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Quiet Quitting, Loud Leaving & What The Hell Is Productivity Paranoia?

Cartoon of a worker who is quietly quitting

If your teams are ghosting extra work, skipping meetings, or worse (just counting down the minutes), you’re not alone. Employee disengagement isn’t (just) trending; it's toxic. And it’s costing businesses trillions while eroding culture, trust, and momentum.

 

What Is Quiet Quitting?


Quiet quitting doesn’t mean discreetly handing in a resignation letter. It means doing only what the job description requires - nothing more, nothing less. It’s often less about laziness and more about burnout, lack of recognition, and unclear direction.


A TIME interview with educator Maggie Perkins captures this perfectly:

“No matter how much I hustle… if I didn’t quiet quit... I would burn out.” 

How Big a Deal Is It?


  • Globally, only about 23% of employees are engaged in their work, meaning 77% are doing the bare minimum, either quietly quitting or silently disengaged. (CBS News)

  • In the UK, an astounding 90% of workers feel disconnected from their roles. (CNBC)

  • Gallup estimates disengaged employees cost the global economy between $7.8–8.8 trillion annually, or around 9–11% of global GDP. (Forbes)

 

Deeper Than Just “Quiet Quitting” - Enter “Quiet Cracking”


A newer concept, quiet cracking, describes the slow erosion of enthusiasm before the burnout moment. According to TalentLMS, over half of employees experience it. They report:

  • Lack of clarity (15%)

  • Unmanageable workloads (29%)

  • If you haven’t had training in the past year, you're 140% more likely to feel insecure about the future (BambooHR News, New York Post)

 

The Ripple Effects


Disengagement isn’t contained, it infects culture, speeds up attrition, and slows down adaptability:

  • Business units with low engagement pivot 2.4× more slowly, creating strategic lag. (RSIS International)

  • Psychological safety drops: trust metrics fall by up to 40% within six months in affected areas. (RSIS International)

  • Emotional contagion spreads: engaged teams with quiet quitters reported 27% more negative workplace affect. (RSIS International)


And What is Productivity Paranoia?


Productivity paranoia is the growing disconnect between how productive employees are and how productive leaders think they are. It’s a term that emerged during the post-pandemic shift to hybrid and remote work, when many managers began to question whether people were working hard enough simply because they couldn’t physically see them doing it.


Microsoft popularised the term in its 2022 Work Trend Index, reporting that while 87% of employees believed they were productive at work, 85% of leaders said the shift to hybrid work made it challenging to have confidence in employee productivity.


This anxiety often manifests in all the worst ways:

  • Micromanagement and unnecessary check-ins

  • Surveillance software (a.k.a. "bossware") that monitors keystrokes, camera use, and log-ins

  • More meetings (yes, more!) to compensate for a lack of visibility


The irony? These overreactions usually harm productivity. Constant monitoring kills morale. More meetings mean less time to focus. And a lack of trust breeds disengagement, which is exactly the thing productivity paranoia is trying to prevent.


Employees who are engaged and motivated by their internal comms

 

How Internal Comms Can (And Must) Act


Quiet quitting, loud leaving, productivity paranoia - none of these are really about work ethic. They're about culture. Specifically, the invisible contract between employee and employer: the one that says “we’ll treat you like a person, not a productivity unit.”


Internal comms sits squarely at the centre of this relationship. It isn’t just about announcements. It never has been. It’s a strategic lever for culture, morale, and engagement. Here’s how to fight back:


1. Frame Comms With Purpose & Clarity


When information lacks context, like mission, meaning, or benefit, employees tune out. Every message should answer: Why this matters to me—and why now?


Let’s start with the basics. If your internal emails read like a data dump from a dusty intranet, you’re already halfway to employee apathy. The solution? Purposeful, audience-first communication.


  • Replace waffle with what matters: Strip the jargon, skip the committees. Every message should answer: What’s in it for me?

  • Inject personality: Leaders can sound human and still be credible. A strong internal tone of voice makes your comms land with warmth, wit, or urgency—depending on the moment.


2. Encourage Psychological Safety & Two-Way Feedback


Psychological safety is really important. And it’s something we’ve written about before. Don’t just broadcast. Polls, AMA sessions, and true manager dialogues help employees feel heard and more likely to stay invested.


Disengagement thrives when employees feel unheard. A comms culture based on broadcast rather than dialogue is fertile ground for quiet quitting.


  • Turn listening into a ritual: Use regular pulse surveys, skip-level interviews, or even live AMAs. Then crucially—act on what’s shared.

  • Close the loop: It’s not enough to say, “We’re listening.” Prove it. Show where feedback changed something—even if the change is “not yet.”


3. Embed Learning & Career Growth


Highlight development opportunities, training initiatives and pathways for progression. Quiet quitting often stems from a sense of stagnation.

Employees often don’t leave their jobs. They leave lack of progress.


  • Make internal development more visible: Comms should celebrate promotions, show off lateral moves, and plug available training with real energy.

  • Champion learning stories: Share how individuals took on a challenge, upskilled, or cross-skilled, and what impact it had. Make growth contagious. Short video case studies and personal stories are so powerful here!


4. Support Manager-Led Recognition & Leadership


Managers are frontline engagement drivers. They are the make-or-break of engagement. But most don’t get the tools, time or training to communicate well. So, they default to silence or awkward team calls about quarterly metrics.


  • Provide ready-made message packs: Give managers templates they can personalise, not scripts to robotically recite.

  • Train the talkers: Coaching for confident, clear, values-led communication helps every line manager become a micro-influencer for engagement.


Gallup reports that well-supported managers drive team engagement rates to nearly 70%, even as global averages fall. (ft.com)


5. Audit & Simplify Internal Channels


Too many comms channels create noise: messages go unread, culture becomes disjointed, and disengagement rises. Channel chaos is real. Teams, Zoom, email, Slack, HR platforms, WhatsApp groups... employees are inundated but still say: “I didn’t hear about that.”


  • Audit your channels: Which ones do people actually use? Which are ignored like leftover salad at a buffet? Or better still, let an external agency do it for you.

  • Create a comms cadence: Not everything needs to go everywhere. Some news should be a banner; some should be a whisper. Prioritise.


6. Make Video the Default, Not the Afterthought


A static PDF will never convey tone, passion, or urgency. Video helps comms feel personal, even at scale.


  • Use it for leadership updates: Let employees see the whites of the CEO’s eyes (and ideally some humour too).

  • Keep it short and shareable: A 100-second update beats a 19-slide deck. Every time.


75% of employees are more likely to watch a video than read an email or document. (TechSmith Report, 2023)


7. Celebrate Culture Moments Loudly and Authentically


Recognition isn’t just about “Employee of the Month.” It’s about amplifying purpose, values, and belonging.


  • Spot micro-moments: Did someone nail a client pitch? De-escalate a support issue? Share it. Shout about it. Celebrate it

  • Humanise values: Don’t just list "integrity, innovation, teamwork" on a wall. Show them in action.


Zendesk created a “Moments of Truth” internal series, showcasing team decisions that reflected the brand values. It boosted employee alignment by 20%.

 

A worker who has checked out because of poor internal comms

How We Can Help


If your internal culture is wobbling and engagement is in freefall, we provide the tools you need:

 

 

 

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