From what started as a viral social media-led trend, ‘quiet quitting’ now appears to have become a very real problem for both employees and employers.

Inspired by rising employee burnout and a lack of workplace boundaries post-pandemic, the term refers to the act of not outright quitting your job, but quitting the idea of going above and beyond at work. Put simply, you’re still performing your duties but are no longer subscribing to the hustle culture mentality that work has to be your life. And according to Gallup’s new State Of The Global Workforce 2024 report, 90% of UK employees say that they are feeling detached from their roles. 

The data for Gallup’s report was collected in 2023 and 128,278 working adults in over 160 countries were surveyed. In addition, only 10% of UK workers were found to be feeling engaged with their jobs, 40% of employees were found to be experiencing daily stress and 27% reported feeling daily sadness – the second highest across all European countries. Another 20% of workers reported feeling daily anger.

By comparison, 23% of employees globally reported feeling engaged at work and 33% of US workers said they were engaged at work.

“Actively disengaged workers may often be trapped in jobs they do not like for economic reasons,” the report explained. “Economic factors likely play a significant role in active disengagement. We infer that job opportunities allow bitter employees to leave bad situations and find better ones.” Indeed, less than half of UK employees said it’s now a good time to find a job and almost one-third said they were actively looking for another job.

The Gallup report isn’t the only data source supporting the idea that many of us are overworked. LifeWorks Mental Health Index found that 48% of employees already report having too much to do in their working day, and over a quarter (26%) are regularly contacted after work by their managers and co-workers.

And as workplace psychologist Dr Audrey Tang previously told Stylist, this radical change of mindset may be shocking, but it is long overdue.

“Quiet quitting sets much-needed boundaries, which is never a bad thing,” she explained. “I’d even argue that if you are doing what your job description requires of you (which formed part of your contract and thus commitment), why would you be doing more in the first place?”

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