Slogging through Friday and dreaming about catching up with your sleep on the weekend? You along with the lakhs in the Indian corporate workforce, share the same sentiment. But is dragging yourself through a work-day really healthy? While Gen-Z advocates might love to support this stance, several reports have found that “quiet cracking” is just as harmful as “quiet quitting”.
But what do these terms mean, and what’s the major difference, since they are related to negative feelings regarding your workday? According to a new report from cloud learning platform TalentLMS, they find signs of burnout and stress more common than you think in conventional workplaces.
What is Quiet Cracking?
Quiet Cracking refers to the behaviour you might display due to persistent unhappiness. This often leads to disengagement, poor performance, and a desire to quit, as per the TalentLMS report. It might significantly drive up the number of employees quitting their roles.
More than 50% of the surveyed employees across US industries from the report affirmed that they have experienced some level of quiet cracking.
What is Quiet Quitting?
Quiet Quitting has been the poster child of workplace worries for some time now. Suffering silently yet delivering the bare minimum was among the worst fears of employers. Since it not only leads to overall lower morale, but also becomes an overall attitude of an employee towards their work.
But EY Americas’ chief well-being officer, Frank Giampietro, is increasingly concerned about the “silently struggling” job market. He noted that they are both “two sides of the same coin.”
Quiet Cracking vs Quiet Quitting
While both are fuelled by burnout, Quiet Cracking doesn’t always manifest itself in exhaustion. In fact, they might be correlated, and more often than not, Quiet Quitting might be the result of Quiet Cracking. The TalentLMS report cautioned these phenomena to be equally “dangerous” if left unaddressed.
It is also a larger comment on the bleak state of the job market, as employees, rather than switching jobs, tend to remain in a secure post for longer. However, describing Quiet Cracking as a form of employee detachment, this workplace trend has reported increasing numbers over time. A Gallup report revealed that the cost of disengagement in the US is approximately $2 trillion in August, conveying the detrimental effect of the trend. The slowed economy has resulted in fewer job switches, but it is no indicator of job satisfaction as expressed in the growing numbers of Quiet Cracking cases.
Warning Signs of Quiet Cracking
While indicators of quiet cracking might not be extreme, there are several indicators of burnout that employees can look out for. From physical to mental, employees reporting sick or complaining of headaches may be reporting early signs of exhaustion.
Not directly relating to poor performance, Quiet Cracking needs to be measured comparatively, as opposed to conventional behaviour. Giampietro suggested doing regular check-ins with employees to see how this issue may be addressed and push for corporate well-being.