From the Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting to the Big Breakup
2022 workplace trends that are shaped by how we feel about work.
As a Positive Psychologist and Coach, I work with organisations in tech, climate tech and social impact companies daily, in Ireland, Germany and across Europe. I also hold space for people who work in tech to find career clarity, want to become a positive leader or invite more joy and wellbeing into their working lives.
2022 has been a busy year. This year alone, I have listened to more than 450 people in tech. That’s a lot of voices. That’s a lot of individual stories.
What unites all of these voices are the monumental changes we all had to go through this year. In this article, I review the major workplace trends from a positive psychology lens:
The New Normal: what does “new normal” actually mean?
The Great Resignation: the search for more meaning and fulfilment in work and life
Quiet Quitting: a collective re-set for a better balance between work and life
The Big Breakup: how women are saying no to toxic, unequal work cultures
The Great Layoffs: how layoffs run havoc with our need of belonging and security
So let’s dive in and see what these trends mean for people who work in tech.
The New Normal: What does that actually look like?
2022 was the year the world tried out life after the pandemic. Some of us went back to the office, full-time or in hybrid models. This forced many people to readjust routines again, sometimes having to give up new healthy habits, as the commute appeared back in their lives. Some of us stayed fully remote, continuing to work from home. What we all have in common is a deep sense of overwhelm, the struggle to deal with high levels of uncertainty, and the need to embrace change, yet again. 2022 is a difficult year for many people who feel exhausted after two years of living in a global pandemic.
While some people thrived during and after the pandemic, statistics indicate that 30 - 50% of the working population globally is experiencing loneliness and social isolation. Furthermore, many studies attest to worrying increases in stress and burnout levels since the onset of the pandemic. Unfortunately, this is a global trend, according to Forbes. And sadly, Ireland is at the leaderboard for burnout rates, adding more pressure to an already stretched workforce.
We must ask ourselves: do we really want this to be the new normal?
Do we want to accept that many of our colleagues, friends and family members are struggling with their mental health and sacrificing their wellbeing?
When you hear someone referring to “the new normal”, ask yourself if this is the kind of normal you want to be part of.
The Great Resignation: The search for flexibility, autonomy and happiness
At the same time when the new normal appeared, tech was proclaiming the Great Resignation. Many people stayed put in their roles during the pandemic, often choosing job security over job satisfaction. The beginning of 2022 saw the start of a mass movement across tech, with many employees leaving their jobs to move to pastures new.
For me, the great resignation was and is a demonstration of the power of employees choosing better places to work. Most job changers are looking for more fulfilling jobs. They look for jobs that match their values and provide opportunities for growth and equal participation. And this is not just a trend. McKinsey estimates that around 40 - 60% of employees are still planning to make a move. This highlights a new kind of confidence in employees, driven by the ponderings of pandemic life, and the realisation that there is more to life than constant performance pressure and rushing from meeting to meeting without time to breathe. In my work as a career coach, I work with people every day who ditch toxic work cultures, in favour of flexibility, autonomy and development opportunities.
Quiet Quitting: The struggle of leadership to retain top talent is real
Sometime in mid-2022, that spirit of new beginnings turned into “Quiet Quitting”. A terribly misleading term if you ask me. Quiet Quitting is actually not about quitting at all. It’s about not going the extra mile anymore. It’s about recalibrating work expectations to a more sustainable level. It’s about prioritising work-life integration over burnout and constant over time. It’s about healthy boundaries and not just living for work, but working to live.
Who coined the term Quiet Quitting?
The concept of Quiet Quitting can be traced back to organisational psychology research by Withey & Cooper, as Adam Grant recently outlined on the Dare to Lead podcast (if you haven’t listened to the conversation between the three big workplace thinkers of our time Brené Brown, Adam Grant and Simon Sinek, I recommend you do! Absolutely worth it!). But back to that research paper, we spoke about: The researchers categorised typical behaviours of people who are unhappy at work: exit, voice, loyalty or neglect.
We can view these four behaviours as interdependent. People leave (exit), when the cost of staying and voicing their opinion is high. People seek to talk about their unhappiness (voice) and potential solutions, when they feel safe to do so and when they have a strong commitment to the organisation. People are loyal, when they were satisfied with the organisation in the past, and still feel they can learn and grow their skill set, and if the exit costs are too high. Neglect is what is now categorised as Quiet Quitting: people who feel the cost of exit or speaking up are equally too high. As a result, these employees feel somewhat disillusioned, believing improvements to their situation won’t happen. This leads to passive behaviour, with a focus on doing what is asked of them, but not investing more time and energy outside of contractual obligations. This does not mean quiet quitters don’t do their job. On the contrary: they do just that. They do their job and they do it well. But they have clear boundaries between work and life, and they won’t raise their hands for extra projects, or putting in the extra hours.
What does Quiet Quitting really mean?
So what does that all mean for our new shiny buzzword ‘Quiet Quitting’? Quiet Quitting is an attempt to categorise employees who do exactly what they have been hired for. Not more. But also not less. It baffles me that we give this behaviour a new label, a label that has a negative connotation, implying these people have somehow given up and not doing their jobs well. Taken out of its context, Quiet Quitting has become a term that does more harm than good. It blames the employees, suggesting that a person who "only" does what they have been hired for, is somehow not good enough. It suggests that if you don't go the extra mile all the time, you are not doing your job well.
It becomes clear, what Quiet Quitting really is: a testament to the struggle of leaders and organisations to get a handle on motivating and keeping their employees engaged at a level above and beyond what is humanly possible. It becomes clear that more employees than previously don’t tolerate the hustle culture any longer. The expectation for continuous extraordinary performance is no longer the norm. The term Quiet Quitting shows us that some organisations are concerned about the shift back to a healthy baseline of performance. Let’s keep in mind that hustle culture and peak performance are not sustainable for a long period of time. They lead to chronic stress and burnout.
What’s worst, calling this trend Quiet Quitting also polarises managers and leaders from their teams and employees. Quiet Quitting suggests there is something wrong with the employee and his or her motivation to work. It takes all agency away from the leaders and puts the blame completely on the employees. But this could not be further from the truth. In fact, it’s the manager who accounts for 70% of the variance in their team’s engagement, a statistic that Gallup already highlighted in 2016.
A better term than Quiet Quitting: Employee Engagement
By now, it becomes clear that Quiet Quitting does more harm than good. Employee engagement is a much better term. Employee engagement isn't just about how invested an employee is. Engagement happens when the circumstances invite interest and curiosity. Here, tech leaders have much more influence than they often realise. Positive leadership, particularly strengths-based approaches to leadership and work, are ideally positioned to help organisations create teams that are highly engaged, interested and invested in their work. Empower your leaders to inspire, and you will buffer your workforce against quiet quitting.
The Big Breakup: Women in leadership have had enough
The Big Breakup captures a new confidence in women in tech, and especially in senior leadership positions, leaving their companies as a result of being constantly undermined, overlooked and overworked compared to their male (often white) counterparts. Similar to the trends above, the Big Breakup goes back to the pandemic, were women took the brunt of the dual responsibility of homeschooling and working from home at the same time. As a result, women are more likely to be overwhelmed and burned out: nearly half of women leaders are burned out - a number much higher than just 31% of male leaders. Add the chronic underrepresentation of women in tech and being overlooked for promotions, and you get women leaders leaving in record numbers, joining companies that prioritise diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), flexibility and a better work-life balance.
How can you retain top female talent in tech?
Remember the 450 people in tech I listened to this year? Well, about a third of these were leaders in tech, mostly female leaders. The number one thing they were looking for in a new company is continuous, high-quality professional development. Female leaders look for training and coaching for their professional development. But equally, they want to see professional leadership development on the agenda for the whole leadership team. They recognise that being a good leader requires emotional intelligence, a high level of self-awareness, as well as psychological safety within the leadership team.
To retain and attract top female leaders, tech companies need to put leadership coaching on top of their learning & development initiatives in 2023.
The Great Layoffs: A threat to our needs of belonging and security
We are closing the year with a sad trend of the Great Layoffs. Big tech is adjusting to an economically difficult year. Twitter, Stripe, Lyft and Meta are just some of the big players currently laying off people in high numbers. Other big tech companies like Apple, Salesforce and Google have hiring freezes in place that will most likely extend into 2023. Layoffs are brutal for our sense of belonging and safety. This is why people often experience a state of shock and even existential crisis when they are notified of their redundancy. Work is a big part of our lives. No matter how strong your work-life boundaries are, your work provides for your living and if that livelihood is at risk, it is difficult to retain a positive perspective for a better future. However, once the shock subsides, a layoff can be a rare opportunity to reset. Many people working in tech are operating under constant pressure. Time to reflect, time to go inwards is very rare. Here are three questions for a positive job reflection:
What is most important to me in my current life situation?
This question invites you to check in with your personal values and strengths. Note down what you value about work, what impact you are seeking to make and what strengths, talents and skills you are bringing with you, no matter where you go next.
How might this have changed without me noticing?
Acknowledge how you have grown as a person in the last few years. We all went through a pandemic, an event that many people describe as life-changing. Even subtle changes on the surface, can have intense ripple effects for what you need to be at your best. Think about how you have changed in the past few years and what that means for you.
What does that tell me about my next play?
Map out what your next role could look like, what type of company you see yourself in, and what you need to look for to help yourself thrive.
What’s next in 2023?
If you don’t happen to be the owner of a magic crystal ball, there is no universal answer to that. As with everything in life, you will have a choice. You can always choose growth. If your current workplace doesn’t provide what you need, be bold, be brave, consult with a coach and map out your route to personal success.
“Happiness is a choice, not a result. Nothing will make you happy until you choose to be happy.”
