials, the younger generation in the world of work, and some millennials. These generations entered the professional field during the pandemic, so they learned to balance their work and social lives without neglecting one or the other,” he says.
Remote work is an important factor in understanding why the quiet quitting. Those who recently entered the world of work did so remotely, so they were never familiar with face-to-face work and learned to carry out their tasks while doing their laundry, for example.
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However, other generations such as boomersThey grew up with the idea of live to work, spending hours on public transport or doing overtime without additional pay. This contrast is seen not only in Mexico, but throughout the world, says the executive.
The silent resignation, a protest for labor rights
When the clock shows 18:00 hours, it refers to the end of the working day of the day. For the older ones, this is an alert to rush to finish the earrings. For the youngest, it is a signal to say goodbye to the office and continue with their lives abroad.
Generation Z demands a new work culture. If this delivers results from home, they can perform their tasks in less time to finish their day before the established time, there is no reason why they should be pointed out or fired ”, highlights Vázquez.
Regarding employees, applying the silent resignation can cost them their job, since there will be someone who offers to maintain a double load for the same salary. However, for companies and the labor field in general, there are greater risks, such as the talent shortage.
If a company publishes job vacancies with the same characteristics as those of 10 years ago, it will not have someone to apply. If there is an interested party, it will probably be among the older generations, leaving fresh talent or new skills on the side”.
Another risk of not attending to the quiet quitting, is the frequent turnover of employees and the increasingly long recruitment processes. When this happens periodically in a company, it means that you have to pay attention to your work culture.
How to avoid falling into silent resignation? The key: Work flexibility
In order not to reach these extremes, companies must understand the needs of their workers and opt for more flexible work schemes. Estrella suggests some modifications for better deals between workers and companies.
From the point of view of the human capital specialist, the first step to be successful in both cases is to learn to differentiate that home officeproductivity and flexible hours are not the same.
At the same time, it provides a guide to implement flexibility within an organization that allows to achieve positive results in the long term.
- Establish a definition of labor flexibility. The first thing is for the organization to define what labor flexibility is based on its organizational culture, the skills of its people (their roles, functions and performance), and also the technological tools it has to implement it.
- Understand the business (and that each company works differently). In the same way, it is a priority for companies to be clear about their business, their culture and their organizational objectives. Once that is done, you can analyze which options within the range of labor flexibility can be adapted to the company.
- Know the resources of the company. The next thing is to evaluate the talent, find out who they are, what their skills are; what issues require support; what is their environment and what tools do they master (or not) for the performance of their roles in the new work reality.
- Propose a strategy according to the company and its workers, not according to the category or market. Once you know the profile, skills and environment of the collaborators, you know how they can perform outside the office.
- More humane and supportive companies. Do not see your workers as a number, but as individual beings, with different needs and abilities, who need more than orders on a day-to-day basis.
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