“Quiet Quitting” Doesn’t Exist
“Quiet quitting” doesn’t exist, at least not in any numbers that matter.
People aren’t “quiet quitting”; they’re burned out. Years of layoffs and increasing responsibilities are frying people to a crisp. Yes, people who WFH have more options to disengage for self-care, but that’s actually a good thing.
Almost every coworker I’ve met wants the company to succeed—their well-being is tied to the company’s fortune, after all. They want to do quality work. They want to brag about their products. They want to have fun. But also, almost every coworker I’ve met is stressed out with shrinking deadlines and continual layoffs, and always having to do more with less time.
Adding RTO to the mix means workers have to invest even more time in commuting to the office, and even less time to cope with ever increasing amounts of work. RTO will not cure Quiet Quitting. They’ll just reveal it for what it is: burnout, and make it worse.