Chris Lange, FISM News
Social media has been abuzz with “quiet quitting,” a viral term used to describe disengaged employees who put in the bare minimum effort in order to meet the minimum requirements of their job descriptions.
A recent Gallup poll exploring this phenomenon revealed that at least half of America’s workforce are quiet quitters.
In its survey report, Gallup researchers said U.S. worker engagement noticeably dropped in the second half of 2021 and that increased disengagement was concurrent with an uptick in job resignations. During the second quarter of 2022, the number of engaged workers held steady at 32%, but the number of actively disengaged employees jumped to 18%.
“The ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees is now 1.8 to 1, the lowest in almost a decade,” the report stated.
The global analytics firm noted in its findings that “the workplace, amid the pandemic, got worse for younger workers” and that managers comprised a large portion of the so-called quiet quitters. To make matters worse, the trend is likely to worsen, according to the report, which includes helpful tips for managers to keep employees engaged.
While Gallup chalks the quiet-quitting phenomenon up to mismatched expectations and workers not “feeling cared about,” among other things, others suggest that something more troubling is at work.
“The work ethic has declined in part because of the decline of Christianity in our culture and the push for socialism,” Providence Forum executive director Dr. Jerry Newcombe wrote in an article published by The American Vision last September. “Socialism constantly undermines the work ethic by rewarding inactivity and failing to reward those who work particularly hard or well,” he continued.
Newcombe points to principles of work set forth in Scripture that seem at odds with ideals embraced in modern culture that tend to focus on the needs and desires of individual workers rather than those of the organization.
“God has given each of us a unique set of talents and skill sets. What a joy it is to put those into practice as a vocation or as an avocation for His glory and others’ good. And He will hold us accountable for putting these things into practice,” Newcome wrote, going on to cite the Apostle Paul’s admonition to work hard “as unto the Lord.”
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:23-24).