Is “Quiet Thriving” the new “Quiet Quitting?” With Erica Keswin

If you blink these days, you’ll miss the latest trends in the working world. First, in 2021, we had “The Great Resignation,” when more than 47 million people quit their jobs. Then, about a year later, “quiet quitting” took the working world by storm when those of us who’d been overworked since The Great Resignation decided to put no more effort into our jobs than absolutely necessary. The message shared on TikTok was “your worth as a person is not defined by your productivity,” which particularly resonated with Millennials and GenZ. Then, in late 2022, tech giants like Meta, Amazon, and Salesforce abruptly laid off thousands of employees in what was deemed “‘loud layoffs.” Now, it seems, we’re living through the era of “loud quitting.” 

Yes, loud quitting — it’s kind of like rage quitting, only with a bigger bang. Employees aren’t just burning bridges, they’re torching them by voicing their discontent on social media, or even taking actions that directly harm the company they work for. The platform Cameo, where you can hire celebrities to create custom videos for you, is now fielding requests from people who want a celebrity to resign for them. One man even hired an American Idol contestant to offer his resignation — via song, of course. 

While some of these trends are funny, they’re also concerning from the perspective of a business owner or leader. Erica Keswin, author of the new book “The Retention Revolution: 7 Surprising (and Very Human!) Ways to Keep Employees Connected to Your Company,” has advice for making work more enjoyable for employers and employees, so we can eliminate some of these toxic trends. 

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She says if you’re thinking about leaving a job in pursuit of another that you won’t want to loud quit, decide what’s most important to you in the next two to five years. Is it work-life balance? Remote work? Travel? Decide what your non-negotiables are then make a list of them. From there, she says the most important final step is to “go deep on who your actual boss is going to be because it does drive the most satisfaction.” During the interview process, she advises asking for a concrete example of a situation that required teamwork and how your future boss and their team collaborated. Remember, the job application process is a two-way street! 

LISTEN: Why You Don’t Need A “Dream Job.”

From the employer side, Keswin says that younger generations aren’t going to stay at one company for their whole careers, and we should be able to have an open dialogue about it. When meeting with a new group of employees she suggests employers address the elephant in the room by saying: “Some of you don’t necessarily want to be here your whole career. And that’s okay. But we’re going to help you develop and grow and give you great experiences while you’re here. And if you leave, let’s stay in touch.”

In Mailbag, we hear from a listener who asks if they should buy their brother out of the family home and from someone who was left a substantial amount of money and is worried about overspending. For our money tip of the week, we tackle why you should ask for a raise and exactly how much you should be asking for. 

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