Employers Are Starting to Do Something New That You Won't Like

As the idea of so-called quiet quitting spreads, employers are creating their own alternatives in response.

Going viral on the internet  almost always comes down to a mix of luck and hitting a nerve that resonates with many other people. 

When 24-year-old engineer Zaid Khan posted a TikTok video about how he was "quitting the idea of going above and beyond" at work, he inadvertently set off a firestorm of people who also felt like they were tired putting in a lot of effort with very little return.

By the end of the year, thousands of articles appeared both celebrating and vilifiyng the idea. The fundamental shift in attitude toward working but not making your job your life is a complete counterswing from the "hustle culture" that had been getting popularized by some young professionals over the last decade. The New Yorker magazine even included "quiet quitting" in its round-up of some of the most significant cultural phenomenons to occur in 2022.

Some Businesses Have Also Started Quiet Hiring

But just as the rush around quiet quitting started to settle down, some people in the business world started to talk about a new trend. 

As work research and HR research analyst for Gartner Emily Rose McRae recently told CNBC, the term "quiet hiring" refers to companies finding ways to get new work done without having to hire a full-time employee.

If that sounds like cost-cutting or over-relying on freelancers to avoid paying a salary, you're not in the wrong. With a looming recession and job cuts at companies like Salesforce  (CRM) - Get Free Report and Microsoft  (MSFT) - Get Free Report, McRae says that many companies may be more hesitant to hire, but still have a lot of work that needs to be done or new areas they want to expand into.

"The reality for the next year is -- whether or not we go into a recession -- everyone's a little nervous," McRae says. "In a lot of cases, organizations are not necessarily doing a hiring freeze, or layoffs, but maybe slowing down a little bit on their hiring."

Help, I Think I'm Being Quiet Hired

For managers feeling pressure to meet certain goals, natural solutions include giving a few smaller projects to a freelancer, cutting less critical tasks and changing the duties of those already on staff to whatever's most critical or even trying to spread additional work between existing employees.

None of this is particularly new, and they're very common solutions for when work priorities shift without the budget to make new hires. It is particularly common during tighter economic times and, according to McRae, will be a common theme in the corporate world for 2023.

To avoid situations in which existing employees feel undervalued and stretched thin (and inadvertently creating a "quiet quitting" pipeline), she recommends frequent communication about goals between employers and employees.

Readjusting roles is not wrong in itself (for some workers, it can even be a way to try different skills and find an unexpected path for advancement) but tacking on extra work in an underhand way will lead to more people feeling overworked and tempted to start "quiet quitting."

"If you're asking a bunch of people to make this move, you should be able to articulate: What does this mean for them?" says McRae. "If you're just saying, 'OK, this is where we need people,' Great, but that's not enough of a reason for people to want to move."