Don’t be a victim of quiet quitting—practice progressive discipline
Quiet quitting is a lose-lose situation for employees and employers. Employees who have chosen to quiet quit (QQ) owe it to their employer and coworkers to leave. They are causing more harm than good, and the bigger loser in this equation is the employee who is robbing themselves of the opportunity to be their best selves and do their best work.
The manager who allows a QQ to remain on their team is a weak manager who needs to be dealt with. Their failure to have difficult conversations with employees failing to contribute is the bigger issue to correct. In a perfect world, the right people are hired, they know what to do, enjoy doing it, and are paid a fair wage in exchange for their time, talent, and contributions.
Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world. For employers, people need to be paid for their contributions. This is why businesses with smart ownership insist on a contributions management process, a continuous cycle of setting goals, providing feedback, and evaluating progress to enhance employee contributions to business results and align individual efforts with business priorities. Click here to learn more.
These same businesses also expect their managers to adhere to their progressive discipline process. They know that employees who aren’t a good fit for their culture, they do them, their customers, coworkers, and employer a disservice by keeping them on. While it’s never easy to fire someone, sometimes it’s the best thing for the employee. In the long term, they will likely thank the manager who freed them to pursue other interests while their coworkers celebrate the manager for finally taking action. Click here to learn how to help struggling employees formulate positive behavior change goals.
Dealing fairly and decisively with employees who fail to meet minimum performance standards is one of the most challenging aspects of management. Use progressive discipline, the third component of the BusinessCPR™ Contributions Management Process to either help those struggling to contribute to business results earn the money you are paying them or to move them out reasonably and decisively from your employ. Do this, and you won’t be dealing with QQ issues because you are addressing them before they cost your business more than you can afford.
