quiet quitter

noun

plural quiet quitters

: someone who does the minimum amount of work required for a job : someone who engages in quiet quitting

Many quiet quitters fit Gallup's definition of being "not engaged" at work—people who do the minimum required and are psychologically detached from their job.

—Jim Harter

Quiet quitters continue to fulfill their primary responsibilities, but they're less willing to engage in activities known as citizenship behaviors: no more staying late, showing up early, or attending non-mandatory meetings.

—Anthony C. Klotz and Mark C. Bolino

Quiet quitters no longer strive for praise and promotions, choosing to do the bare minimum at work instead.

—Hermione Taylor

In all businesses, some people have always been quiet quitters. You know, the ones who always used to hang out at the water coolers when those were a thing; the bored colleagues who sleep with their eyes open in meetings; and, of course, the endless gossips who are up to date on who's dating whom, but clueless about their jobs.

—Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Examples of quiet quitter in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

On that point, the quiet quitters would certainly agree. —Barnaby Lashbrooke, Forbes, 13 Nov. 2023

What about the early-retirement wave, or America’s army of quiet quitters? —Ben Casselman, New York Times, 19 July 2023

And the consequences of employee-employer detachment include less commitment and effort from employees to go the extra mile for customers, less loyalty to the organization, and higher turnover. 5 strategies to win over quiet quitters Only 21% of global and 32% of U.S. employees are engaged. —Jim Clifton and Jim Harter, Quartz, 22 June 2023

Or maybe the quiet quitters are just responding to the changing workplace dynamics, suggests Rubab Jafry O’Connor, service professor of management at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. —Prarthana Prakash, Fortune, 14 June 2023

The following month, Gallup released a survey indicating that as many as half of all Americans may be quiet quitters, further exacerbating business leaders’ concerns about this problem. —Gleb Tsipursky, Fortune, 16 Feb. 2023

The least effective managers oversaw as many as four times more people categorized as quiet quitters than those ranked most effective. —Xerxes Cooper, Quartz, 13 Mar. 2023

The employer, however, is eventually harmed even more by holding on to a quiet quitter who is a drain on the business. —WSJ, 4 Oct. 2022

The pandemic has made managers want to be much more attuned to feedback from their teams in hopes of changing burnout culture, Huffington says, which could stop a quiet quitter in their tracks. —Jane Thier, Fortune, 26 Aug. 2022

Word History

First Known Use

2022, in the meaning defined above