Photo: 123rf
You've heard about quiet quitting - but what about quiet cracking?
It's a term coined by EY Americas' chief wellbeing officer Frank Giampietro, who told media that it was a significant threat to employee productivity and morale around the world.
While quiet quitting had people turning up to do only the bare minimum, quiet cracking is where workers do their jobs with a hidden struggle, perhaps too worried about the state of the labour market to try to find an alternative role.
Giampietro said many employers had stepped away from the investment in employee wellbeing they promoted after the pandemic. As the labour market shifted back in their favour, it meant they could look at cost cutting rather than staff welfare.
A management expert at Massey University, professor Jarrod Haar, said his burnout data showed 25 percent of New Zealanders were experiencing "cracking" pressure.
But he said instead of storming into the boss's office and quitting, as might be seen in a movie, people were worried about how they could cope on one salary if they resigned.
"These days you'd go home and your partner is going to kill you, and say 'What were you thinking?'"
He said there were signs of continual pressure in the workforce.
"People are cracking under the pressure but staying in the job because unlike quiet quitting, where it would be a bit more 'I'm going to look after me now', this is more to do with the fact that... it's a culmination of work pressure you can't handle any more but you can't afford to throw it in."
He said managers needed to regularly check in with their workforce about their wellbeing.
"Especially now in winter, if someone is sick and still coming into work, say to them 'You've got sick leave, please use it. Stay home and recover'."
He said even if people were just tired, booking in some time away could be very beneficial.
"It might be a bit more positive nd encouraging to let people take a break if they are sitting there and you think 'I don't think this person is doing any work'. If you're a human-based organisation, you might prod gently and say 'Hey, what's going on?'"
He said people were talking about it less, but the financial pressure that households were in under had not gone away. "As much as employers might say 'We're trying to do our best' they're probably not meeting the cost of inflation for workers."
Head of Otago University's department of psychology, Jamin Halberstadt, said people who were going to work because they felt they had no options would probably find their wellbeing suffered.
"People do the best when they feel fulfilled and they feel their work is meaningful or they just feel their life is meaningful even if it's not their work.
"You know, they feel like they have a purpose. And what they're doing makes a difference... not doing it because they have no other options."
But he said the idea that work had to be entirely fulfilling was a relatively modern phenomenon.
"I have sort of wondered whether we have created an environment where people's expectation is that their work will fulfill them and what they do is supposed to be meaningful, and not for the purpose of being able to have material security.
"They do call it work for a reason. It's not necessarily supposed to be fun and fulfilling... although that would be the ideal."
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