A growing trend where employees fulfill only their core job responsibilities while rejecting additional duties—commonly known as “quiet quitting”—is increasingly weighing on the economy. Recent analysis from the Resolution Foundation indicates that workers across Britain have become notably less engaged over the past decade, demonstrating a marked decrease in their willingness to contribute extra effort beyond basic expectations.
This shift in workplace culture may provide insight into the stagnation of productivity observed since the pandemic. The phenomenon, which gained significant traction on social media platforms like TikTok, stems from employee frustration regarding high workplace demands, stagnant pay, and the broader squeeze on living standards. Employees are increasingly opting to prioritize work-life balance and “act their wage” by skipping unpaid tasks and ignoring emails outside of contracted hours. But no more helping out with additional tasks or checking emails outside work hours, instead focusing on work-life balance and “acting your wage”, so you still show up for work.
Hannah Slaughter, a principal economist at the thinktank, warned that the trend carries long-term consequences. “This is self-evidently bad for workers, but it also doesn’t bode well for productivity and labour supply, both of which are vital for lifting living standards in the years ahead,” Slaughter stated.
The organization emphasized that its empirical findings are consistent with the prevalence of quiet quitting, confirming that the behavior has moved well beyond online discourse to impact actual economic performance.
