Are you quiet quitting your job? 

So, in one of my recent videos, I asked, ‘are Jamaicans getting lazier?’ and that was based on the Planning Institute of Jamaica’s report that labour productivity is down slightly. This essentially means that Jamaicans aren’t producing as much, despite having record-low unemployment. 

The overwhelming response from you online was that Jamaicans are NOT getting lazier, BUT doing the bare minimum to collect a paycheck. And while this may not be new, there’s a new term for it: quiet quitting.

According to Investopedia, quiet quitting is when you do just enough to avoid being fired.  You’re not giving your job any extra time, effort, or enthusiasm than absolutely necessary.  No staying late, no coming in early, no extras – just the bare minimum. 

Think about those coworkers who even refuse to participate in Christmas pixie or go on the work beach trip. I remember a tweet a few years ago that said the only thing Jamaicans take serious is the five in 9 to 5.  

And although this has been going on for years, it started to get more attention towards the tail end of the pandemic.

We’re technically still experiencing the “Great Resignation”. This year, PWC surveyed over fifty thousand employees for their Hopes and Fears Global Workforce Survey.  Twenty six percent of respondents said they plan to change jobs within the next year. 

And it’s all connected. How employers handled the pandemic has impacted employees’ mindsets. Remember at the start of the pandemic, thousands of people lost their jobs because economies were shut down. Those who didn’t lose their jobs had promotions or pay increases delayed.  Some workplaces never offered work-from-home or hybrid work, and also didn’t increase sick days. 

This just made the idea that “employers don’t care about you” bigger for some people. And if they don’t care about me, why should I give maximum effort?

Also, there’s the concept of “acting my wage”. Yup, we all know money is one of the biggest motivators, but with the economy where it is, some jobs have just not been able to match employees’ salary needs.

In the PWC Hopes and Fears survey, 42% of employees said they are planning to demand pay rises to cope with the higher cost of living.

This is also probably why you had the Bank of Jamaica’s Governor coming out to warn against significant salary increases. Jobs may be tempted to increase salaries to attract or retain employees, but if their productivity doesn’t increase, then that might cause inflation.  

But wouldn’t a pay rise motivate workers to produce more? It’s giving – ‘what came first, the chicken or the egg’?. 

In any case, researchers are split on whether quiet quitting is actually becoming more of a problem. A 2020 survey of workers age 18 and older, found that quiet quitters make up at least half of the US workforce. On the other hand, you have researchers saying that’s no more than it was in the 2000s. 

There just wasn’t a baseline before, because no one was actually researching it. Like I said before, we’ve always had people who do just the bare minimum at work.

And that’s the bottom line.