Like just about everything these days, a new trend has emerged on Tik Tok among Gen Z content creators. 

But the latest trend isn’t a fun dance or another “challenge,” but rather a commentary on the status of work and the workplace — and it’s called “Quiet Quitting.”

What Is Quiet Quitting?

Essentially, the term Quiet Quitting refers to a phenomenon by which workers are making a conscious effort to decouple their personal lives from their professional lives, which often manifests in “doing the bare minimum” to keep their paychecks coming in. 

The effects of the pandemic are still being acutely felt in the workplace — the shift to remote or hybrid work has made the distinction between work and life even grayer than it had been leading up to the pandemic, and lower levels of engagement across generations of workers has led many to make a conscious effort to not allow the stresses of work to follow them into their daily lives.

Many are choosing to “leave work at the office” more than had been done in the decade leading up to the pandemic, in which we saw the rise of constant connection thanks to never-ending email chains and workplace chat apps like Slack. 

As reported in the Wall Street Journal, a study from Gallup noted drops in engagement — which Gallup measures by asking respondents if they feel their work has “purpose” — across all generational groups, but Millennials and Gen Z notched the lowest levels of engagement of them all. 

And, according to reporting from Bloomberg, “the share of younger workers who strongly agree someone cares about them and encourages their development has fallen steeply,” indicating a large and growing problem with no tangible solution with the tools employers typically employ.

How Can R180 Help?

A key to understanding the current mismatch between employees and their employers is understanding why so many people believe their work has no purpose. 

If a company, the C-Suite, smaller teams, or individual managers can’t lay out a cohesive vision of what a given company stands for or why it does what it does — and manage to gain buy-in from employees at the same time — this problem will become endemic moving forward. 

But it’s not as simple as writing a two-sentence mission statement and calling it a day. Employees — especially in a tight job market — need to see leaders “walking their talk,” meaning leaders need to do more than just pay lip service to the mission and vision they claim to embrace. 

Enter R180: the workplace solution that employs an intense focus on values, combined with technology that encourages participants to first rediscover and then pursue their core values. 

The mission of R180 is to align companies — from rank-and-file employees all the way up to the C-Suite — on a common, congruent, or complementary set of values that can guide organizations into the future of work. But R180 doesn’t just work within the workplace. Its unique model pushes people to take stock of their personal lives as well, encouraging change there that leads people to be happier overall in their daily lives. When happier people show up at work, better work gets done and goals can be more easily realized.

When employees feel connected to the greater mission of the company, it opens the door to realizing the purpose of the work that’s being done, which in turn goes a very long way in fostering increased engagement and production in all areas of the organization.

Employees who are making the conscious decision to “quiet quit” clearly feel alienated by their workplace environment, which is to say they don’t feel a personal connection with the work they’re doing or the organization they’re working for. 

The R180 journey calls for introspection, evaluation, and transformation. Completing the process allows companies to foster a greater connection among the entire organization that’s based on the strong bond of universal human values. This new way of forging ahead can re-engage the workforce and allow your company to move into the post-pandemic world in a far stronger position than others who haven’t made the decision to pursue their values.